Local View: Republicans' climate arrogance hurtling us toward tipping points
The Creator gave us big brains so we could learn teamwork and how to manage our resources. In spite of this, the Republican Party is in a dangerous crisis that may affect 8.1 billion citizens of our living planet.
President Donald Trump has the added neurons, but seemingly fails to understand that our creation is limited by the water, air, land, and life we enjoy. He does not seem to understand that fossil fuels are a threat to life on Earth, as we are noting more signs of climate tipping points. These key components in Earth’s atmosphere are causing the loss of more species, as emissions increase the temperature and the violence of climate changes.
Florida illustrates this. Storms and hurricanes are causing a real-estate crisis there, showing how climate-tipping dynamics may undo the arrogant assumptions of capitalism. The cost of fossil-fuel arrogance is causing real-estate prices in southern Florida to sink — while Republicans there largely ignore the growing link between species extinction and fossil-fuel emissions. The state of the insurance industry and our national banking system threatens our financial stability for the future.
Trump and congressional Republican leaders, including Minnesota’s Rep. Pete Stauber of our 8th District, called their plan for increased deficit spending a “big and beautiful bill.” Others think it may undo the creation arrogance shared by many Republicans. It promises to add billions in debt while cutting funding for science, weather, and climate research, as well as for energy innovation, all while largely ignoring the loss of species on Earth. And the large business owners who fund the GOP seem willing to ignore the obedience required to sustain the creation our families and animals enjoy. Economic risks are unfortunately rising even as the GOP cuts the budgets for researching weather, storms, climate change, and heat dynamics. This is not big and beautiful. It suggests ignorance as consequences emerge.
Contributors to GOP leaders seem to want them to ignore dangerous trends like Arctic and Antarctic ice melts and rising coastal water levels. This promises more and bigger storms. The Creator must be wondering how the GOP got so arrogant that it apparently prefers ignorance over science.
The leadership in Congress must stand up for preserving life on Earth rather than assuming billionaires be rewarded for their economic logic. The costs from this wave of political arrogance are shared by all ages and nationalities.
Bill Mittlefehldt of Duluth taught economics and environmental science at the public high school in Anoka, Minnesota, for 30 years and has worked with Rotary clubs, chambers of commerce, and city, state, and federal partners to engage students.