Where there's smoke, there's flaming Republican stupidity

There is persuasive evidence that the smoke from climate change-driven Canadian wildfires isn't being pushed into America by prevailing winds. It's entirely because of how much our current government sucks.

On Friday, both Donald Trump and Republican legislators made threats against Canada over how their fires are affecting air quality across a wide area of the United States. Because—and this is a great surprise to Republicans who have long argued to the contrary—there's only one atmosphere, and we all have to share it.

The stupidity. It really does burn.

First, Trump decried our northern neighbor's refusal to properly groom the 3.7 million square kilometers of boreal forests that covers 40% of the Canadian landmass. And he's going to charge them for it.

Yeah, Canadians, get out those rakes. Trump owns golf courses, so he knows that you can keep every tree in the taiga perfectly trimmed if only you practice "basic Forest Management." Trump, as many people have said, understands grooming.

But, is simply putting a tree tax on Canada sufficient? Nay, say GOP legislators. They have interrupted their busy schedule of pretending Mitch McConnell is breathing on his own to introduce the CANADA FIRE Act.

"To impose sanctions with respect to the Government of Canada in response to transboundary wildfire smoke affecting the United States, and for other purposes. … The Government of Canada has failed to take sufficient and timely measures to prevent, mitigate, or respond to repeated transboundary wildfire-smoke events affecting the United States."

Exactly how Canada is to turn back smoke at the border goes unstated, but there is a good deal of chest thumping about making them get out there and do some unspecified hard work. The bill provides for seizing the property of any Canadian official involved in resource management or policy making, along with that of their family members, should Trump declare a "transboundary smoke emergency." It also allows Trump to block all Canadian imports, close the border, cancel all Canadian vias, and declare the Canadian ambassador and other diplomatic personell to be “persona non grata.”

In other words: Trump gets to declare war on Canada if they let their stinky smoke cross our sacred border. Maybe we should start planning now for control of the St. Lawrence seaway.

As of Friday, over 850 wildfires were burning across Canada. As the Detroit Free Press reports, wildfire summers are the "new normal," and we can expect them to keep recurring.

The last three fire seasons have been among the 10 worst on record in Canada, according to the Canadian Climate Institute, the nation's leading independent, nonprofit climate change policy research organization. Research shows accelerating climate change, largely from the burning of fossil fuels, makes wildfires bigger, hotter and more destructive — and Canada is warming twice as fast as the global average, according to a 2019 Canadian government report. Canada's area burned in wildfires has quadrupled since the 1970s.

The incidence of wildfire is increasing, not because Canada suddenly slacked off on sweeping up pine needles, as Trump seems to believe, but because their forests are getting hotter and drier. And it's getting worse.

The sanctions that he is applying, and the laws that Republicans are trying to pass, are targeting the effect of something whose cause Trump has celebrated.

That smoke blanketing the Midwest? That smoke is Trump using war time powers just one month ago to protect the most polluting power source on the planet.

"As a result of the $700m investment that I'm announcing today, we will protect 14 coal plants and 42 coal mines, a tremendous number, and build two new coal plants and one massive new export terminal," Trump said.

That smoke is Trump sending Duke Energy $179 million to stop building a wind farm before it could go into operation. And then spending $765 million to kill a whole group of offshore wind projects already in the works.

“Today marks a significant step in advancing President Trump’s energy agenda and lowering energy prices for Americans,” said Department of Justice Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward. “By ending these offshore wind leases and pivoting investment toward dependable natural gas infrastructure in multiple states, Invenergy is helping revitalize American energy and national security."

That smoke is Trump cancelling the nation's largest solar power project along with $83 billion of clean energy spending that had already been approved.

The analysis found that 223 manufacturing and clean energy projects representing $82.9 billion in investment and 111,765 jobs have stalled or been cancelled during President Donald Trump's second term.

That smoke is Trump ending support for electric vehicles at a time when they are poised to dominate sales and rolling back fuel efficiency standards to increase burning of oil.

"We're officially terminating Joe Biden's ridiculously burdensome, horrible, actually, CAFE standards that impose expensive restrictions," Trump said, referring to the federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules, often called CAFE standards. "And all sorts of problems, all sorts of problems for automakers."

That smoke is "drill, baby, drill."

That smoke is "wind kills dolphins."

That smoke is "clean, beautiful coal."

That smoke is every Republican who has, for over four decades, denied the existence of human-caused climate change while encouraging its acceleration. And, unfortunately, it won't be going away soon as the Canadian Climate Institute makes clear.

Thanks to climate change:

• Snow cover is lower.
• Rainfall is more erratic.
• Forests are drier.
• Summers are hotter.
• Lightning is more frequent.
• Fires start sooner.
• Fires burn hotter.
• Fires spread faster.
• Fires burn more area.
• "Zombie fires" smolder through the winter. ready to start the process again.

All of that is happening because human beings keep burning fossil fuels. Because of stupidity and greed.

It is perfectly in our grasp to have clean, abundant, cheap energy. Republicans are doing everything possible to make sure American energy is dirty, scarce, and expensive. Because no one can monopolize sunshine.

I'm sorry, Canada, that you have to share our air.