Its finally official and as much as people and organizations want to moan about it striking down the Endangerment Finding was a good and correct move. As someone who believes in climate change and knows that we need to do something about it this was the correct move. A rule should NOT be something that controls legislation as the Endangerment Finding has been it should be via legislation and importantly the Democrats had all the time in the world to act upon this and never did.
One of the biggest complaints that I have with the whole thing boils down to carbon dioxide being found by this rule as a public health and welfare threat. However, if we stopped emitting carbon dioxide and importantly reversed what we have put into the atmosphere the damage that would emerge would be apocalyptic as it would lead to widespread droughts and famine. One of the key reasons we are able to support the population of the world as it is right now is because of the increase in carbon dioxide.
Another issue is that in the Northern Hemisphere since 2020 we have seen a pretty significant spike in ocean waters.... it turns out that the regulations that the US imposed on ships had an immediate negative effect (long term it will be better but in the near term we shot ourselves in the foot). The fuel regulations did lower the amount of aerosols released into the air but it turns out those aerosols were very very very important for creating cloud cover and reflecting sunlight. When we removed these aerosols we got rid of these cloud building reflective particles leading to the Northern Hemisphere to have ocean warming accelerate which is now contributing to the ongoing concern about the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) collapse. This is the ocean current that brings warm water north to areas like Greenland and has affected Europe by the increase in cold water from the ice sheets.
Should we continue to try and lower emissions? Absolutely 110% but this was not the way to do it and while this will be tied up in court for a long time (likely years) in the end it will be hard to see this not being upheld.
As someone who spent his childhood growing up next to refineries in Martinez and Richmond, CA, I don't see this change making things better. Those locations are still just as bad. I see them becoming even worse poisoned swamps of chemical emissions and output with less restriction on practices. Theory in DC hallways doesn't change what we see and experience on the ground.
What is frustrating to me is that companies do pollute and need to be held liable for the damage caused to the people and property that they border. The governments have done a terrible job of this.
We can disagree on the causes, effects, and severities of climate change but we should all agree that no-one should be allowed to dump toxic substances without consequences.
CO2 is different from many other forms of pollution and what I see is people hung up on where they disagree and not where they agree. The state should not be protecting corporations. They should not be allowed to do this damage.
You don't have to be a socialist to oppose pollution. You don't have to oppose consequences for pollution because you aren't on board with with man made global warming.
We all want clean water. Clean air. And the often neglected healthy soil. I personally think the destruction of our topsoil is a disaster few recognize.
Like most issues we have people that want to create wedge issues and gain power and control. Not just on the left. The right does it too.
The farce is over. CO2 is net positive (for now) and it was becoming too costly to continue pretending otherwise.
Exactly. Should we be aware and start working ahead of time in case that changes? Yep but it doesnt mean to blow up everything
Yeah, I'm not 100% sure we can ignore it... but I am convinced those that scream about it in positions of power are not honest. They don't believe what they are saying.
And many on the right seem to be in denial about other environmental abuses by companies and farmers. We need to find property rights based solutions to these issues. The answer is not communism.