Sure, many of President Trump's executive orders are leading us to a constitutional crisis.  But what is the worst case scenario?  We lose Democracy and become a Dictatorship.  Terrible, but most of us will carry on with our lives, and so will the rest of the world. Other Trump edicts will hurt the poor, middle class and elderly.  There will be serious reductions in social benefits, especially in medicine,  public welfare, education and the like.  But many of those hurt should have anticipated this course of action if they voted for Trump, or not.   Social Security will fade and become unavailable for most, and those already on it, will see payments decline over time.  But again, they will survive, only not so well.  The rich?  They will do better, probably muchly so. The most damaging of all Trump acts is in the remediation of global warming.  This could be so serious as to lead to billions of human deaths, and perhaps trigger...

I've been on a long trip and have not said much about Ukraine, Israel, Donald Trump and global warming.  I don't feel particularly spiritual today, so will spend this Sunday on the latter. The media have trumpeted the seriousness of how hot Planet Earth's atmosphere is getting. A new report by the  Global Climate Project consortium  says that we will reach an all-time high this year in carbon emissions.  I thought renewables and conservation measures were beginning to work.  Guess not, especially in reducing coal usage.   Meanwhile, the USA has done well.  What are those emission numbers on the second graphic?  The graph was obscured, but the trends look good.   You can go to this article for details . The  World Meteorological  Organization and Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service  reported that 2023 will certainly be the warmest year on record, with last month being the hottest November. With all that happenin...

Last month James Hansen sent to his mailing list  To Understand and Protect the Home Planet .  He said this effort will be published with several colleagues as co-authors in  Oxford Open Climate Change  as  Global Warming in the Pipeline .  The  New York Times  reported on this paper yesterday by David Wallace-Wells. He called Hansen the Godfather of Climate Science. In 1988 Hansen appeared before a U.S. Senate committee, beginning the era for climate alarm. Actually, I worked for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee from 1979-1982, and  Professor David J. Rose  of MIT presented a view about climate warming, which was totally ignored.  Wow, that was more than 40 years ago.  He soon thereafter retired and moved to Honolulu, where we had long discussions on the seriousness of this phenomenon.  Thus, when Hansen suddenly made headlines in the later 1980's I met with him to discuss solutions.  I had a few geo...

World leaders have been going around in tiny and larger circles since 1979 when the  First World Climate Conference  was held in Geneva.  Sure, there have been all kinds of agreements and promises, most countries seem committed, but the fact of the matter is they are actually not doing very much.   What were you doing in 1979?  I had joined the staff of U.S. Senator Spark Matsunaga in DC, and saw no political interest in global climate change.  I don't recall even one major hearing on this subject during my three years there.   That First World Climate Change Conference eventually led to the formation of the United Nations  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  ( IPCC ) in 1988.  Who remembers that the Second Climate Conference occurred also in Geneva in 1990?  Geneva also hosted #3 in 2009. You might say, in parallel, the  United Nations  also held gatherings, beginning 1949 with the UN Scientific Conferenc...