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I'm
not sure which of Trump's never-ending stream of tweets, fiats, provocations, sadistic put-downs and
flip-flopping decisions finally gave me that unmistakable sinking feeling. But I
think it was the announcement in his National
Security Speech of December 18, that he is cutting
climate change out of America's national security strategy. This
marks a major shift away from the Obama administration's security
strategy, which
recognized climate change as one of the major risks facing the
nation and the world, and put international cooperation to minimize
that threat high on the national security to-do list. As Trump said
in his speech, “We are charting a new and very different course.”
"Full speed ahead"--The RMS Titanic--the greatest ship of its day
Credit: F.G.O. Stuart/Wikimedia Commons
Credit: F.G.O. Stuart/Wikimedia Commons
It's
been clear for a long time that climate-change denial has been the
price
of admission to the current
Republican Party regardless of the real-world consequences. A
saving grace, however, has been that the US
Department of Defense and the intelligence agencies responsible
for the security of the nation have generally resisted this
politically convenient untruth and have made plans and deployed
resources in response to such “risk
or threat multipliers” as “livelihood devastation,
state fragility, human displacement, and mass death,” not to
mention extreme weather, coastal flooding, environmental degradation,
threats to infrastructure, forced migration, and what James Clapper,
Director of National Intelligence characterized as “unpredictable
instability”caused by climate change.
Now, thanks to Trump, and as reflected
in the accompanying 55-page document, National
Security Strategy of the United States of America, by choice and design, climate change and its impacts are not to be found. Instead,
there's a lot of focus on accelerated economic growth, bigger and
better armaments, “fairer” trade and “energy dominance,” all
of which, in the absence of a recognition of climate change and
environmental degradation and destabilization, will only increase the threats and impacts
we will be encountering.
This
stance is all too reminiscent of the first (and last) voyage of the
RMS Titanic, the greatest ship of its day, carrying the cream of
international society as well as hundreds of ordinary people, and believed at the
time to be unsinkable. Despite warnings from other ships about sea
ice, Captain
Edward Smith ordered the Titanic to steam full speed ahead
through the north Atlantic night.
Everyone knows the result—nature in the form of an
iceberg proved mightier than the great ship; the "unsinkable" vessel sank at 5:18 in the morning of April 15, 1912, and 1500 lives were lost, including that of Captain Smith himself.
The Titanic, broken in two, is now slowly disintegrating 12,415 feet
beneath the Atlantic.
 |
| The bow of the Titanic, in the depths of the North Atlantic Credit: NOAA/ University of Rhode Island |
Like
the 2,224 souls aboard the Titanic on that ill-starred night, we are now shoveling
on the coal and steaming full speed ahead across a treacherous
sea with our captain and crew willfully blind to one of the gravest
risks we face. That's making it a bit hard for me to just sit back
and enjoy the glittering company, the fine food and drink, and theband's lovely music. I can't get the image of the dark, icy waters just ahead out of my mind.
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