Four More Years

Before I get into my main topic, let me digress.  I was inspired by a sentient blob of spinach in a Calvin & Hobbes comic to revisit Hamlet's soliloquy.  

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them. 

I guess we'll have to "take arms against a sea of [Trump] and by opposing, end them." 

Further on we have the list of troubles: 

Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th' unworthy takes

The orange guy scores 5 out of 6, although I should look up "contumely."*  

By way of providing an image for the algorithm, here's this one that summarizes the thoughts of either Yolanda or Bernice King: 

Now back to the topic in the title, I'm trying to get my head around what 4 more years of orange climate denial will due to our planet.  It's expected that 45 will pull us out of the Paris Accords.  That alone will make us irrelevant for any further international climate discussions.  

Then we'll enter a phase of "drill, baby, drill" that will crash the global price of oil-based products.  With cheap gas encouraging people to drive more, we'll also emit more CO2, not to mention methane leaks from oil wells.  

And because "climate change is a hoax," serious research will be under- or unfunded, resulting in a huge gap in the data time-series.  If NOAA is privatized, we can expect some truly horrific outcomes when severe storms impact communities without adequate warning.  

There's an entire side topic on HHS being headed by an anti-vaxxer who promotes things like raw milk and cockamamy cures for Covid.  But that's beside the point that we're going to lose 4 years that could've been used to draw down CO2 emissions and we're forfeiting any leadership role in the process.  Renewable energy research leadership will be ceded to countries like China, France, and Britain.  Electric vehicle manufacturing will whither, possibly even Teslas.  It wouldn't surprise me if 45 sticks Elon in the back and cuts all EV tax credits and withholds federal funding for all new charging stations.  

I'm hoping that Obamacare, the CHIPS Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act survive.  They probably will because they are enormously popular, even in Red states. 

For now, I'll keep chugging away at the BioPark, working with IrisBG, labeling plants, collecting Nature's Notebook data, and managing the herbarium. The least I can do is to continue to spread the word about conservation, protecting biodiversity, and how every little action helps.  

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* Insolent or insulting language or treatment