Any plausible scenario for curtailing the worst effects of the climate crisis must include decreasing the energy intensity of economic production in order to avoid dire ecological and economic consequences. The unhinged rhetoric that Donald Trump is now using defies this fundamental reality (“Trump attacks wind turbines: Sets up clash vs. Green New Deal,” Page A6, Dec. 24).
Trump’s rejection of LED lighting, high-capacity wind turbines, and even low-flow toilets is in direct opposition to the effort to decouple society’s ecological footprint from economic activity. Because the population is still increasing worldwide, and economic growth is still considered essential for political stability, humanity will necessarily overshoot the planet’s finite resource boundaries unless consumption becomes less harmful to ecosystems.
The president’s repudiation—for political and ideological purposes—of technologies that hold some promise of mitigating the climate crisis will put us on a straight path to ecological collapse.
Frederick Hewett
Cambridge
Note from KBJ: Global Warming is a hoax, Frederick. President Trump hasn't fallen for it, as you have.
