Brane Space: Kim Strassel Attacks Biden Over Not Putting Aside Climate Change Agenda For Ukraine

The ever delusional WSJ Troll Kim Strassel

In her latest troll column(‘Biden Is In Climate Denial’, WSJ, Mar. 18, p. A17) Kimberley Strassel informs us:

“In a HarrisX poll this week, nearly 70% of voters said “yes” to the question of whether, in light of Russia’s attack, the administration should “ease its focus on climate change and allow more oil and natural gas exploration.” They want energy and economic security, not electric- car charging stations.”

This is unsurprising “news” – given we know the polled American public mostly has the historical memory of a gnat – and the informational capacity of a 40-year old diode. But it provided the suspect fodder for this harpy to launch into yet another misplaced WSJ op-ed attack on Biden. As she babbles in her opening:

"Republicans know it. The European left knows it. Joe M a n c h i n knows it. Even some of the Beltway press knows it. Now let’s see how long it takes Joe Biden to recognize that the Ukraine war has reset energy politics and that his climate agenda risks dooming his party this fall."

Know what, exactly? In fact, the Ukraine war hasn't reset a thing, nada. The climate emergency remains and its impact is perhaps best expressed in atomic bomb terms, as from a 3- year old piece in the UK Guardian:

Global warming of oceans equivalent to an atomic bomb per second | Oceans | The Guardian

"Global warming has heated the oceans by the equivalent of one atomic bomb explosion per second for the past 150 years, according to analysis of new research."

Indeed, in 2020 the excess energy absorption was even worse, i.e.

The Ocean Absorbed 20 Sextillion Joules of Heat in 2020 | Earth.Org - Past | Present | Future

Want a 'nuclear' climate scenario? Process this: The planet is now subject to a radiative heating effect of a colossal 2.5 x 10 ⁷ TJ (terajoules) injected into the atmosphere each year. This is roughly the equivalent of 400,000 Hiroshima scale atomic bombs - i.e. of 15- 20 kilotons each. If anyone actually believes such an excess energy addition on account of global warming can be ignored now - because of a localized conflict - they are either morons or under-educated ignoramuses. I suspect Strassel is neither so it has to be she is merely playing a propaganda and disinformation card. The fact Antarctica is now dealing with temperature 70 degrees above normal, while the Arctic is averaging 50 degrees above normal, tells us a lot about the nature of the warming (sources) and the dire effects for our planet. (LA Times yesterday, p. A3, 'Record Warming at Both Poles')

As for "dooming the party this fall", Strassel seems not to know- or care - that even Vegas bookmakers now have the odds as even the Dems will hold both houses when the midterm dust settles. It isn't merely that the Repukes have remained mostly the party of Trump either. Hell, a whole faction led by Madison Cawthore and Marjorie Taylor Green - as well as FOX host Tucker Carlson- are all in with Putin too. Then there is the history of this whole sorry cult, from their support of the January 6 insurrection to the effort to actually rebrand it as "legitimate political speech". At least it seems most potential voters are aware it would be a fool's errand to put these losers into power again.

Unperturbed by her already exposed massive PR push to defund any climate policy legislation, she rolls on:

"He certainly hasn’t sussed it out yet. The Joe Biden who showed up Monday at his first in-person fundraiser as president sounded like a man in a time warp. “Let me begin by saying: [Climate change] is the existential threat to humanity,” he opened, proceeding to recite an environmental agenda identical to the one he campaigned on. Ukraine got one mention, and only then as further reason why Americans (among other things) need to “weatherize homes and businesses.”

Actually Biden was spot on, and Ukraine crisis or no, Americans ignore his advice at their own bloody peril - not to mention cost! We know from measurements of air trapped in Antarctic ice that the amount of methane in the air has reached its highest level in at least 800,000 years. And since emissions of methane can be more than 80 times as potent in warming the planet over 20 years as carbon dioxide, methane cuts have a special role in limiting near-term temperature increases.

Two other short-lived climate pollutants are also particularly potent: hydrofluorocarbons, primarily used in refrigeration and air-conditioning, and black carbon soot, caused by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, wood and organic waste, like yard and farm scraps.

Reductions in these pollutants are possible with existing technology and could further limit temperature increases over the next couple of decades, avoiding three times as much warming by 2050 as strategies targeting carbon dioxide alone. If, on the other hand, that warming occurs we can expect much more violent storms, and also flooding as well as prolonged heat waves that put our power grids to the limit. We can further expect the costs to soar into the trillions of dollars because of the collective damage to property, commercial and personal. Avoid weatherizing homes and businesses because of Ukraine - which has to be a temporary blip anyway in humanity's ongoing drama? Then we really invite the whirlwind.

Meanwhile, between 1971 and 2019, the surface of the Arctic warmed three times faster than the rest of the world, according to the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program. The result? According to NASA chief scientist Waleed Abdalati, who runs the University of Colorado’s environment program:

“The Arctic isn’t just changing in temperature. It’s changing in state. It’s becoming a different place. If we end up in a seasonally sea ice-free Arctic in the summertime, that’s something human civilization has never known. That’s like taking a sledgehammer to the climate system."

And what will that 'sledgehammer' do? We know already that the Arctic itself has blown past 2 degrees Celsius of warming. It’s actually approaching 9 degrees Celsius (16 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming as winters loom. This portends even more violent climate disruption episodes. Everything from more powerful hurricanes, to longer heat waves- perhaps lasting months instead of weeks - as well as catastrophic hail (softball) size storms, local flooding from powerful T-storms, and much more devastating super storms - like 'Sandy' in 2012.

Still think it's a good idea to cavalierly ignore Biden's climate agenda because of Ukraine? Think again. And we haven't even gotten to how the current climate emergency is making large swaths of the world unlivable, e.g.

How climate change is making some places too hot and humid to survive

It might be a good idea for Kim to learn some basic climate facts and the risks not only to property - but human life and limb - before she next tries to make ignoring climate change (for a war) sound logical. Oh, and chucking whatever she's smoking before next putting pen to paper!

See Also:

Environmental Policy