Climate Treason

Traitors betray the trust of those who believe their promises. For too long people in power have willfully ignored the climate experts and the warnings of extinction. Climate Traitors are said to be deniers, skeptics, and unable to understand the science.

Distractions from the climate crisis

What if Climate Traitors have known all along the massive cost of mitigating the damage from droughts and intense heat, and rising seas on all major U.S. coastal cities, and decided to ignore the crisis and take all the wealth from the working class, one death at a time? Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warns against Trump’s radical nationalism, his dictatorial and contradictory behavior, overt racism, and attacks on the liberal media.

Enough is enough. The time has come to demand action. Climate traitors have deceived the world to protect a flawed business model, sabotaging the efforts to mitigate the climate emergency.

From the first day of the Trump administration, executive orders were to increase the extraction and use of fossil fuels with a massive network of pipelines and export terminals. Trump and his cabinet have betrayed the world by walking away from the 2015 United Nations Paris Climate Agreement, destroying environmental protections and using lethal force with draconian laws.

Oil exports, wars, money, and nuclear weapons

On the day Trump broke the Iran nuclear agreement, JPMorgan strategists wrote, “Oil prices, already at more than three-year highs, may be about to jump further. To JPMorgan Chase & Co., crude-related assets are starting to look attractive. Brent oil could spike to US $80 a barrel if the US and European Union re-impose sanctions on Iran and as Western powers expand the scope of the Syrian civil war.”

JPMorgan is the world’s largest investment bank with $2.6 trillion in assets. Their report clearly shows how Trump’s business model works. Chaos creates uncertainty, increases oil prices, and profits go up. In Trump’s world, wars benefit the US economy. In the real world, wars cause death and destruction. The Theater of Operations is a delusion, but blood money is real.

Trump’s shock politics are a climate distraction

Trump’s decision to build an embassy in Jerusalem has made the Middle East a tinderbox. This is a deliberate act to create chaos. As of Monday morning, with 35,000 Palestinians protesting along the Gaza border, Israeli army forces have killed more than 50 Palestinians.

Life on a hot planet

The climate crisis is driven by man-made greenhouse gas emissions. Last month, we reached a highly dangerous milestone. For the first time in 800,000 years, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide reached 410 parts per million. We are living on a hot planet and looking the other way.

Preventing mass extinction involves reduced emissions and increased carbon capture. Forests are our best hope to capture CO₂. Last month the EPA gave Big Timber and their friends in Congress a massive gift. “EPA’s declaration that forest biomass energy is carbon neutral confirms what we in forestry have long known,” US Congressman Bruce Westerman (AR-4) said. “Trees are a renewable resource and properly managed forests can provide clean energy for decades to come. I thank Administrator Pruitt and the staff at EPA for listening to science instead of activists and recognizing the role forest biomass can contribute to American energy policy.” Scott Pruitt has never been accused of being a scientist.

Westerman ignores the carbon footprint of logging and trucking a forest to wood pellet mills. The Anti-Lorax must be thinking of pine farms. From a distance, they look like forests, but pine trees are arranged in rows and columns. Westerman sees forest soil as dirt, he does not know the Ouachita National Forest biota, and thinks biodiversity is a Eureka Springs festival.

Climate Warriors

Climate Warriors plant millions of trees, promote carbon farming and forest carbon offsets. First Nations have been peaceful stewards of their sacred lands. LaDonna Brave Bull Allard established the Sacred Stone camp near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Her call was heard around the world. Keep your eyes wide open and be prepared to protect our planet.

Dr. Luis Contreras