Trump and his people are polluting the our air, our minds, our morals, our government, our ground, us. ,
8
...while Rome burns, right?
5
Another reason for Mayor Bloomberg to enter the "race". He would make a great president and would clean up the trash and dirty air left by this one.
3
By the way, the homicides increase is bigger than a tick at about 20%. But, that too can be laid at the door of Trump and Republicans, as their violent rhetoric has coursened both public discourse and the affect of Americans generally; their "liberal" gun laws made guns more prevalent, and their fear mongering triggered paranoids and nazi types. More to your point, Trump's environmental rampage is undoubtedly extremely dangerous and for me, the main reason he has to be removed as swiftly as possible, despite the fact that he claims our air and water are cleaner than they've ever been. Sadly, the Republican Senate won't vote to remove him from office unless Trump happens to beat one of them to death for not wholeheartedly enough agreeing his phone call was perfect. No...I take that back. They'd be even more terrorized by him and would vote a resolution that he give himself a Medal of Honor as the Supreme Commander, and God's Chosen One.
2
All health related illnesses should be treated by the best pulmonologist in the country and the bill sent to the wonderful god fearing GOP. Your greed is disgusting. You want to increase pollution because someone is lining your pocket but will that take the place of your broken heart when your child dies from an asthma attack because you supported deregulation of EPA standards that were put into place by Nixon . God I hope you are watching those destroying your gifts. Please visit and take a good deep breath in the places where your changes IN EPA REGULATIONS HAVE GONE INTO EFFECT.
2
It is arguable whether Trump wrecked the environment or the economy more.
On the news a couple days back I saw Trump bloviate on how bad the Fed has been, then he went off the rails saying that in Europe they were paying people to take a loan. That was his take on "negative interest".
Now some might accept that he is so dumb to think that he can't tell his loans from Giv securities. I think it is worse, that he thinks we are so dumb that we will buy that swill in a nice bright and schoenig snakeoil bottle.
Well...maybe he's right...
It is time for the pitchforks yet?
1
The caption about “smoke” coming from the stacks is imprecise and misleading. Flue gas is mostly water vapor, though it can contain many other pollutants—just little of the particulates we consider smoke. I’m on Team Krugman and don’t want the Times’s credibility weakened. The caption should just say it’s a coal-fired plant and leave it at that.
2
why aren't you on "Morning Joe"?
Americans are the problem here.. they are so hung up on their political affiliation that nothing else matters...
i'd like to say they deserver their fate, but the rest of us don't.
5
We must fight and focus on getting rid of this vile, fascist regime. Everything is being destroyed: the environment, civil rights, womens’ agency over their own bodies... everything. We must stay focused.
6
Let's give a big thanks to all the idiots who decided that the government needed to be run like a business and decided to vote for a "successful businessman" without ever researching anything about him.
The government is NOT a business, is NOT in place to make a profit, and is supposed to have the welfare of ALL its citizens in mind.
The money grubbers do not care about any of the rest of us.
3
The pro life party until you are born.
8
Trump is polluting many things in many ways: election processes (Russia, Ukraine), government institutions (going around Congress for his wall), societal norms (name-calling, lying), and quietly, the environment (greenhouse gases, particulates).
These things can be overcome if enough people recognize that these acts are detrimental to The American Way.
What is permanent is the pollution in Trump's brain. He will go down in history as one of the great villains, alongside Hitler (minus the blood-letting), McCarthy, Madoff, Nero, et. al.
Russia is one of the top 10 most polluted countries in the world along w/ the oil producing Arab nations....I assume Putin is very keen on destroying the US environment and bringing the USA down to his extremely polluted and toxic and now also radioactive country...Putin is thrilled. He is destroying the USA from the inside and hardly has to lift a finger. Trump is just his Kompromised flunky.
Democrats need there own red hats with the phrase: make America breathe again.
1
I have been trying for some years now to understand just why the Trumpers and their avatar seem to be so hell-bent on destroying the planet. It's not that they merely practice neglect of the natural environment; they seem to be so outraged by its very existence that they are determined to wipe out the biosphere itself (and most of the human race along with it-- collateral damage, I guess). I can only conclude that some kind of Hindu death cult has seized control of the White House, the EPA, and the Department of the Interior and is working to bring an end to the Kali Yuga (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali_Yuga). Nothing else makes sense. If, indeed, such an ultimate exercise in nihilism can be said to make sense...
Filthy minds, filthy morals, filthy policies, filthy legacies.
4
Shareholder Value Capitalism became the de facto State Religion of the United States in the early 1980s. Its tenets are, first, that corporations exist solely to maximize the (short-term) wealth of their (largest) shareholders; and second, that CEOs are entitled to enormous compensation because they uniquely possess the talent to create Shareholder Value.
Under Shareholder Value Capitalism, everyone and everything-- a company's workers, communities, the nation, and the environment-- is raw material for CEOs to transmute into Shareholder Value. It's a zero-sum game, in which increasing the wealth of shareholders requires the immiseration of workers and everyone else in the communities where companies operate, as well as the destruction of the environment. It's more accurately called Plunder Capitalism.
More recently, the lack of regulations or unions as a check on greed has encouraged the growth of private equity, a parasite that preys on corporations. Leveraging other people's money, it sucks the value out of a company and then discards its debt-ridden corpse. Private equity is the purest and most pernicious form of Plunder Capitalism, as it enriches its perpetrators by destroying its prey, creating nothing and contributing nothing to the economy.
While Republicans have actively promoted Plunder Capitalism, Trump and his cronies (with the help of Republican enablers in Congress) have taken the next step of using the federal government as an instrument of plunder.
2
Added to which are more studies that show conclusively that GOP failure in some states to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act is costing thousands of lives.
Electing Republicans is not only bad for our health, it's actually killing us.
3
Flying across the U.S., you see this brown haze of pollutants around all populated areas. In China it's black smog all the way from Beijing to Wuhan that persists even after rain storms. Oil oligarchs rejoice at even another day of rule by the Trumps and Putins--their misdeeds seen as an excuse to not be held accountable for the carbon pollution that is wrecking the planet's atmosphere and ecosystems.
I'm sure the biggest polluters are sending hundreds of lobbyists, with bags full of "campaign contributions", to our LAW GIVERS "$1,000-a-plate fund raising dinners" and their offices, with the message, "There's plenty more where that came from, we'd like you to do us a favor, though..."
2
Like you said, follow the money. And start by thanking the Bushes, the Cheneys, and the Koch Brothers--all of whom will be dead when the worst damage is felt. Horrific.
2
This is truly insane, their minds have been completely destroyed by greed.
2
Trump’s plan is swapping your life for dollars.
2
This article is about 2016. Trump didn't become president until 2017. Shouldn't the headline be "Environmental destruction may be Obama's biggest legacy"?
Albrecht Dürer predicted Trump and his enablers in his Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, one of the strongest and most frightening prints ever produced, so well reflecting these horrific times: Death, Famine, War, and Plague (or Pestilence) (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/39705).
Free lung transplants for billionaires>
Trump and his cronies are the answer to "reality has a liberal bias". They are enacting laws and executive orders to ignore reality. And they are getting away with it, while Fox News scares the gullible populace with immigrant threats and bogus conspiracies.
2
Krugman is right to point at Trump's dismal record on the environment.
But this is not the Op-Ed I'd expect from an exconomist on the day the Dow went over 28 000. Why is economy so uninteresting to Dr. Krugman...when it goes well?
Do the Trump enablers and sycophants in the GOP believe their children won’t have to breathe?
3
To not see what you know is there is to be holy. To not believe what is there is to be at a loss.
Smoke??? Water vapor!
Krugman, the Congress is impeaching Donald as fast as it can while we are breathing the polluted air...
But hey, how about that boomin' economy?
BRAVO PK. well said.
You have no further to look for the guilty than there in Manhattan where the C.I.A. coached N.Y.P.D. protects the financial institutions behind all the polluters, or killers if I may describe them. Bloomberg defended Wall Street with his "Private Army", Trump is the Trump Wall, and fossil fuels are black Gold.
Trump is the New Nightmare that kills with a stroke of the pen and the forked tongue. And so many sadists are so willing to love him. The inmates took over the prison.
1
What right do business or others have to pay to pollute the air our babies are going to have to live in?
You mister head of the corporation, most likely will be dead by the time the air and water are no longer fit for humans. If you are still here you think you will have enough money to escape your environmental crimes.
When I was young, my church taught us Earth was loaned to mankind, from God. So you are no polluting my planet, or your planet, you are polluting God's planet. I was also told I was a steward of this wonderful gift. I was very young, and I took it to heart. I pick up other's trash, I am careful with how much I put into the Land Fill and I drive low emission cars. In other words , I am caring for God's gift that has been loaned.
1
The caption under the photo is misleading. That cloud is not smoke. It's steam.
With a broader view it would be evident that the steam dissipates into invisibility, unlike smoke which would visibly accumulate.
Prepare to Cough!!
Paul Krugman is a longtime critic of Democratic politicians and Democratic Administrations.
But it's mind is still working.
So he's chosen to warn you about the danger to your air.
For you and your children
And those that follow them.
Cough!
Cough!
Cough!
I can hardly even stomach to read about the disaster Trump is making....I just finished an article on the 13 million pounds of beef that have been recalled...up from 600,000 in 2015, in large part due to rollback of regulation by our astonishingly stupid, arrogant, uninformed, malignant President.
who needs clean air and water anyway?
Trump's legacy looters and polluters
Tax the rich, to death, if possible.
Make ecocide/genocide a crime and prosecute it aggressively.
Require Republicans to pay to clean up the messes they have made.
1
Much as I'd like to blame Baby Donald for everything, in reality, Americans have freely chosen to make full-sized pickup trucks the number one, two, and three best selling vehicles in the USA.
All I can figure is, everyone must have gotten a sudden thirst for light contractor work. Or maybe just tailgating to make that slow guy pull over.
Almost all climate scientists think this is going to bite us, but trying to tell most Americans anything useful (hey, this Donald guy's off his nut!) seems to be a sure-fire way to get them to double down on doing something stupid.
2
Trump is a mean spirited contrarian who gets his jollies undoing any accomplishment by the Obama administration.
1
Paul Krugman for President. Seriously.
I wanted to type up a . . .lengthy commentary . . .but I find . . .I'm too out of breath . . .to type more than this.
1
russpublicans - the enemy of decent people everywhere.
1
Thanks for this. The Democrats MUSt attack him on this issue. In fact the worst thing Trump has done is selling of NATIONAL- belongs to the people - land, and resources to his friends for pennies on the dollar. Once resources are drained (selling oil everywhere- fracking- polluting water) and land contaminated in major ways or under private ownership -- all is truly lost. It's not about Medicare4all.
BTW thinking about these problems in the 1960s- meaning clean air to breathe and water to drink (oh those microplastics!) I was shocked by the callous attitude of a young friend--stock broker-- (can a stockbroker be a friend?) whose attitude was $$ can buy ME clean air and water. I have heard about oxygen bars in Moscow but not thus far in LA... Who knows what will be the next trend.
Warren for president. (Does she really need to grow a beard?! to be acceptable?)
One way to bring the public behind clean air is Green Swans - highly improbable inventions with huge impact. For example, water, fresh or salt, will soon replace gas, and diesel.
The invention is unique. Unlike electrolysis, it uses a very small amount of energy. This is able to retire fossil fuel much more rapidly. It creates nanobubbles in water and strikes them with microscopic ball lightning. The result is a fuel more powerful than gasoline. Presently at 97% water ready for commercialization and 100% in the lab.
Conversion of engines will be easy and inexpensive. The system can be used with cars, trucks, trains, boats, ships and aircraft. Coupled with existing technology, millions of vehicles can become power plants when parked, selling electricity.
Gradually say goodbye to central power using coal, gas, or nuclear. See MOVING BEYOND OIL at aesopinstitute.org
This is the energy future. Auto manufacturers are about to have much better options as a result. Sales of cars that run on water and hybrids that do so as well are likely to sharply boost vehicle sales.
But more importantly, cars running on water will demonstrate that cleaner air is available - while saving thousands of dollars in individual fuel costs - and adding income from the sale of electricity by vehicles.
That reality will appeal across the political spectrum - and make possible much wider support for ending particle pollution. Rapidly retiring fossil fuels and restoring support for regulation.
1
The detrimental health effects of pollution were one of the strongest reasons for the voters' massive rejection of the socialist system in East Germany in 1990. I know, because I was there at the time and heard this from many Germans, including formerly loyal communists who were outraged by what their government had done to public health. Trump risks alienating his voters in the same way, since he can't blame this on the Democrats.
In addition to the fine particulates Prof. Krugman discusses, the internal combustion engine (among other sources, including power plants) is great at generating ozone. In the upper atmosphere, it is helpful in protecting against solar radiation. On the ground, though, it is a different story:
https://www.lung.org/our-initiatives/healthy-air/outdoor/air-pollution/ozone.html
2
The Leader believes in one thing, and one thing only: "will this put $$$ in my pocket". He has become a doctrinaire Republican on everything other than tariffs and his love for autocrats for the simple reason that the Republicans in the Senate will delay his day of reckoning for another year...and the yahoos in his base might delay it for another five. At that point, he'll have appointed every single federal judge and 2/3 of the Supremes. Then he will truly be above the law...and probably president for life.
3
I'm at a loss on how any individual voter, regardless of party affiliation, applauds the decision to allow coal mining companies, most of whom will soon go the way of Trump's casino, to dump coal ash into local streams and rivers.
Can I back up my car to these same bodies of water and dump my used paint, household cleaning supplies, used mediations, old TV's, tires, etc.?
4
This is just so very troubling. To relax, I sometimes like to watch animal shows on NOVA, etc. The majesty, the tremendous wonder at their beings -- but I'm always left saddened at the end by the encroaching human populations, the science illiteracy, and the governments that neglect to protect their true national treasures and legacies. I just picture Trump Jr. and that bloody elephant trunk and I shake my head. There is something very, very, very wrong with this administration and the GOP.
3
If ISIS were killing 10,000 Americans each year we would be mobilized in a full scale war. Add 35,000 deaths by firearms each year and we are talking carnage on the scale of a real war.
But since these deaths come for our own home grown "job creators" we let them get away with murder(s).
The republican party has thrown our Constitution, our democracy, our civic institutions, our sense of community, and our natural resources and wonders onto a funeral pyre of greed and selfishness.
If We the People do not wake up over the course of the next year there will be no America.
8
Too many times environmental and climate scientists indicate at the end of an op-ed column that there is still hope. I don’t see where that eagerness is coming from. There has been essentially zero progress on the planet with respect to CO2 emissions in the last three decades and there is little change coming. World economic projections are for increases in fossil fuel use. Turning over the fossil infrastructure is difficult. Since we haven’t really started, the problems will extend out for decades. (anyone that thinks a few decades of wind and solar power installations and electric cars will solve the problems has no experience with heavy infrastructure.)
Trump and his ilk are clueless on anything related to the environment as are the GOP elected officials in general. But that is why the oligarchy supported and had them in place to get voted in. Destruction for profit is simple. Fixing the problems becomes insoluble at some point. Personally, I think the tipping point was decades ago mainly due to energy issues.
The Trump administration has delayed any type of environmental action for at least four years and
eight unless the Dems snap to what is actually happening. Even with a Dem win in the next election, the problems will remain with little change.
1
One wonders who, and what, this sort of hopelessness is meant to serve.
I get sick of these undisciplined opinion pieces that use partial data to support a certain agenda or political view.
The data in the study is alarming and important. However, other important data not reported is vital—-such as that small particulate pollution actually decreased in certain regions such as the East and South. As well, the causation link to premature deaths is fraught with bias and I am disturbed that a PhD would so casually agree with that assertion without mention of the possible myriad of biases present in that conclusion.
With respect, this article diminishes the importance of the referenced study and is not fairly presented to the public.
1
@Thinking
Paul Krugman, undisciplined? This is an op-ed, not an article reporting a summary of the study. Do your own research if you really care that much.
Recently, I was in a class with college students. I had to stop the class and tell them before the EPA (1970) and the Clear Air and Water acts (1972) it was bad. Very bad. Bad like canceling trips to NYC because the air quality was so bad in the city. Like never seeing anything alive in a lake. If you don't have direct experience, then you really can't know what its like. But if trump continues, every body will know what it was like.
8
@sjs
Driving toward NYC one could see the haze hanging over the city. Weather reports routinely contained smog reports.
Back to the future.
2
I suppose, so long as the air is clean, wafting in from the prevailing southeasterly ocean breeze at Mar-a-Lago on Palm Beach, all will be right with the world.
5
Thank you Mr.Krugman, for reminding us that the GOP has become the pro cancer party in word and deed.
7
Trump is the smoke screen the Republicans use so they can do the damage they don’t want the focus on. So not only are they damaging the idea of the “United States” of America they are harming our very existence to help the powerful, the wealthy and the
corporations. Not enough attention is focused on the damage to our environment for generations to come. I look at my 2 yr old grandson and wonder how he will judge us for focusing on a clown instead of the people doing the real damage.
3
President Trump is the end of Democracy in the USA? Come on Bloomberg is going to be President in a year. The previous administrations executive orders weren't exactly democratic or intelligent. The Keystone pipeline is a good example of a lack of reason.
The article you attached about the increase in particulate air pollution wasn't exactly detailed about the causes. People die from air pollution but they also die when they can't heat their homes properly.
If a coal plant can be converted to natural gas wouldn't there be opposition to it. Natural gas is cleaner but it's a fossil fuel and requires a pipeline so it not acceptable to some. Should their will be expressed through a Presidents pen?
Neither our planet or our Republic is under existential threat but it does sell newspapers. If you're saying allowing Greenpeace assets in the EPA should run our country or a roll back to 1970's standard are the only choices you're lying.
Since rolling back environmental regulations that have greatly improved air quality for example will take us backwards to air that was visibly polluted and had immediate health impacts as well as long term health consequences. Why undo those that work? Keep what helps and improve our everyday choices so they are doable for more people. You don’t have to choose one over another.
2
@JoeG I'm not sure I follow your argument. In any case, here is an article on a recent Keystone Pipeline spill:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/31/us/keystone-pipeline-leak.html?searchResultPosition=1
1
@JAH
I'm not sure I follow your argument either. 383,000 gallons were spilled. The article put it into perspective stating it was half the size of an Olympic size pool.
The article doesn't mention the cleanup or how much oil and contaminated soil was recovered. Leaking pipelines are much safer than derailed tanker cars.
Sure, The Fat Man and the (R)s are doing significant damage to our environment.
However, the unavoidable fact remains that we individual consumers are the Fossil Fuel Addicts who are creating this problem. We are the ones who choose to drive more miles each year in (mostly) single-occupant vehicles. We are the ones who fly more miles each year for ego-driven, "badly-need" vacations to remote locations. We are the ones who increasingly opt for fuel-guzzling SUVs and pickups over efficient sedans or EVs. We are the ones who build ever-larger, poorly-insulated McMansions then overheat/cool them even when we're not home.
Per capita, Americans burn up more than twice as much Fossil Fuel as do those in the EU, 6 times as much as the Chinese, 14 times that of the Indians. We burn up nearly as much total fossil fuel as does China which has 4 times our population. We WASTE 2/3 of our energy, including 75% of transportation energy, and half of the food we produce.
We can wait for Somebody Else to laboriously create and implement costly solutions that will take years and decades to implement while our Climate Crisis becomes steadily worse.
Or we can choose to take personal responsibility and make lifestyle changes that will minimize our impacts. The longer we fail to take those steps, the more our beloved progeny will suffer. What's your choice?
4
Yeah sure, however the whole economics "science" is the study of how to destroy the world as fast as possible, that is : how to maximise growth.
Might be time for you to realize it, maybe.
4
Trump's policy is to keep existing nuclear power plants open whereas NY Democratic Gov Cuomo wants to shut down our Indian Point nuclear power plant (NPP) which provides 1/4 of all of the electricity of NYC and Westchester County (total pop 10 million) and replace it with greenhouse gas generating power plants.
Similarly so called green California is planning on shutting down their last remaining NPP, Diablo Canyon which provides 9% (1/11th) of the electricity for California.
In addition a major cause of the particulate that Krugman speaks of is motor vehicles. California is heavily dependent on these vehicles because the housing is not dense enough to support subways such as NYC. Unfortunately, the CA Govt. has been against laws that increase zoning density.
One wonders why Krugman does not write an article about Cuomo and CA Govt, and mention that Trump is the one that backs green NPPs, and not the Democrats.
1
@David MD Actually Governor Newsome and others are working on that issue. However, it is counterproductive that Trump's DOJ is attacking California's tail pipe emission standards. The public health literature is quite clear on the terrible health effects on people who live near freeways.
1
Every corporation wants to outsource it's pollution - and the Repubs have accommodated them for several decades despite the science showing that the pollution harms and kills people. Repubs could not care less who is harmed or killed. But Science did hold them back which is why Repubs absolutely hate science - they hate the studies and facts produced that lead to regulations.
Therefore, the Repubs now are attacking the very basis of the science that leads to regulations. Eliminating the controlled studies that develop the facts will allow them to claim that there is no "evidence" to support any regulation. They are now falsely claiming that all the studies need to make public all the people who were used in the study because, they claim, without knowing who exactly was used, the results are suspect.
That is completely false. ALL scientific studies using human subjects MUST de-identify the people in the study. That is the most basic ethical standard used by ALL clinical trials everywhere in the world. Their is no need whatsoever to know the identities of the people in the study. All we need is the basics of gender, age, etc. Indeed, making such information public would open those people to identity theft.
The Repubs know all this but they are making this false claim as a way to get rid of scientific studies that lead to what they really don't want - regulations that thwart the pollution of their corporate masters.
1
I am a high school teacher. I just had a meeting with a sixteen-year-old junior who is enrolled in my American history class. She is the sort of young person who, if these were these ordinary times, would give me a sense of hope for the future.
At sixteen, an age at which she should feel like she has not only a whole life before her, but that she and her peers can make the world "a better place" according to their hopes and dreams, she feels instead "powerless" and as if "things will never get better."
So, congratulations to the fat cats, to the bloated self-seekers who not only foul the air and water but who are draining hope from the very people who might save us.
And, Mr. Krugman, sorry, but climate change is not "a long-term existential threat" but an immediate physical threat to all of us. Even Republicans.
163
@G. O.
Tell her not to feel powerless. My peers who have accepted 40 years of tax cuts for the rich. and who have accepted politicians who poo poo science and facts, and who have let our infrastructure crumble, and who have let a gun culture take over our country--they will slowly die off. And I'm counting on those who, today, are 16 years old, 26 years old and 36 years old to take us back from the abyss. I'm 56 years old and this has been my biggest wish for a bit now. The squad, Bernie, and Elizabeth Warren are a start. I need her to finish.
7
I live in a small three bedroom apartment, family housing for university students who are married or live with extended family, like mine. As I write this, I hear the whir of four HEPA air filters. Because of the need to filter the dirty air, I keep the windows closed, and I run three AC units and a dehumidifier. Both my sons have asthma, and one has a serious autoimmune condition. It is a constant battle to keep the mold, pollen and air pollution under control so my sons can breathe. Keeping dirty air out increases my use of electricity and contributes to more climate change, unfortunately. A negative cycle repeated over and over in other homes--it's getting to hot so we have to run the AC. How will we ever clean up after Trump and Republicans?
73
And for a moment I thought you were a Delhiite. AQI has reached 700 plus in Delhi. Though Iam comparing two different cities, the fact is that environmental pollution is a common bad and the policy makers around the world are failing us.
17
Trump is in effect carrying out a war against the environment. And this includes not only increasing greenhouse gas emissions which will speed up climate change and cause irreversible effects, and polluting the air and water as described here which will cause a tremendous amount of sickness and mortality, but he is also removing protections from endangered animals which will lead to extinctions and he is allowing wilderness land to be plundered for profit and off shore oil and drilling to occur in sensitive areas. Perhaps his most iconic attack on the environment is opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling something that has been successfully stopped by activists for decades.
95
It's simple. There are corporations that would rather save money by dumping their pollution in the commons, the air we all breath, the land we live on, the water we drink, then pay the cost of cleaning up that pollution. These corporations impose the costs on American.
And Trump and the Republicans think that is a reasonable position because in their minds, making money is the only important activity.
Trump will always take the side of greedy corporations over people. As I said, it's simple.
185
@Mike - It's at moments like this that I'm most staggered by the fact that money isn't real. We made it up. The air and water, the climate, however, are all too real and impact us all.
75
"If Trump doesn’t succeed in destroying our democracy (a big if)..."
The GOP has already killed what semblance of democracy the US had--after all, it wasn't that democratic to begin with, and was long past it's sell-by date.
It's over.
2
This is a matter of priorities. When money and profits replace the value of human and all life then it does not matter that millions or billions will suffer. Until we change our priorities to respecting ourselves and life over money, greed and those who cherish greed will continue to kill us.
6
The only thing the Trump Administration hasn't been totally incompetent at is dismantling our environmental protections. His loyal supporters evidently want their children and grandchildren to live in a more polluted and toxic environment. There are some things about Trump's appeal I understand (as odious as they may be), and others that totally mystify me.
1
@fbraconi: Con artists abhor all objective testing and judgments.
OK air pollution is bad and less is better. But... there are 2.8 million deaths per year in the US. This study identifies an increase of 10,000. That sound like a lot but is actually a 0.3% increase. Can anyone reasonably attribute the cause of such a small percentage increase in the number of deaths to any one factor. And Trump is a jerk, but you can't really blame him for increased driving or wildfires. Any effects of climate change on the latter are the results of 150 years worth of global emissions. We may have to live with wildfires for a long time no matter who is President.
1
@Perfectly normal: Trump is proof that quality of life isn't even a public policy consideration in the US
1
It's a bit mind-boggling (like so many things about the bogus POTUS) that Trump talks about not only his victories with the economy and employment, but "the cleanest air and water" due to his policies. The tsunami of lies from this White House has become so sweeping that it's going to be difficult for any new president to bail out the ship and get it back on course, much less repair the damage Trump has already caused.
5
@Carol Robinson: One trillion dollars per year of deficit spending moves a lot of money.
2
You know professor, I am starting to not give a dame.
As one who has lived with his girl in a city, with our combined driving at less then 3000 miles a years for decades, and choose who decided not to have children...we have done more for for the current and future generations than 99% of Americans.
So, let the Republican voters who put these people in office kill themselves and their children. That death toll will in itself help mother earth as in the end it is going to require a massive die off of humans down to whatever the planets carrying capacity may be for our civilization to survive. I can assure you it is not the 8 billion that we will hit soon. It will likely be less than 1 billion.
Perhaps their policies will in time help with that long term existential threat. I just hope that there is a civilization around at the turn of the next millennium that has learned their lessons from our folly.
2
@JD: Me too. Even people with the smarts to propose novel nuclear fusion reactors think it won't help.
2
Actually, there is nothing like a dame.
I have been watching the live telecast of the impeachment hearing. It is hard to digest how the USA has fallen so far that a President, with the support of his cultists, personally attacks those who have served this country, at the risk of their lives, for his personal benefit.
Hopefully in 2020, the next President will truly make America great again.
4
In one word: Koch
This all about fossil fuel industry protection. Forget about fake small government arguments or drain the swamp memes. This is all about a few very rich men who will throw the planet under the bus for their personal gain. Trump is their poster boy.
7
"Trump and His Party of Pollution" is a fitting appellation, both literally and figuratively. Not only are they polluting the environment but also polluting minds and discourse as in his choice of words and how he speaks and tweets his lies is so often foul and disgusting, and his party nods, defends, shrugs.
Ultimately he and they get away with both forms of pollution because their supporters accept what they do, what they say, how they say it. Whenever confronted with facts or moral push back, they deny, deflect and project. And their supporters accept.
If I tell my four year old grandchild he can't have ice cream anymore because nasty Mexican immigrants ate it all, my grandchild accepts what I say because I am a figure of authority. He doesn't question if what I said is true, he just gets upset about not getting ice cream and gets angry...at well, nasty Mexican immigrants.
If he gets the same message from his father, my grandchild's only other source of information, then he will listen to no one who might say that his father and I didn't tell him the truth. Nasty Mexican immigrants is baked into his unreasoning mind.
Trump told his supporters that nasty Mexican immigrants are taking their jobs. Fox and Republicans in Congress tell them the same lie. Their supporters are upset and angry. They scream "Build the wall!"
One-third of America never reached the age of reason. They look to authority figures to explain their disappointments and give them someone to blame.
6
The best candidate to rebuild our civil service after it has run through this gauntlet of the Trump presidency is Elizabeth Warren, bar none.
3
It seems the GOP has thoroughly and utterly lost whatever mind it had left after GWBush. It is incomprensible what foul seed has corrupted what used to be engaging intelligence.
3
Trump and his cohorts have been and are a disaster in every sense of the word.
Who would believe this is the United States of America?
4
Sandra Steingraber, an ecologist who survived cancer, has called death caused by toxic pollution random premeditated murder. The law lets people get away with it, and yet morally that is exactly what it is, random premeditated murder. For years, the Unabomber got away with mailing his targets bombs that exploded when they opened the package. He got away with it for so long because he had no ties to his targets. The FBI had no way to follow the bombs back to him. Despite this, no one will say he did not murder people. It was murder. And so, my question is, why have we put the Unabomber in jail for killing people but we haven't put any of the executives of corporate polluters in jail yet? They have killed many more people than he did, but they are still free, keeping their millions and billions and donating to Republicans.
2
You can't seem to write a column without getting a dig at Joe Biden in. He didn't say that everything 'would be fine' once Trump is gone. He did say that he would work across the aisle. Apparently, you see that as a sign of weakness.
I agree with you, Paul, and I sent a supporting comment. Yesterday. Pollution which potentially will kill many thousands a year, is a serious matter, and should be considered for impeachment. Especially in light of the fact the pollution is concentrated around low income areas: so the Trump administration is engaged in discriminating ways which kill people who didn't vote for it.
By the way, I have subscribed to the NYT for more than 30 years. None of my comments got published in the last week. This renders my subscription much less valuable.
1
Thank as so called "Green" Party voter! Their indirect destruction of air, water and animals since their infamous 2000 election antics is tragic irony of epic proportions.
(And to be very clear, Jill Stein, you shameless and shameful demagogue, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were not the "same" 2016. Not even close.)
5
The Republican Party is the greatest danger presently existing to the world, much less the United States of America. Democrats need to start shaming folks for voting Republican because to vote Republican is to pick wrong over right, bad over good and ignorance over intelligence. I'd run commercials of the society Republicans wish to return with skies cloaked in smog orange. The commercials would show folks jogging with oxygen masks, pushing baby strollers that look like incubators and folks attempting to picnic while wearing HazMat suits. The commercial campaign would be titled: Republican Utopia - Making the Past Present Again - Worts and All.
2
A corrupt Supreme Court and climatic apocalypse (a shared evil) will be close contenders for destructive legacy.
1
That “modest” increase in homicides, from 14,000 to 17,000 was a 21% bump. If your salary increased by 21%, would you call it “modest”? I don’t think so.
1
Trump's degradation of the environment is his idea of exacting revenge on that foreign born, deep state operative Barack Obama.
1
there is no doubts that not only Trump is the enemy of the people, he is the enemy of the human race.
2
Mourn the EPA,
The rest of us have to pay,
Lives were lost today
2
The typical incandescent light bulb is the a telling example of the Republicans. It's a slam dunk for the average consumer to buy a LED or something similar because of the efficiency. No Obama era change gets left behind by the WMD person in the White House.
2
Isn't it ironic that the pro-life party is so intent on killing so many of our fellow citizens.
4
It's pretty simple, really: The unspoken Trump campaign slogan is "Death to America".
5
Add this to the list of "high crimes and misdemeanors".
3
On the environment. Democrats good. Republicans bad.
On healthcare. Democrats good. Republicans bad.
On everything else. Democrats good. Republicans bad.
8
Make the spineless Republicans in Congress unemployed.
"Vote Blue, No Matter Who" at every level of government until the Republican party learns its lesson and is cleansed of its greedy polluting members destroying our clean air and clean water. Killing us - especially children who are more sensitive - by the thousands.
Not to mention destroying our planet with climate change so they can grow rich for the short term.
Shame on them!!!
2
No army of Russian spies could have ever divided and harmed our nation to the extent Trump has. He kills with strokes of pens.
3
Good to call this out. I wrote about how Trump administration policies were killing people in the San Jose Mercury in January 2018 here: https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/01/31/opinion-government-action-or-inaction-kills-people-what-do-you-call-that-crime/
1
Welcome to the XIX century and the world of "The Jungle" of Upton Sinclair...
1
As Dr. Krugman says, Republican donors include the major polluters, a crucial fact. However, I think there are two other related important urges at work in Donald Trump's and his administrations actions regarding pollution. One of them is Donald Trump's obsession with completely undoing everything having to do with the Obama Administration, to make things as much as possible as if Barack Obama never had been president. The other thing is sheer schadenfreude, the ecstasy they feel when they "trigger" people who they see as enemies, who tend to be the same people who care about things like the environment and pollution.
There's clear evidence that exposure to pollutants such as lead, solvents and others has a negative effect on brain functions like memory, speed of reaction and educational attainment. It seems reasonable to consider the possibility that such effects are reducing our ability to understand this danger and respond appropriately.
1
Despite years of attempting to destroy health care, taking food out of children's and mothers mouths, and promoting pollution over people, millions of Americans have not been murdered. That fact is to the credit of our nation being a democracy in which some freedom remains. Because of that, we will not suffer another nightmare of history as has occurred in other nations over time. Trump's Impeachment is vital to the survival of millions. This time will pass and hopefully the nightmare will be America's "Great" lesson.
1
To hear about pollution from a career economist is profoundly encouraging. Shady accounting that simply overlooks the downstream effects of polluting have been as responsible for it as anything.
2
When you have the Leader of the Senate (Mitch McConnell) pondering whether Republicans should either
1) drag out the impeachment trial so Democrat Senate POTUS candidates will be impeded from campaigning because they'll be required to be in Washington for the impeachment hearings or
2) expedite the Senate to vote against impeachment so people will consider impeachment issues as unimportant,
you can but wonder how Americans tolerate such appalling standards of government.
No where in his statements is McConnell calling for the Senate to act in the best interests of the American people, or in the best interests of the nation.
Such craven abuse of power should be called out loud and clear and constantly. It is truly shameful.
7
Neither Trump nor present-day Republicans care anything about the environment, Mr. Krugman. What they care about is the money that polluting industries funnel to their political party and to their election campaigns. As long as that money continues to flow, they will allow those industries to do pretty much anything. It's the ultimate quid pro quo.
It's also suicide. Where on earth do they think they are going to go to survive? They do not care about us, but where do they think THEY can hide from the mess they are creating? Do they believe their children and grandchildren will have superhuman powers that will allow them to escape from poisoned air and poisoned water and poisoned soil?
7
Trump appears to have selected his entire administration based upon how rich they were, how unqualified they were, and how willing they were to reverse rules and regulations designed to protect Americans. In this reader's opinion Trump's entire term of office can be summed up like this: My way or the highway and I'm not going to put any government money into anything unless it benefits the richest.
Of course air pollution affects us all, rich, poor, working, unemployed, young or old. Yet to hear Trump and his cronies America, unlike other countries, doesn't have to worry about air pollution. We need to worry about laws restricting pollutants because that, not air pollution, will hurt businesses and jobs. For pro-business party the GOP exhibits a distressing lack of comprehension about air pollution and how the rollback or lack of regulations can affect jobs. Hint: if we can't breathe we can't work. If we can't work businesses can't operate. If businesses can't operate, well you get the picture.
Only an incompetent leader would insist that he and he alone can save the country. Most competent people try to make sure that there are others behind them who can step into their shoes if they are not able to perform their duties. Trump is the first modern president to set an example of incompetence of such depth and breadth that even a dust bunny could outdo him in doing a decent job running the country.
11/14/2019 7:00pm first submit
5
@hen3ry: They all float high above the law aided by the best-connected lawyers in the land.
2
Calling Trump and his party the party of pollution lets them completely off the hook.
This is not only about pollution. This is about the greed and entitlement of an entire class of Americans, one that couldn't care less what happens to everyone around them - SO LONG as they extract every last penny they can - not only from fracking and coil, but even from releasing toxins into our waters, soil, and our air.
This isn't only about deregulating for the profit of the .001%, but they came in with a plan to thoroughly destroy our government, roll back every regulation they could administratively and through the Senate, shrink every department they could, and move congressionally-approved funds to projects they never intended those funds for. Added to that, is the confirmation of hundreds of, at times corrupt and inept, new judges to ensure the American public remains captive to the GOP and the oligarchy for decades to come.
By the time the next Democrat is sworn in, they will be hobbled by thousands of faits accomplit.
Voters, as they meet their candidates of choice, must ask them what their plan is for the judiciary. That is probably the most important question to ask of E. Warren and B. Sanders. We must secure a commitment to roll back every last thing Trump Did While We Weren't Looking and then go back to FDR and best him.
The rich have lost their minds with this greed. It's as if they have some other planet waiting for them...
10
@Rima Regas: McConnell's "Federalist Society" judges are a ticking time bomb set to go off when a Democrat wins a presidential election. They will implement what the believe God wants from the US.
3
Those who are part of this "party of pollution" have children and grandchildren - don't they? Yet, they turn a blind eye to this administration's totally irresponsible environmental policies. Why do they want to leave a legacy of a ruined planet to their children and grandchildren? Ergo, their message to their younger loved ones: today matters, tomorrow does not; greed and power in the present trumps a secure environmental future for all beings, great and small. Heartbreaking.
5
The sole redeeming feature of fine particulate pollution is that the effects are usually localized. In other words, Americans pollute and Americans die. This is much better than climate change, where America and China emit greenhouse gases, and some poor souls living on a Pacific island get drowned by sea rise.
2
This will all make righteous sense when the economy tanks and the dollar loses value, drastically, which is also on the near horizon. So what will the $$ do for the rich then? Are we really so dumbed out to think that this economy will keep chugging along, supporting the greed?
I work in the Andes of Ecuador where the people regularly have barter festivals. They are so much fun! No money allowed! And I'm thinking, hmmm, these folks will be fine when the systems collapse. Think I'll stick around.
2
In most matters, if not all, Trump "is very much a man of his party." We delude ourselves, Joe Biden paramount among us, that President Trump is THE problem confronting civil national society.
True, Donald Trump is A problem because he is a particularly noxious avatar of political party that is all destruction and no building.
Whenever Trump disappears as a syndrome symptom, the disease of the Republican Party will remain, unless the voters of America decimate the broader malignancy for a very long time.
7
The motto of countless Krugman columns is that evil is prevailing over good. And the subtext is follow the money.
Krugman is wrong here. When it comes to pollution, Trump is not in favor -- he has never advocated adding particulates to the air. No one is in favor.
The correct explanation is that Republicans, including Trump, are wedded to deregulation. Trump spent his whole life in business, and like everyone else who champions the private sector, he opposes government regulation.
You are probably on board with the claim that deregulation is evil -- I've read enough comments. And you probably bear hostility toward the private sector, which has been responsible for countless advances, from the automobile to the internet.
It is plain as day is that the government is absolutely necessary to address pollution. From the Clean Air Act to the Clean Water Act, to the EPA, government has always been at the forefront of environmental matters. Republican obsession with deregulation is entirely misguided in environmental matters. Only the government can effectively fight pollution.
Trump's failure to understand the need for regulation reveals that he is shockingly oblivious. And that's the correct argument here.
Krugman play the evil guy card too much. Ironically, it suggests that Trump is smart enough to know that his policies are wrong. The right argument here is that Trump is an oblivious oaf. And the right argument is always more effective than the wrong one.
5
Why? My inner cynical sense tells me, without proof, that the people who are dying are primarily people in the cities who are generally Democrats, and the Republicans silently cheer these deaths. The more evident reason is money. Has anyone traced the campaign contributions and outright bribes that the particulate matter corporations are paying?
1
"The point is that the Trump-era death toll from worsening air is already several times as large as the “carnage” Trump decried."
Good point, Paul.we have a president who strains the gnat but swallows the camel. How many additional deaths from deteriorating water quality?
The thing that's so amazing about Trump and his troop of bamboozlers is the lack of any fiscal accounting of the cost of worsening air and water quality, and the cost of climate change. But that involves numbers, calculations, data, and science, which Trump has no capacity for.
What an embarrassment for this country.
Biden is right everything will be fine after he beats Trump.. A lot finer than Trump winning against Warren or another un electable nominee..
Citizens United is entrenched in our government now. Republicans put it there. SCOTUS put it there. The democrats let them do it. Schumer is the worst elected official in the government, republican or democrat. He is taking up space that a true democrat should occupy. NY has to get rid of him. I am now a sincere independent and not a democrat. I can no longer be counted upon to support the Democratic cause, whatever that now is.
The Environmental Destruction Agency is live and well.
The Environmental Protection Agency is dead.
trump and his cult are destroying so many norms, things that it will take decades to recover.
"And if Trump remains in power, the air will get much worse, and the death toll rise dramatically, in the years ahead."
And for the sake of all our health, including those of the rich and the Republicans, Donald Trump should not be reelected.
Impeachment may not work, in the Senate. But it will have minimal if any positive impact on his reelection prospects. It's the responsibility of Democrats to impeach Trump, for all he has done. Much of it maybe his mental illness.
Elizabeth Warren's rise in polls can only raise the chance of Trump's reelection.
I hope Pete Buttigieg's rise in recent Iowa poll number will stick. If he wins Iowa, it will have a good momentum. He can beat Trump, even without any of Trump's baggage. When more people see how good he is, less and less people will have any problem with his sexuality.
1
His environmental policies, and his EPA heads, guaranteed a return to high pollution levels; this president does not do anything out of concern for the greater good. He decisions are all based on a personal financial gain and who better to bring it than big business, who like Trump, values profit over the common good. His policies regarding drilling in once protected lands, the shrinking of the protected Bears' Ears land, his hunting rollbacks, the allowing of trophy hunt imports(body parts of exotics, a nod to his son, no doubt), so much damage in three short years. This doesn't even touch on his vast geopolitical chaos he has created. Paul is right. This man and his selfish decisions, his greed, will live on to affect all of us when he no longer exists. He is toxic, pardon the very dark pun.
1
Thank you Paul. So many who have empowered this band of well-paid vandals now are shocked
shocked!
by President Trump, who is merely the same guys with worse manners.
1
Do the big polluters think they and their families are immune to the harm of air and water pollution? Do they think they can run to somewhere else on the planet and be safe? Or don't they think at all about the consequences of their actions? Has their greed so blinded them?
Trump is pollution. He polluted the world's souls with an ever greater poison, that of hate and anger. As a pure predator, he and Kushner stalled any peace plans in Israel, instead actually instigating hate and anger there as well I think for the purpose of profiting from the land grab there by Netanyahu. After all, both Trump and Kushner are in the real estate business and the West Bank is an opportunity to build. I can only add that Blake Layton's writing was wonderful coming from a young person who like all young people still care before suffering the cynicism of age. So if everyone wants to live in Israel, which I never opposed, why don't the immigrants there actually pay for the land they build settlements on? Wouldn't that solve much of the animosity in the region? Do you think that I as a follower of God who claimed someone else's land as my God given domain in New York, that anyone who respect that?
Indeed, Trump saw the lure of thievery and I counter him with the truth of it. Stop stealing the land, buy it.
And I'll add; the Israelis are smart enough to embrace Green Energy, even as the Fossil Fuels companies are taking advantage of the young nation to exploit their resources offshore.
You have to understand the depth of evil in the current administration. Trump looked the other way as the saudi's butchered Khashoggi, I claim because of oil and his dissident criticism. Trump is worse than a pollution supporter. He is pollution of the soul.
To expand the point about "American Carnage" ... it is worth adding that hate crimes have surged since 2016 (see FBI/UCR). The 2018 Report is due out shortly.
Indeed, in addition to the environment under Trump, minds are being polluted ...as well.
3
Trump's attacks on the environment are the best reason for impeaching him now. It's not an impeachable offense--maybe ought to be--but it's where he is doing the most damage.
2
"Given what we’ve seen in the impeachment hearings so far, there is literally no crime, no abuse of power, that would induce Republicans to turn on President Trump."
Respectfully, Prof. Krugman, I believe there is one. It turns on this question: Why does Trump’s every foreign policy action always seem to benefit the Russians? That is the question that will move Republicans in and out of Congress if it's found that he's acting on behalf of the Russians, either out of loyalty to Putin, or for personal or political gain, or from some subtler form of influence.
For Trump, "all roads lead to Putin," Nancy Pelosi astutely observed. If they want to gain Republican support for impeachment, the Democrats in Congress need to follow up her pregnant comment, and start asking, "Why?"
Does Putin have some "dirt" on Trump? Or, does Trump simply live in fear of it (we know that’s how his mind works)? Or, is Putin merely the most prominent among all the dictators that Trump is drawn to? Or, improbably, is Trump a "Mongolian president," brainwashed to promote Russian foreign policy—a threat so serious and shocking that even Republican senators would have a hard time looking away?
https://tinyurl.com/nezy2og
Have you seen those photos from Beijing? The ones in which people are riding down the street on bikes while wearing masks? The smog looks like something out of Dickensian England. And it's all coming to a city near you, courtesy of the GOP. Remember that, between coughing fits.
The irony, so thick you can cut it with a knife, is that China is trying to do something about its pollution. Meanwhile, we're doing everything we can to make ours worse. MAGA - make America gasp again.
1
SCOTUS' Citizen United decision has led to office-holders being purchased puppets of the highest bidders, leading to profiteers having free rein to externalize and avoid accountability for all the environmental ills they produce.
Put simply, the 5 right-wing ideologues of SCOTUS have caused the deaths of many and the degradation of life quality for all.
1
you allude to american democracy in this article: a plurality of americans voting from an ignorant stupor and the fog of denial . Not even self interest can budge the trump core.
Who from the democrats can speak convincingly to these people?
Although none of this makes sense on any level it doesn't seem to bother the GOP or the Fox's Nation ! Reminds me of years ago seeing the tobacco reps on National TV repeat over and over...I Do Not Believe Cigarette smoking causes Lung Cancer. Can't smoke in public buildings or even outdoors in certain areas because it's illegal due to the dangers of 2nd hand smoke. Imagine what's spewing into the air after he fires in CA.? Where is the Public Outrage over the Trump Administration's insane policies ? One things for sure....whether he's Impeached or Removed or goes on to be reelected. One Day he'll be out of office! When that Day comes I guarantee ...that the majority of thoughtful Americans will be Breathing...A SIGH OF RELIEF !!
What the climate deniers seem to ignore is the fact that Mother Nature doesn't discriminate. The Republicans can wind back as many laws as they want but it won't spare their children and grandchildren from the effects of the policies they unleash.
The EPA has become the EDA. The Environmental Destruction Agency.
Many of us have figuratively been holding our breath, but apparently that is not enough! The harm Trump is doing to humanity and the planet is incalcuable. The brutal truth is revealed again and again with every environmental regulation he attempts to loosen or repeal. Every move is a crime against humanity. Why can't everyone see this? How much more can we bear?
1
"Did you work in this industry before 1982? Call us now."
There's a reason for the commercial's "before 1982": environmental legislation.
Now we have a chief executive who defended his hairspray's choice of propellant because he only uses it indoors, where it won't affect the environment.
Think I'm kidding? His apartment is "all sealed":
https://www.factcheck.org/2016/05/trump-on-hairspray-and-ozone/
Given the ho-hum reaction (Krugman excepted, thank you) to the dismantling of regulation, "all sealed" may also be our fate.
Trump will not destroy "democracy" in the US and neither will there be a Brexit that destroys it in the UK as the fate of said world power is written in stone in the Bible. The fate of this world power is death at the hands of the Kingdom of God along with all the other nation states and anyone supporting them. This Earth will always be here with humans living on it to time indefinite and that will be in Paradise conditions once those destroying the Earth are put to death forever. This is the future and neither Trump nor anyone else can stop it. I look forward to this time.
The President’s duty, clearly defined in our constitution, in Article 2, section 3, is: “[The President] shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed....”
Instead, Donald J.Trump has chosen to violate laws such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act; these laws have not been faithfully executed. That, in itself, is an impeachable offense, and I do not understand why Pelosi, et al, have not put their focus on this, in addition to Trump’s malfeasance with Ukraine and Russia.
THIS! All the other stuff falls by the wayside. This is the major reason why Democrats need to sweep the polls next year. Vote to restore sanity, please.
1
I am really surprised to see a 21% increase in homicides - 3,000 more deaths a year - described as a "modest uptick". That suggests a degree of inurement to murders that I just cannot begin to fathom, I'm afraid.
People die from air pollution every day. Your countrymen, neighbors, colleagues, friends, and family are among those who die from air pollution. Anyone who wants to roll back pollution standards is in favor of letting more of our loved ones die. In spite of a strong economy, Trump and his fossil fuel cronies want to do even more deregulation that will actually kill people.
Article by Alan Neuhauser of US News:
"... a new study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, put a human toll [107,000 American deaths] and a price tag – some $886 billion a year – on the health impacts caused by air pollution, especially from fine particulate matter known as PM 2.5."
https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2019-04-08/100-000-americans-die-from-air-pollution-study-finds
The very rich understand only two things: 1) getting more money and power; and 2) mobs with pitchforks. They don't care about anything else, including their own children, who will inherit an uninhabitable planet.
As long as we're not out in the streets with item 2, they will continue their insane pursuit of item 1.
2
The world’s biggest polluters are China, then India. American is not even close. In fact, we have the largest economy on Earth...EVER...and we pollute the least.
The biggest drivers of air pollution? Natural events, like the forest fires you mentioned, as well as from volcanoes.
We can prevent forest fires by chopping down trees and removing brush that builds up and acts like an accelerant.
How do we stop volcanoes?
1
This is one of the worst crimes of the Trump administration, more impeachable than what he's now being accused of in congressional hearings. Because it's literally killing people.
1
The Democrats and the Republicans callously cleverly and cynically take turns coddling and criticizing the automobile and fossil fuel industries on behalf of the military and prison industrial complexes.
2
If the fouling of the very air you breathe will not get you Americans out in the street protesting loudly, nothing will. Your lethargy and inaction against American political corruption is the most depressing thing I could ever imagine.
White House reporters should be asking these kind of questions (and learn enough to be able to), instead of endless repetitive questions about politics. The latter is much easier. We need better White House reporters, who know some science.
Can you comprehend that Trump and all his "Fossils" fuels fools have actually set the future of harm to their own present and future generation's health and "Well" being? I could never really understand the minds of mass murderers but apparently we are learning now, aren't we?
The epiphany of the right is “I don’t have to care.” It’s a wonderful philosophy that answers all questions. Facts, ethics none of it matters.
Who thought it would come to this.
GOP "environmental policy" is closely linked with its evangelical base. Living in the South, I speak with these people daily and the simple fact is they only watch Fox news and they believe "The Lord" will take care of everything for their benefit. Time spent on earth is just a small part of the eternity they are seeking and it really doesn't matter what happens to the planet.
I know many "intelligent " people who believe that God regularly puts new oil in the ground for Americans to find and use. Fracking is God's new gift to Americans.
Honestly you couldn't make this stuff up.
But look at the GOP and the religious base of its movers and shakers. Look at where they come from and what they represent. There is your answer to why the GOP is like it is.
1
The left’s virtue signaling environmental warriors are to a person, hypocritical energy hogs: Al Gore with his energy eating, massive mansion for he and Tipper and celebrities like Jane Fonda and Leonardo DeCaprio who burn huge amounts of jet fuel to attend conferences and protests so they can be fawned over by their fans (a face time call would save fuel). Meanwhile, as the US experiences cold temperatures we haven’t seen for over 100 years, the adults in the room who know the renewables are not even close to being able to warm our homes or provide them with electricity have to stand up and get accused of poisoning the earth and being shills for the oil and gas industry. In 30 years, when the chicken little predictions from 1989 of a flooded manhattan are shown to be false, when Sweden no longer looks or acts like a Western European nation, and the socialist policies that our long gone blue nation will have adopted has crippled our economy, our children and grandchildren will know who was right and who was wrong. It won’t even be a close call.
Trump seems to be following the story line of a "Batman" movie when it comes to the environment.
Great to hear PK this dyspeptic.
I never ever ever thought we would be describing the administration of Tricky Dick Nixon as a golden age, however in the age of trump new lows are visited every day.
If republicans were conservatives they would be appalled.
1
I worked in EPA HQ air programs group for 5 years - an exceptional experience of trying to add value to the Clean Air Act and it’s “no significant deterioration” of air quality rule.
Today, it seems we have no Clean Air Act, only the “Republicans for Money for other Republicans Act?”
Please, NYT and social conscience non-profits — do more research on the money trail. Please Thank You.
3
Very well-timed and important article for the NY Times to publish. As we watch US Democracy being battered by a minority of voters who largely represent folks who will no longer be alive in 20 to 25 years to watch the consequences of their unconscionable actions, it is easy to forget all of the other ways that they are relentless attacking the future for those who will still be around to see it. When you look at the totality of all that the Republicans are willing to destroy for their own personal gain, it is truly the most frightenting spectacle that anyone could have imagined when Trump, a white supremacist agent of Vladimir Putin, was elected.
What was not mentioned in the article is the breathtaking extent of Republicans' nonstop lies that started in 2008 and have been accelerating ever since. It is their relentless lying, their fear of the truth, and their absolute loathing of any facts that do not fit their agenda that has allowed Republicans to convert their base into a cult of irrational lunacy that would support the destruction of everything that they enjoyed in life before their children even know what happened. Not only are the environment, the rule of law, and our entire system of government in tatters as we near the 4th year of a Presidency based on fear and loathing. The truth will be the final casualty of the GOP's efforts. The GOP is the greatest threat to your family's future that exists on Earth today.
3
An earlier article in todays paper disclosed that the right wing prime minister of the Netherlands has reversed course by reducing the speed limit and curtailing serveral developmental projects in response to increased nitrogen in the air. It takes guts; intelligence and integrity to change your perspective when faced with new facts. Qualities that are clearly lacking in the President and his sycophants in the legisltature.
Mr. Krugman , childless, and his spouse operate three residences , one in NYC, on Riverside Drive, one in Princeton NY, and one on the beach in St. Croix
As Al Gore, he has a much larger carbon foot print than most Americans - and he thinks nothing of flying back and forth to Kiev, on the invitation of a Ukrainian oligarch.
Preserving the environment starts with you.
1
Time to throw my hat into the air...I have this dream of thousands, tens of thousands of people, the countries around the world, but particularly in this one, all marching with green baseball hats on their heads. All the hats have 4-letter patches: MEGA, "Make Earth Great Again." Just a pleb, don't know how to launch this dream, or the money to fight the lawsuits...but I have a dream.
If we have been taught anything in the last three years plus, is that just because you can truly see what is going on there is an "alternate fact" that will dispute anything you actually can see. Welcome to Trumpworld.
1
You’re blaming the wrong guy, Dr. Krugman; it’s not the president and his battalion on The Hill. It’s the Koch Bottles and ALEC who are killing 89K citizens per year. Follow the money.
Jane Mayer’s sine qua non, “Dark Money,” should be read and re-read by concerned citizens. But, with social media and iPhones and Fox News telling half the country that everything wrong with America is a “deep state” coup, most people don’t have the time—or are otherwise disinterested in air pollution and climate change—the fatal “particulate” matter that we’ll inhale into our lungs will go unnoticed until it’s too late.
It’s all tied up with climate change, the leftist “hoax” that the Green movement is unleashing on unsuspecting citizens. The Right’s megaphones at Fox and Clear Channel will have people thinking that we’re fighting a war against common sense. I’m no scientist but I’m not so stupid as to think that all those California wildfires haven’t produced enough “particulate” matter to blanket the ozone and the breathable air between the West Coast and the East. Weather in America generally flows west to east and south.
But Republicans rely upon the indifference and ignorance of those whom they fleece for a living. Deny; conceal; blame others (Obama, e.g.); that’s always good for stoking the fires of resentment.
In a hundred years, when none of us is alive, those unfortunates who are will wonder what we were about. It won’t be enough to be a Republican; they’re going to die, too.
As someone who travels frequently to China we are in Trumps America trying to become the Chinese wearing masks to protect ourselves from particulate pollution, while they are trying to clean up their air and become what we were once. This is insanity!
If Democrats were any good at marketing, which they aren’t, they would loudly repeat the fact that PM 2.5 pollution increases spontaneous abortions. The evidence for this is quite strong (for example, Xue ET al. Lancet Planetary Health 2019; 5:PE219) but the people who need convincing don’t believe in science. They do respond to simple slogans endlessly repeated. Air pollution kills Baby Fetus!
2
We have to give up the idea that money is value. The Republican Party reduces every effect to some highly contrived money "value". The source of this erroneous belief is economic theory. Scientist and engineers choices are enormously constrained by the notion that "money = value". So for example scientists and engineers are already aware that non polluting energy sources exist which can be deployed more efficiently than fossil energy sources. And yet, here we are using fossil fuel because it's "cheaper". It's economic theory, not the Republican party which is the greater enemy.
Until we in this nation get our priorities strait environmental policies will suffer. What is the winning of an election next to the value of human life and our planet? Republicans in these impeachment hearings not only attack what they see as their enemies but our environment itself and everything that lives on the planet. Republicans denounce democrats policies that include preservation of the environment, but do nothing themselves but allow this pollution to continue and grow. They can deny the figures that Mr. Krugman presents but not our declining quality of life, beath and
declining life expectancy among our citizens.
1
We should also forget that for right wing voters, supporting a policy that enrages progressive or liberal voters is considered a win. It doesn't matter what the policy does, or what it's impacts outside of the realm of public opinion are. It is enough to simply "own the libs".
GOP does not mean Grand Old Party. It's modern meaning is General Opposition Party. They do not stand for anything. Atleast not in any meaningful way. But they are firm and resolute in standing together in opposition of a progressives position.
We often forget that one of the central planks of the GOP's platform is not policy based. It does not support a position or plan. It is simply to "own the libs". That is enough to make them vote. That is enough for them to consider a win.
Progressives are at a natural disadvantage in this regard. People who vote for progressives are not satisfied with simply standing in opposition to things. Warren, Sanders, etc. all have to stand there and tell you what they stand for. They have to make the case why their plans are worth the time, money and effort. Republicans do not find themselves in a similar position. When we say "medicare for all" they can simply say "no to socialism". When we say "sensible and constitutionally appropriate gun control" they can simply say "Shall not be ABRIDGED!!". When we say "Green New Deal" they can simply say "no to green washed communism".
"owning the libs" is more than enough for them to "win".
1
There is no more Earth - our only planet - and certainly no more United States of America, if our natural heritage is shredded and paved into extinction. The [powers-that-be are very much incapable of basic arithmetic. To them, two-plus-two equals five. The imminent biologist and naturalist E.O. Wilson calls for a solution of "half Earth in his recent book of the same title. The Senate majority knows only what its media enablers say. Period.
1
Dismantling environmental protections is not about short-term economy – especially if the real costs of pollution, on environment, public health, worker productivity, disaster aid and reclamation are factored in – but about preserving wealth and power. It is not coincidence that environmental pollution most affects vulnerable populations, who are that much weaker, poorer and have shorter lives. Environmental regulations are important because they level the playing field – a “socially responsible” business shouldn’t have to pay a penalty in terms of higher prices because of costs which makes them less able to compete. Republicans and the wealthiest don’t care about pollution because they really feel they are safe on their 1000-acre ranches and mountaintop homes, like Dick Cheney who was happy to open national parks to snowmobiles, but not near his Wyoming home.
I just got a report on an MRI that says I have a problem with one lung. I never smoked. I don't know if what I have is serious because I actually just got the news, but the first thing I thought was whether air pollution from when I was a child in the 50s or pollution now was giving me grief. Then I thought about the London Fog of 1952 that led to thousands of deaths every day for four days, and also led to clean air laws in Britain. Then I thought about the destruction of our clean air regulations by the corrupt GOP and Trump.
1
The only time the people making these policies breathe outside air is on the golf course, or from a building to a car. They spend their days breathing air conditioned air drinking bottled water. What do they know about the environment?
1
The implication is fossil fuel industries rake in enough profit based on automation and new practices of simply leveling hilltops for coal instead of tunneling into them and fracking shale oil with tentacles that turn corners that they can pay off enough politicians to roll back protections on everyone.
The irony is that there are other more profitable means of generating energy that don't pollute. Those technologies should be the darlings of the job creators.
Grease a few Republicans' palms and they become expert at twisting logic and demeaning values like long healthy lives for the population. How shallow.
1
This is another example of privatizing the gains and socializing the costs. That people get sick because of poor air or water quality is someone else's problem and it's not the problem of the polluter because their quarterly spreadsheet is looking good - and that's all that matters to them.
There is a philosophy in this country that wealth accumulation is the highest priority and the only worthwhile human endeavor. In their view, no government has the right to interfere with an individuals' quest for wealth through regulation even if that regulation benefits society.
Right now, I think those people are in charge.
2
It feels like I have been saying Trump is a symptom not the disease for ever. I live in unTrump country and we believe in government even as we are likely to vote for entirely new parties and government every four years.
Our government writes with a pencil with an eraser at the end. Even as we modify our social contract and pride ourselves on our liberalism we sometimes break our own laws because they are all too often wrong or obsolete.
We have long advocated legalizing marijuana and now that it is legal we decided that it should not be legal for all. With 18 being the legal adulthood for all, science tells us it is dangerous to let those under 21 to indulge.
We are a liberal democracy and it is 2019 we are committed to end the use of fossil fuels within the decade. We know this is not only good but possible. Yours is a nation of laws ours is a nation of yeah buts.
It is past time to consider the yeah buts when Trump is elected and your nation is run by its least competent, most corrupt and least moral.
1
@Montreal Moe: Every time I read here that Trump was fairly elected my regard for the intellect of the US public declines further.
1
Donald Trump's ability to exacerbate economic problems is unmatched. From increasing income inequality to trade wars to aging infrastructure to declining competitiveness to exploding deficits, he will leave America worse than he found it.
But his best work, his enduring legacy, may very well be to lead Republicans in going all in on environmental destruction for short term profit
Trump was born to take advantage of the"tragedy of the commons" -- profoundly greedy, shameless, unable to feel empathy, and too intellectually lazy to think through consequences.
And there is no better example of that economic problem, that "tragedy" than to allow a few industries to purposefully despoil the common resource of breathable air to make a few more dollars.
If there is one economic attitude that I hope that elected progressives can end in the near future is the acceptance of privatizing profits and socializing risks and environmental costs.
The concept of "if you break it, you pay for it" should include our shared environment.
2
Trump isn't an aberration. He is the most orthodox Republican president since WWII.
Trump has done more to disrupt the day-to-day operation of the federal government than any other Republican.
Trump has done more to reduce the taxes paid by corporations and wealth donors than any other Republican.
Trump has appointed the most conservative Supreme Court justices, appellate court judges and district court judges and in greater numbers than any other Republican. It will take at least a generation to reverse the havoc that the Republican judges will wreak.
Trump has done more to eliminate consumer protections than any other Republican.
Trump has has placed the Republicans in a better place to attack Social Security and Medicare than any other Republican.
Trump has done more to eliminate the possibility of bipartisanship than any other Republican.
How can anyone believe, or even suggest, that Donald Trump is anything more than the most orthodox of Republicans?
3
@OldBoatMan: The medical system, the court system, and the measurement system all conspire to motivate businesses to abandon the US.
1
@OldBoatMan I suppose orthodox Republican behave this way https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/15/trump-style-quid-pro-quo-impeachment-071052
Climate change is not a "long-term existential threat" It is not a threat, at this point it is a promise.
2
Greed is insidious because of its distortive effects which prioritize today before all else.
The greedy want what they want and they want it now. They deal with tomorrow, well tomorrow.
The environment is just one more victim of the self-destructive behavior by the greedy. The greedy need not heed the damage to the environment so long as today's wants are met.
And eventually the greedy and all others not so disposed will have no tomorrows.
1
It's a irony that will kill us.
The Moral Majority Republican Party has been purified over the years to the point where it stands for one thing only: profit.
Anything that stands in the way of that private profit is an enemy to be defeated by any means possible.
Most Republican weapons in this war are variants on corruption.
Corruption of truth: Lies, one after the other.
Corruption of fact: They run from the creation of "alternative facts" presented to the public to the many instances of accepted scientific research deliberately withheld from it.
Corruption of language: Orwell covered this very well. His warning has become the Republican playbook.
Corruption of behavioral norms: Personal and political, again with the Mr. Trump leading the way.
Corruption of the concept of law itself: Laws intended to protect the innocent brazenly used by the president himself to hide behind, not to mention his public defiance of specifics laws that everyone else is subject to.
Salients in the war Republicans are waging in profits' name are the guardians of the environment drawn from industry lobbyists, overseeers of the nation's health from pharmaceutical companies, a department of justice serving not the nation's but the president's interests, and a slew of judicial appointees wholly disinterested in justice for all and often, as their record proves, wholly ignorant of law?
The other irony. A party that cloaks itself in tradition exploring new things to corrupt every day.
1
For those who realistically understand the future, a reasonable idea would be to make a new life humbly in the Southern hemisphere where bad air will lose much of it's badness by the time it gets there delayed by the counter flowing trade winds around the Equator. Republicans won't give up their polluting or their weapons, so why stay? America is played out, let's move on to the new peaceful world.
Thank you Paul.
More should be said about the connection between the Wall Street avaricious economy and the Polluter in Chief's disastrous anti-EPA deregulation policies.
The direct consequence of more money and prosperity for the wealthy and privileged is the adverse pollution effects to the health of people everywhere, and that of future generations as well.
Abhorrent
1
Can’t they figure out why some areas of the country have shorter life expectancies than others and fix it? Watching the hearings, and looking at Adam Schiff, who is 59 - he doesn’t look anything like the 59 year-olds where I live. Where I live, the faces are swollen, aged, and lined. And Pelosi - 77? Here, you have to make it 77, and few do in one piece - broken knees and hips. What is going on? And where is my Congress? I wanted to live to be 100 (although seeing my country constantly fighting might make me want to rethink such) could you help?
Notwithstanding the pollution issue - which is safe from an opinion standpoint - it seems that Dr. Krugman is somewhat defeatist in his opening remarks about Trump's impeachment possibilities: "So if you’re waiting for some dramatic political turn, don’t hold your breath."
I think liberals - Dr. Krugman included - look like they're just going through the motions in their resistance to Trump. I have a suggestion for them: "Don't take a wet noodle to a knife fight."
1
I just wrote my congressman about the EPA two days ago. He's a democrat. I can write my senators today, they're democrats. Who else is there left to contact about the environment. I need Republicans who care about their constituents (there must be a FEW) to join with the democrats to stop the destruction of our environment. Who else will stop it? What else can I do?
1
Well its time for the opposition to the GOP to begin fighting back on the turf of the GOP, town hall meetings we need to show up and be heard. In the chambers, and boycott the companies with our money who are profiting from the destruction of the country.
We are not sheep we need to write articles, and boycott money talks and get back at these corporations. Enough, we have no full coverage of health care, tire them together and stand up for our rights as citizens
Here's Obama discussing his role in oil and gas extraction during his tenure:
“Over the last three years, I’ve directed my administration to open up millions of acres for gas and oil exploration across 23 different states. We’re opening up more than 75 percent of our potential oil resources offshore. We’ve quadrupled the number of operating rigs to a record high. We’ve added enough new oil and gas pipeline to encircle the Earth, and then some. . . . In fact, the problem . . . is that we’re actually producing so much oil and gas . . . that we don’t have enough pipeline capacity to transport all of it where it needs to go.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/obama-and-climate-change-the-real-story-104491/
Obama's EPA released a flawed and much criticized report claiming that fracking DOESN'T affect local drinking water.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12082016/epa-mislead-public-fracking-water-conclusion-its-own-scientists-conclude
Bill Clinton "gave permission for Tyson to build a 471,600-gallon chicken waste lagoon within 200 feet of a stream near the town of Rogers that provided drinking water for locals.
"Soon after, state health department inspectors tested local wells and found multiple to be contaminated with bacteria. The fish in nearby ponds that took in water leaked from the waste lagoon all
died."
https://freebeacon.com/politics/clintons-own-water-pollution-scandal/
Environmental degradation is a bipartisan affair.
2
This is not a new story: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/08/fact-check-trumps-environmental-claims-1573352 ("Fact Check: Trump's environmental rhetoric versus his record," July 2019).
The pattern is standard operating for the president and his party. It is no longer remarkable what they are willing to ignore and undo with respect to the environment. The ongoing news is often stuck in silos--barring an overt catastrophe. It is almost impossible to expect reasonable consensus.
Thank you for this article. I have been trying to point out to people who voted for Trump how his administration is endangering our environment. I specifically said aren’t you concerned for your children and grandchildren that certain toxic chemicals, that have been proven to be harmful to humans especially children, have been deregulated by the Trump administration. The answer or non answer I get is a mumbling. This is very disheartening.
1
For the GOP the polluting might be mostly about the money ( despite that long term it's highly un-economic). Whereas for Trump, although he talks about business benefits, his true, underlying and primary reason for enabling massive pollution is his compulsion to project his own toxicity onto the whole planet. I am not a psychiatrist, but it's perfectly obvious that his need to destroy has been a lifelong pattern (expect that he will eventually use nuclear weapons - it's in his DNA).
2
It seems to me that the Democratic nominee can run on this issue -- well, not alone, but as as major focus of the campaign. Anyone with children or grandchildren, even in the Rust Belt, should be able to understand the crisis we face if Trump is reelected.
"[T]he economic cost of rising pollution is also large; the study puts it at $89 billion a year." Trump and Republicans will argue that they 'added $89 billion to GDP' (even though this figure is grossly exaggerated) since medical goods and services were incurred. Just like they added billions in 'revenue' through tariffs.
1
Thanks for reminding us that the real world is burning. To me it seems the political world including all the impeachment drama is like a soap opera - addictive to the point where we all drop what really matters to catch the latest installment.
1
"Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science" is a new proposal by the so called EPA Administrator which would be used to roll back current regulatory limits.
Since the original data set was confidential, the fossil fuel industry says they never had a chance to massage the original data to suit their opinions. This new proposal could roll back regulation and make things even worse as the industry could use their own analysis to set the regulatory standard - to their levels.
Kind of like cigarettes don't cause cancer or the sugar industry studies blaming fat - not sugar - for health problems.
You need to call your senator or you will get sicker under this proposal.
@john2104: When I look though these fakes, I see nothing at all, besides resentment of death so fierce that they want to take everyone else with them when they go.
Follow the money. People dying from air pollution don't just die. First, they go to doctors, hospitals and emergency rooms. Then they go to drug stores to fill prescriptions and buy breathing devices. That's where the $89 Billion goes, and while on one side it may show as an expense, on the other side - the healthcare and pharmacy industries - it is showing up as profit, which is going to shareholders and executive billionaires. What's not to like?
7
For a lot of Republicans (and a few Democrats) it is not that they are pro-pollution, so much as anti-regulation. They believe that in an unregulated world the "Market" would act to contain such things as pollution. On the basis that if you killed off too many of your workers and customers you would go broke. However, most of the anti-regulationists are also proponents of high rates of migration - to maintain the supply of workers and customers. I think it is called "trying to game the market".
1
It would be nice to know how much of this is within the margin of error, and what part is attributable to stuff that Trump has, or hasn’t, done. Wildfires are largely natural to the American landscape, and are the price we pay for living here. The ferocity may be due to climate change, and the economic and human toll may, in part, be due to poor planning, but Trump can be hardly blamed for fire. The report is hidden behind a paywall.
1
I’ve often wished that the EPA had been named the “American Health Protection Agency”, or the “Children’s Health Protection Agency.” Imagine a politician truly trying to sell the idea that the Children’s Health Protection Agency standards for air pollution should be relaxed or removed because they are “strangling” industry.
This disastrous assault on our environment doesn’t seem to concern the voters who support these pro-pollution Republican politicians because they have bought the right wing spin that the EPA is just about saving polar bears they don’t care about or setting aside land for endangered owls and fish. That would be a colossal waste of money to them. Although without environmental regulations we would have killed off our own national symbol, the Bald Eagle, and many of them do seem to like to sport that eagle on their shirts.
Without it being obviously labeled as such, too many people are apparently clueless that we humans can’t be healthy in a polluted environment and our survival is dependent on the survival of other species. Perhaps what the next sane administration should do is “dismantle” the EPA and create the “American Health Protection Agency” that does what the EPA does. Just change the name. The Republicans and their propaganda tv and radio shows would have a harder time spinning it then.
One additional factor in play is the current corporate media environment - which has pro-government propagandaists in FOX and Sinclair organizations, either hiding the ball, singing the party line that claims the concerns about the environment and climate change to be a "hoax". This same powerful shaper of public opinion has joined ostensibly with the Christian right - the other powerful shaper of public opinion - to attack science and anyone holding themselves out to be an expert - unless the "expert" is trotted out by industry lobbyists.
1
"Given what we’ve seen in the impeachment hearings so far, there is literally no crime, no abuse of power, that would induce Republicans to turn on President Trump. So if you’re waiting for some dramatic political turn, don’t hold your breath."
Trump, obviously learned very early on on the hold that he had over his base and the GOP. He said he could get away with anything and not lose a single supporter.
1
@Felix: Faith in Trump rests on belief that God instigated the miraculous events that caused his fluke election.
The GOP and its supporters have been sold a get-rich-quick scheme of epic proportions.
As we know from soap operas to Hollywood movies it always ends badly.
4
Sorely missing from virtually all talk of health-affecting pollution is the issue of plastic. We talk about a threshold of 350ppb of CO2, what about petroleum based plastic?
We are FAR beyond the tipping point of plastic pollution. The average human consumes a credit card’s worth of microplastics PER WEEK. Am I the only person who is distressed by this?
Big Petroleum is now building enough plastic production plants to increase new production by 40%!
Why is there no sustained outcry over this? Some studies find that ALL marine animal now has plastic in their systems, as do we.
Isn’t this urgent? What is the tipping point? Two credit cards per week?
1
@Acajohn *ALL marine animals now have...
The trick Democrats need to master is celebrating the economic progress of the past, and the pride of the people who's ancestors enabled that while cleaning up the future.
So rather than saying "coal is bad" we should be saying "coal made this country and this is how we build on those foundations".
1
@Adam: Cutting edge renewable energy is based on quantum mechanics and electrochemistry. Semiconductor manufacturing maximizes automation to keep people and our contamination out of the process.
Even our handling of electricity will change. Electric grids use alternating current because its voltage is easily changed by transformers. But now there are inverters to transform voltage and synthesize variable frequencies to power considerably more efficient motors. Edison may win the current war yet.
1
I agree with what you are saying about pollution, however, I do have a quibble about the phrase 'cost thousands of lives'.
I think the 'units' are wrong. Everybody dies sooner or later, so the phrase 'cost thousands of lives' is meaningless. It should include a measure of time, perhaps like 'cost thousands of human creative years'.
I think you will grant there is a difference to society, to the country, if 100 senior citizens die a month earlier in a nursing home and 100 6th graders die in a blaze of bullets in their classrooms. The loss to society of those 100 x 80 year lifetimes is only measured by including time in the loss.
1
@Robert Gustafson: Heavily polluted Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and Elizabeth New Jersey were my introduction to the US after birth in 1950. Several near death experiences with asthma as a child imprinted on my attitude about life.
2
@Robert Gustafson
The proper phrase is "premature deaths". That is deaths before the average lifespan; or deaths before maturity; or, worse, deaths in infancy. Another interpretation is "additional deaths"; that is deaths above the expected rate for a population. Both of your examples would be covered under the above.
1
Mr. Krugman- please explain the “market failure” occurring within the fossil fuel industry. Externalities are paid by consumers, but what is the short and long term effects of this failure? How will the market eventually be harmed?
There is an increasingly powerful case to be made that the economic impacts of climate change may occur before the most significant physical changes to our ecosystem. Please elaborate on these economic costs. Is it true that we can expect $235B to over $500B per year worldwide cost due to extreme events in as few as 50 years? How will the world economy respond to these costs?
Thank you.
1
I have often thought that a little ballyhooed counter-argument to those forces arguing against subsidies for wind and solar power is based on health. Fossil fuel power plants even at their cleanest spew tons of pollution into the air. This baseline unavoidable pollution from fossil full power amounts to a subsidy paid for with our health. It essentially amounts to subsidizing the fossil fuel industry with our lungs.
4
The more that the media covers this issue the better. These death due to poor air quality are tragic and absolutely preventable. Unfortunately most media coverage of death is of “sensational” or “unusual” death — airplane crashes, mass shootings, weird accidents, and so on. Deaths due to poor air quality or lack of medical care are seriously underreported, as are non-mass shootings. The flu also gets weirdly little attention, although it kills 30,000 to 50,000 people a year. Better, more representative coverage of what is actually killing people might help the American people reset their priorities.
3
I have a fireplace in my living room. The city were I live decided to ban wood burning to reduce the number of small particles in the air. So, it’s illegal now to throw a few logs in the fireplace on a cold evening.
When the federal government is in the hands of oil and coal people, time for states and cities to take the lead.
2
Thank you for jumping on this issue. The EPA gave 30 days for comment, at a time when Congress and many others are dealing with other pressing issues. It is not often I get to add something to a column of yours, but in this case I do. These new "regulations", intended to be RETROACTIVE, are an attack on carefully assembled, peer reviewed science portrayed as a righteous demand for "raw" data. We do not even have to wait until Trump buys his kind of "scientists" to enable the resumption of pollution. From their point of view it is a(n awful) trifecta.
3
Maybe this is just a nightmare. Maybe we will all wake up on some bright morning with a moral and competent leader and once again live in a great country like the one we grew up in.
6
I agree that Trump is no saint, but lay the blame of environmental destruction only at his feet is missing the wood for the trees.
We see Americans more than any other advanced society swear that science and technology answers to all their problems. Just let the scientist and technicians go on their work and they will create heaven on earth. More often than not it’s conveniently overlooked that the science and technology does not take place on some superior moral or spiritual plane above the rest of the human activity. Like all other parts of the culture it’s shaped by economic, political and religious interests.
E. F. Schumacher's Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered succinctly put it “ The arising of this error, so egregious and so firmly rooted, is closely connected with the philosophical, not to say religious, changes during the last three or four centuries in man's attitude to nature…Modern man does not experience himself as a part of nature but as an outside force destined to dominate and conquer it. He even talks of a battle with nature, forgetting that, if he won the battle, he would find himself on the losing side.
It’s not just Trump it vast majority of Americans cannot change their mind and as Bernard Shaw said
“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
All Americans driving gas guzzler vehicles and buying goods and services from polluting industries are responsible for pollution all over the world. Blaming half of America is prejudicial and biased. If ever we need to reduce pollution each of us who drives a SUV or larger vehicle and buys goods and services from industries with chimneys has to take responsibility to stop pollution. Lead by example and don't expect others to do what you yourself don't do. I was surprised that the very states that make a big deal about climate change have the highest pollution. I was surprised during my visit to Boston last December how many active chimneys were spewing smoke in Boston's skyline.
1
When future people look back on this era's spike in melting, pollutants, CO2, etc. they will hopefully call it the "Trump Bump".
2
The same thing has been going on for years with the firearms industry — lawmakers or the executive branch protect profits over people’s lives. Most of the public understands that shootings increase gun sales — they’d be a rare exception if the firearms industry didn’t understand what drives sales and do everything they can to make sure what drives sales keeps happening.
1
The GOP doesn't care much for environmental issues simply because they won't be around to deal with the consequences. But they will be around to see the monetary rewards from the businesses that they allow to pollute.
2
I am glad that Paul Krugman has brought more attention to the health harms of particulates we breathe. While in the case of negative internalities such as smoking marijuana, a person might research whether it's healthier to put the marijuana into baked goods. Perhaps the NYT food editors and writers could address this.
In the case of negative externalities, such as global heating which some say is currently killing over a 100,000 a year and the rate is expected to increase, the evidence shows that the poli-sci theory that views government as the solution is problematic. This should become even more apparent when the person studies government's myriad negative externalities. This problematic theory seems to underlie all of Krugman's article. We need better theories based on correct ethics.
1
I always fine Paul's pieces interesting except I was turned off by his picture where he or his assistants titled the picture of "smoke" coming from a stack of a coal fired plant in Illinois. Water vapor isn't smoke. That killed credibility of his contention of particulate being a far more dangerous pollutant (like Mercury isn't), all while some of us in California are subjected to orders of magnitude greater agricultural particulate. Stick with economics Paul.
@Robert Benz
This air pollution is an economic problem. Skyrocketing health care spending.
3
@Robert Benz
Are you sure that the effluvium is water vapour? The stack looks more like a chimney than a cooling tower to me. And even the "steam" from an old plant can carry particulates.
Cough cough cough. My daughter worked at the EPA during the golden years of Obama’s carefully designed regulations in place. Thankfully she left as administration transitioned to the current one. Most of her colleagues who stayed back were demoralized and spoke often about the harm our kids will face as regulations were withdrawn one by one. An environmental health professional she worked on follow up health data on first responders of 9-11 and wept for many days. It took her enormous courage to separate faces of humans from the data she was handling. Grown up kids like her now see their future in the likes of Liz Warren or Bernie Sanders, anyone else will be wimpy diluted version of the kind of bold steps she would like to see happen for her and her peers. For Now our kids have postponed having any children in the future, they don’t see a planet fit enough to raise new innocent lives.
9
Here in my swing state, climate change is the one thing that almost all voters agree on as being an important factor inthe elections. Biden is also the strongest against Cheato but has not honed an environmental message, I hope he does that soon,
2
It's not about the environment for Trump and the GOP.
It's about profit.
Sunlight and wind are free. You can't make money off of them.
Sure, there's the profit made by selling the equipment.
But not the same as a monthly charge for oil, coal, electricity or natural gas.
And electric or hybrid car owners buy very little gasoline.
Greed Over People.
Money is much more important.
Vote Democratic in 2020.
Every office, every seat.
4
It's not about the environment for Trump and the GOP.
It's about profit.
Sunlight and wind are free. You can't make money off of them.
Sure, there's the profit made by selling the equipment.
But not the same as a monthly charge for oil, coal, electricity or natural gas.
And electric or hybrid car owners buy very little gasoline.
Greed Over People.
Money is much more important.
Vote Democratic in 2020.
Every office, every seat.
4
Remember you are dealing with people who don't really see the before and after of environmental regulation. they are told that regulations hurt them financially and there is no benefit to them. Statistics don't show up in their paycheck. They think scientists are a bunch of elite intellectuals who don't care about the common man. Just like with climate change. They would rather have a BMW in the driveway than a clean glass of tap water. And if there is smog in LA or NYC, 'those people' are just getting what they deserve. Trump would never do anything to hurt his supporters. He promised nothing bad would ever happen. Wasn't that the same line Dow Chemical and the tobacco companies used all those years ago?
6
This is a result of "corporate socialism," which is the Republican's (and business') preferred version of capitalism. Under this system, profits are privatized while risks and costs are socialized. In this case, the actual cost of producing a product would include properly treating or disposing of the pollutants and wastes that are created by production. That, however, would result in lower profits. So, rather than paying to clean up their pollution, the businesses instead buy some politicians (much cheaper) to write rules allowing them to spew their wastes into the air and water, where eventually the Government (read all of us) will pay to clean them up. Problem solved! Profits stay high and go into the pockets of business, while society pays for the costs.
17
@In VA. This argument is exactly right and for some reason is not made strongly enough by politicians. Any sane person can understand the basic unfairness of companies unloading one of their costs of doing business onto the public.
3
Don’t the polluter’s kids breathe the same air as everyone else? And don’t they suffer the same consequences? And polluters just don’t care about their children?
The EPA has lost any power it once had to regulate for the health of Americans in air and water contamination. Seth Siegel author wrote a new book Troubled Water: What's wrong with What We Drink, looks at water contamination in America's drinking water. One point made 1220,000 chemicals in commerce in the USA on a daily basis. EPA only regulates 70 of them. PFAS is not one of them. Last time EPA added a new chemical to the list of regulated contaminants was in 1996. That sounds like a problem to me.
3
And then there is Elon Musk polluting the night skies with satellites.
If these aren't the end times, I don't want to know what they will look like.
1
@Jay Dwight I'm going to have to ask you to stop there. While satellites do affect ground astronomy somewhat, and we have yet to see the full impact of Starlink in this regard, comparing that to particulate and greenhouse gas pollution that literally kills tens of thousands of people is a bit disingenuous, don't you think?
If you mean debris, Starlink satellites are designed to completely destroy themselves at end of life, and are deployed in low Earth orbit, which will bring them down within five to ten years anyway. Lastly, rocket launches contribute infinitesimally to global pollution.
Your comment is reckless whataboutism that has no place in serious discussion.
We watch Trump's "The Apprentice President" reality show all day, every day. Like the original "Apprentice", what you see is the show, and what you don't see is the reality. Trump's radically regressive environmental activism has been edited out, but the consequences are real and will be catastrophic.
So, if you care about the health of your family and other living things we have to start at protecting our immediate surroundings. And when it comes to particulate matter, there's not much worse than a gas powered leaf blower that spews 40% of its gas and oil into your own backyard in particles so small that your body cannot filter them from your lungs. Is it really worth the high pitched screech and poisoning of the air where we live, just to move leaves back and forth? What did leaves ever do to us? With 4 million new "devil's hair dryers" sold every year, it seems that they're the menace, not falling leaves.
Trump's policies reflect a value system that is disconnected to nature. But nature isn't somewhere else, its all around us and in us. It sustains us as humans like it sustains all life. It's as real as it gets.
7
@Peter Bahouth and why people sit in idling cars while checking their phones is beyond me
1
So two academics awarded government grants are going to set policy? Coal fired power plants are being shuttled in favor of natural gas plants, which cut emissions in half, is plentiful and more efficient to transport
Krugman the krybaby.
Total Federal annual grants to the eight Ivies far exceeds their total tuition. Taxpayer money. According to a US Senate study. Some dollars are well spent, but most is spent because it’s available, meanwhile the deficits pile up and nobody cares.
The EPA has no authority to regulate commerce. The Supreme Court reaffirmed that. That decision did not sit well with the Krugmans of the world. Weaponizing the deep state.
1
@hawk, What’s more costly, all the grants to all the scientists or air you can’t breathe and drinking water that kills and/or impairs your children? “More money for me” people don’t have the right to kill people with their greed and willful ignorance. Deficit? Doing some arithmetic regarding tax cuts for billionaires and military spending might help your calculations there, but I guess mathematical competency might be too costly if we’d need to spend money on education.
Excellent reasons to trash the earth and make it uninhabitable for humans!
A year ago I heard that the US Rep. party is the ONLY party in ANY democracy which denies climate change. I've been trying to disprove this statement but I can't find a party in any democracy does. Even in coal loving Australia where I'm from! D.A., J.D., NYC keep up the good work Paul!
4
Paul.. All well and good. I agree with your position. The leftwing agenda keeps getting in the way. I am SO tired of Warren, Sanders and the rest of them. These candidates are ruining my party. Just like trump ruined the Republican Party. I will never again vote straight down for any party as my party loyalty has disappeared. I am in turmoil as i am sure many in my party are.
3
I’m not. I think you have it backwards. In 2016, only Bernie Sanders and Dr. Jill Stein made the environmental issue a priority. And it was barely discussed in the mainstream media or by the debate moderators. Since the early 90’s the mainstream of the Democratic Party has fallen into the hands of the corporatists who have highjacked the American Dream in the service of financial capital. Until this systemic problem is tackled we will compromise our future— with the environmental issue sharing centerstage with income inequality.
The most amazing story about acid rain is in the tell-all classic Merchants of Doubt, by Orestes and Conway, where scientists discredited a measurement because they didn’t trust their raw data. If they had, the Northeast Regional Cap and Trade, the sulfuric oxide laws and regulations could have been set and implemented sooner, and untold health hazards would not have developed.
The new Trump regulation subverts the consideration of raw data under the pretext of health privacy and government transparency. Time for big administrative law actions and citizen science initiatives.
2
a very fine article..very sobering...you would like to think that perhaps a version with some of the anti_trump rhetoric removed to make it likely that it would really be heard and possibly even acted on ..could be entered into the Congressional record...and be read and distributed to all high-school children so that they might be empowered ..as other young people are being empowered around the world..to act upon it as they go through school and enter the adult world.
It is an informed warning to us all ..and should be understood by those who are inheriting this mess
1
The article’s references to Trump are facts, not rhetoric.
Being soft on Trump will not win over his worshippers. They need to be defeated at the polls.
It is indeed baffling why Republicans have become pollution apologists, since they are killing their own families' futures along with those of Democrats. The problem appears to be that they have come to believe all regulation is bad and are unwilling to distinguish the good from the bad because it is easier to sell as a sound bite: "All government regulation is bad" to low-information masses. Ask them if they would like to bring back Thalidomide.
6
Industry, via capture of agencies, has been undermining environmental regulation for at least two decades. Much of this has gone on behind closed doors without media coverage and subsequently, without public knowledge.
Great efforts have been made by industry to astroturf their lobbying of legislators and regulators and make it appear that they had broader public support. A prime example is the rescinding of the Waters of the United States that was designed to clarify the reach of federal regulatory authority into the upper watersheds. The intent of this action was to preempt the making of truly effective regulatory actions that would have provided the public real powers over the manufacturers of agricultural inputs instead of diminishing the freedoms of individual landowners (astroturf claim). The effect will be to kill the public's right to know -- with no monitoring there is no way to know what escapes private property and migrates into the air or into your water supply.
So, what I am saying is that the "deregulation" occurring under Trump is further weakening already weak regulation and preempting the public's means of having regulatory agencies craft truly effective environmental regulation backed up with more stringent monitoring and enforcement. Sadly, many states, including many blue states, for want of resources, have also fallen in their abilities to monitor and enforce.
7
Trump said, “The environment can take care of itself.” That certainly told me all I needed to know about his care for or knowledge of this planet. When your life’s purpose revolves around money and power, those people’s focus is on one thing only regardless of collateral damage. It’s not just Trump or the 1% either. We all contribute with the choices we make every day. Our dollar’s support the company’s polluting this planet. If we didn’t purchase their products they wouldn’t exist.
We also need strong regulation and oversight of companies for the same reasons. Jobs aren’t lost if a company is ethical, but lives are if they’re not. And it’s not just human lives. Our earth is being decimated before our very eyes and those calling attention to the atrocities are being quieted. You don’t need to be a scientist to see what’s happening right in front of your face.
4
I have recently returned from New Delhi where the apocalypse
is clearly visible. The thick soup of smog obscures the view of buildings not a mile away and the sun seems to barely penetrate the scene. The sky is never blue, but a sickly shade of white haze. And it doesn't confine itself to Delhi but spreads out upon the landscape for hundreds of miles. I did not so much as breath air as inhale carbon waste.
Perhaps the Republican party would like to gather there for a "fact finding" tour and breath deeply.
16
@GMO The argument made by the GOP and Fox etc. is ….why should we restrict emissions which penalize manufacturers when other countries around the world pollute far worse than the US ...All these issues are the result of the apathy of the General Public.....Where is the OUTRAGE?? No wonder Greta Thunberg sometimes looks so angry...she's essentially fighting on her own...for all of us !!
Assuming you all have a rudimentary knowledge of atmospheric pollution and probably have a belief that we have a lot of atmosphere and will be ok, you should know the usable portion of our atmosphere is only about three miles thick. It's very thin as compared to the farther thinner reaches. You should all be very concerned and don't waste away in front of their televisions hoping someone will do something. It's likely too late.
4
If you want to understand why the obvious benefits of a clean economy long term isn't a priority to many Republicans, you need to understand many believe they are living in the End Times: the traditional Christian position of Stewardship of Creation is overthrown by anything that appears to support the Tribe of the Righteous (i.e., Evangelicals). I routinely hear folks repeating the line that Environmentalism is a religion opposed to Jesus.
Another aspect of this is land development: the easiest way to become a millionaire in the US has been to buy farm and forest land cheap, and sell it as subdivisions and strip malls. Water quality regulations, preserving wetlands and streams, cut the amount of available land...In my town, the guys who blew up the Bubble that was decisively crashing by '07 want to do it again. I routinely hear that the National Forest should be sold, by guys who called Obama the AntiChrist.
16
Reagan and the Bush family were complicit in environmental damage. Despite moments of sanity imposed from veto proof legislation, they "deregulated" in a frenzy enabling special interests to prevail.
As for Trump, it's not as if he tried to hide environmental intentions.
What does this country believe in anyway? We claim to care about the environment, health care, and integrity in government, but apparently vote otherwise.
2
Diesel engines produce much of the fine particulate pollution.
VW wasn't alone with their 'defeat device' games to pass emissions tests.
You can bet other auto and truck companies are playing the same games.
There are also defeat devices you can buy that will do the same for a semi or other diesel truck which put out far more pollutants than a car diesel engine. A number of trucking companies have been caught using these illegal devices as ways to pass emissions testing.
Even without using these devices trucks in between emissions inspections can put out huge amounts of particulates and other pollution.
2
An example of Trump's active efforts to trash human health is his 2018 termination of EPA's 20-person Particulate Matter Review Panel. The Panel, made up of experts in microscopic airborne pollutants known to cause respiratory disease, was responsible for helping the agency decide what levels of fine particulate pollutants are safe to breathe.
The Panel provided lengthy, critical scientific and engineering assessments of how much exposure to particulate matter is acceptable in the atmosphere. Trump dissolved the Particulate Panel in favor of stockholders of large energy companies.
Trump's disparagement of human health and the environment is abhorrent and disgraceful. When they enter the voting booths a year from now, every voting American should remember this one act among the many anti-human health actions that Trump has made over the past three years.
13
Why the shot at Joe Biden? Things will be a lot better if Trump is defeated in 2020, for a Democratic president would then resurrect the EPA and regulate coal companies, coal burning utilities, and other polluters.
And by the way, let's not forget all the particulates in the smoke of wood burned by those who think wood is renewable and by those who just don't care. Burning wood is even worse than burning coal.
6
Here in the communities of the Berkshires, the winter air becomes hazy, polluted by fires from the hearths and wood stoves of the very people believing themselves to be protectors and supporters of environmental regulations and enforcement. In the fall, their obsession for clearing leaves from their yards, driveways and roads creates the noise and stench of unfiltered leaf blowers running for hours on-end. And in the spring and summer gallons of Roundup and fertilizers make for greener lawns yet pollute the nearby streams and ponds, killing or deforming developing frogs, salamanders and other aquatic life.
Every person has to examine their own beliefs and choices and make dramatic and permanent changes to what is “normal” if we are to turn things around. Otherwise who are we kidding with all this “clean and green” facade?
6
@Kevin Cahill Biden's belief that the Republicans will become reasonable, if not benevolent after Trump is utterly absurd. Does he really believe that?
1
The fossil fuel plutocracy got married to Wall Street and the Saudis under none other than FDR (in 1945, on Great Bitter Lake). Ever since, their propaganda and influence on politics has been determining.
Obama, although he spoke well in ecological matters, presented fracking of fossil fuels as the "bridge fuel to the future". Conclusion: the USA became the greatest fossil fuel producer ever, in the history of the known galaxy. Now Trump wants to go even further, and asphyxiate us all... That is an excellent point on which to impeach him (instead of the ridiculous phone call about alleged corruption).
Obama could have launched a hydrogen program: hydrogen is crucial to store sustainable energy. Although the gas itself is controversial, it is amenable to more tame forms: ammonia and methanol. So one could transform, and transport, solar and wind using hydrogen, or those related substances (which can be carried by ship, too).
It is regrettable that impeaching Trump on the ground of facilitating mass poisoning is not attempted by those who claim to be for progress. because it's not even a matter of progress, but present survival.
Ah, last point: the CO2 catastrophe is mainly looking like slow motion now, because the systems involved have enormous inertia, and exponentials are in action. Exponentials start very slow, but then accelerate tremendously. when the CO2 catastrophe will be blatant, and its effects striking, it will be too late. And that is around the corner.
5
Three of my conservative (and I mean that in a good way) Republican friends, from different areas of the country, would decades ago tell me that you didn't have to worry about the environment under Republicans. The GOP might have a laissez-faire attitude, but we all drank the same water and breathed the same air. If the environment was threatened, they would (like Teddy Roosevelt and Richard Nixon) defend it decisively.
All three today realize that that conclusion is utterly false. Republican leaders, for money and power, are eager to destroy the environment and attack science. Trump embraces this whole-heartedly, though he did not start it.
19
My child grew up with asthma. Asthma in kids is brutal. Air pollution has its worst impacts on children. the sick, and the elderly. It is bad enough that greedy people can pollute in many ways, and do! But profiting the few while causing human suffering over large areas is attacking public health. How can reducing regulations Preserve & Protect our people? It is a violation of their Oaths of Office.
15
Conservatives object to environmental regulation because they do not believe it is the role of government to protect citizen's lives (unless the military or police are involved), health, or finances.
9
@DABman
I'd argue that's a pretty charitable interpretation given the level of funding from major polluters for Republican campaigns, the revolving door between Congress and the extractives industries, and the credence given to fringe conspiracies about science by most right-wing media sources.
Regardless though, conservatives are demonstrably wrong. America falls behind countries which have governments more involved in finance, health, and the environment in quite literally every metric.
The reflexive distaste of government involvement in the environment means that as Europe steps towards green economies power by renewable sources and sustained by urban planning and a holistic approach to the natural world, the US slides back to a Dickensian dystopia in which our children's health and future is the cost paid for coal magnates' wealth.
4
@DABman
That isn't their argument though as of late is it. Out right science denial is constant.
1
Do you understand that if everyone is self interested, there is a race to the bottom? Do you understand that government is actually US saying to ourselves, hey, okay, we won’t race to the lowest common denominator, and we will collectively agree to not do certain things? Do you realize that without that in place, one person sees their neighbor can cheaply win by dumping their mine tailings, so why on earth should I be the sucker and not dump my mine tailings too? Have you ever read game theory? Do you realize that without common rules of the game it always be an all out struggle to see who can cut all the trees down first and everyone loses? Think Easter Island. Think tragedy of the commons. Government, my friend, that is you and me setting rules we all can agree to so that we can all live together just a little longer. And when we get in the ring we wont kill each other or trash the place. It’s no more or less than that.
1
The pro-pollution party should have no role in our government.
I can't talk/write about the country I am now in because they have laws against stating ugly things, truths included. So I have to dialogue about the way the GOP has taken power away from the citizens &, with Citizens United, made it the "go to" party for all things anti-humanity.
There are a great number of thinking people leaving the GOP because they simply can't take it anymore what the party has become. There is a splinter group of the Democratic Party for right wing former Republicans who can't accept what the GOP has become, the GoDems.
The present GOP is so sensory deprived that they can't sense what is at the end of their own nose; polluted air. Real sadness is that it is worldwide. Australia is still coal country even as all life on that arid continent is endangered by climatic conditions. Brexit is an animal created by those same forces while PM Johnson refuses to address needed flood relief.
They call themselves conservatives in every country but the opposite is the real truth.
14
@WorldPeace24/7
The dictatorship of the “woke.” What possibly could go wrong?
America First should be renamed "Us 1% First, forget the people's environment"
Qui bono? Who benefits from Trump's environmental deregulation? Certainly not We The People who need clean air, water and land.
Corporations whose CEOs do not live in the areas where their business pollution befouls the air, water and land will benefit. They should be required to live next to their polluting businesses. Then they would "enjoy" the foul fruits of their corporate profits.
11
Pollution is but one facet of the abominations we are serving up to our world.
Among humans, there has never been any economic measure more valuable, or more disposable, than a human life, and every measure of environmental quality has derived from the incidence of human mortality. That said, I posit that any whale or any elephant, rhinoceros, hippo, lemur, tuna, migratory bird or penguin is of a value far beyond my own. I would give my own life to save one of theirs.
Apart from my species which number over 7 billion and cover the earth, the few wild places that can serve as habitat for our brothers of other kinds tenuously remain on the planet and are besieged by my kind. Yet we as individuals live within a system which dictates that our constant expansion and reproduction is holy. Fiddlesticks.
If there is no economic model that could provide some parity of rights to other living things in these extremely trying times for other species, if we cannot share this world with our brothers. we are all lost.
12
Here are just a few of Trump's Grand Old Pollution party's golden hits that are Making Pollution Great Again:
Rejected a proposed ban on chlorpyrifos, a pesticide linked to developmental disabilities in children.
Overturned a ban on the use of lead ammunition and fishing tackle on federal lands.
Changed the way the Endangered Species Act is applied, making it more difficult to protect wildlife from long-term threats posed by climate change.
Revoked a directive for federal agencies to minimize impacts on water, wildlife, land and other natural resources when approving development projects.
Revoked a rule that prevented coal companies from dumping mining debris into local streams.
Reversed restrictions on the sale of plastic water bottles in national parks desgined to cut down on litter, despite a Park Service report that the effort worked.
Weakened federal rules regulating the disposal and storage of coal ash waste from power plants.
Reversed an Obama-era rule that required braking system upgrades for “high hazard” trains hauling flammable liquids, like oil and ethanol.
Loosened offshore drilling safety regulations implemented by the Obama administration following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. The revised rules include reduced testing requirements for blowout prevention systems.
Canceled a requirement for oil and gas companies to report methane emissions.
"Drop dead, America...drop dead, nature...drop dead, habitable climate !"
Nice GOPeople.
198
@Socrates Yes! So difficult for me to understand why none of this seems to resonate with folks.
The hearings that started yesterday are having an impact. I believe we have finally reached a turning point. We will win this!
4
Founding the EPA was one of the last times the GOP channeled Theodore Roosevelt.
Although money is the biggest reason Republicans have let the particulates come back ("burdensome regulations") a couple of other factors are also at work.
Ironically, as air got cleaner, the problem became much more abstract. In 1968, most of our congresspeople and senators had lived in or visited places with terrible air, such as Pittsburgh and Cleveland.
Today, almost none has. They aren't old enough to remember when smog made LA a health hazard; the Cleveland shipping channel caught fire; and driving past Gary could give you a sore throat.
There are still pockets of horrible pollution around the U.S., but in places GOP politicians would be unlikely to visit. let alone stay long enough to feel.
7
@Grennan
Yet they are helping Trump literally murder Californians. This is the hatred that is quite real from the extremist right wingers. They are actively engaging in attacking California to cause harm and death.
2
Even if a Democrat who is aggressively pro-environment is elected next year, it will take many years to reinstate the old rules or to impose newer more stringent rules given our increased knowledge.
3
@John Sully
Not if that Democrat is elected along with a Democratic Congress. With all three branches under Democratic control and a lot of courageous leadership, they can roll every last roll-back and reform the judiciary branch.
Short of doing that, not only are we dooming future generations of humans, but such a new majority of Democrats will quickly find that the nation is ungovernable with all of the traps Trump, Pence, and the GOP have laid since 2017.
15
@Rima Regas and how will we get there when so many good candidates want to be prez rather than Senators?
1
@John Sully A new Democratic president can begin to instantly reverse the Trump horrors. Stating that it might take "years" is hysterical and incorrect.
2
It is the Trump - Putin team with Trump receiving unquestioned support from the Republican Party. It is scary, frightening and repugnant. Our foreign policy more and more reflects what Putin “likes.” And now, our environmental policy also reflects Russia’s dismal concern for their environment. It is about power and “making” more wealth. Whether the oligarchs of Russia or the CEO’s of America taking advantage of people, even sacrificing their lives has become acceptable.
14
It is highly interesting for me to come across this article tonight. I am presently reading Arlie Russell Hochschild's Strangers in Their Own Land (2016) which talks about the damage that the unregulated oil and chemical industries have done in southwestern Louisiana. The author outlines an industry analysis which advised companies to pick out conservative regions where they felt citizens would have the ''least resistant personalities'' to oppose environmental degradation.
The environmental damage Hochschild describes has been overwhelmingly damaging for Louisiana. In turn, our heavy Canadian oil is piped there to be refined and then to be sold offshore. This heavy oil has been profoundly controversial for Canada and has deeply divided our nation. What a curse these energy issues are and the corrupting money that lies behind them. Both our countries lose out on every level.
26
@Barry Lane more importantly those she studied prefer and support jobs over their own health and oppose government interference despite the state getting more federal dollars than most. This is because the emotional Republican message is more powerful than the logical Democrat message. Read The Political Brain next
1
Since the GDP has been made the measure of all things, it is only natural for our beloved orange tweeto to do that which will increase it. Obviously the business/farm which is allowed to pollute will be more profitable. Then there will be increased health costs to others which again will make the health care industry more profitable. The costs to clean up the mess will also add to the GDP. This is the twisted (quarter to quarter) thinking of our benighted leaders.
2
Since the GDP has been made the measure of all things, it is only natural for our beloved orange tweeto to do that which will increase it. Obviously the business/farm which is allowed to pollute will be more profitable. Then there will be increased health costs to others which again will make the health care industry more profitable. The costs to clean up the mess will also add to the GDP. This is the twisted (quarter to quarter) thinking of our benighted leaders.
We should stop using the word pollution. The real meaning of the word is "poison". Think about it. When we say that something is polluted, we really mean that it is poisoned. Polluted air is poisonous; polluted water is poisonous and polluters are poisoners.
12
@L Howard A distinction without a difference. Words games are pointless.
Pollution's costs fall (sometimes literally) on someone other than the polluter. This increases profits for the worst polluters, because they don't have the same costs as those who are more responsible. Trump's great contribution is lowering the bar, so that those seeking to offload the cost of pollution onto the public (the 'commons') can do so even better. Who says Trump isn't all about "increasing productivity"? Whether blowing out a smoke stack, flowing down a stream, or leaking out of an oil well, Trump has never met pollution he didn't welcome... as long as it lands on someone else. I don't think it can be, but it should be another count on the Articles of Impeachment - Trump abuses his office and his duty to protect the American people from "all enemies foreign and domestic". Surely, environmental degradation can be counted the work of "enemies foreign and domestic".
5
The Magnificent 20 (I think there are 20) Dems running for President rarely talk about environmental threats in specific terms. Usually we get vague bromides about a Green New Deal, then back inevitably to arguing about health care. How about some small ball, such as the rising threat of small particulates as described in this excellent commentary. I despair that any of the 20 can actually think “small and specific” enough to connect with people’s lives. The immediate threats to the environment and the health of our people should resonate, at least in suburbia and among the young.
2
I am usually impressed by Krugman's willingness to speak out and speak the truth but this article disappoints me. Why nibble at the edges of what is really going on and avoid the financial devastation that lies ahead. The number of dollars that the Trump administration is not spending on environmental issues that are urgent added to the problems the Trump/GOP is making worse for every person in this country is a subject the media, and not just FOX No-news, refuses to cover. Trillions of dollars are not being accounted for every day when the market goes up and unemployment numbers are posted and yet the real cost of the climate disaster that has landed on our doorstep is truly a terrifying number. Someone like Krugman who knows numbers and what they really mean must know that the media is supporting Trump and GOP lies that the economy is "booming" and that people are getting jobs and doing well under Trump's economic and tax policies. Those are all lies because the real amount it is going to cost to save our planet must be accounted for and no one seems determined to do that math. I'd like Krugman to lead the charge into declaring the truth - the economy is tanking because every day we do not spend dollars on the environment is simply making the final number of dollars more astronomical and crushing to our future.
2
The one thing that Trump has been silent about is his wholesale destruction of policies and regulations protecting health and the environment. We all know that Trump said climate change was a chinese hoax, but what is not receiving nearly enough attention is how this administration has been quietly rolling back an astonishing number of environmental and safety regulations, and it has done it with hardly any outrage from the public. Most people are as of yet unaware of how much damage is being done, but as this piece points out, the results are already playing out. This president's crimes against health and the environment should be an impeachable offense in itself.
20
Crime may not be near historic lows. Incidents of violence resulting from certain crimes are near historic lows. These are very different things.
Much of the opioid epidemic is a massive crime. Government has little public trust and this is neither very recent nor just because of propaganda. And last but not least, the Trump campaign is the political arm of a criminal insurgency.
Crime has led to many of our other problems defying remedy or even worsening. The statistics may look reassuring, but crime is the biggest existential threat to the country.
Trump should embrace climate control. His wish to bring troops home would do a lot since moving troops around the world, military exercises, etc. are major contributors to global warming. Trump can't control India and China's carbon output.
None of the Democratic candidates have proposed a workable plan either. California leads the way in implementing solutions to climate change, but why are they one of only six states whose carbon emissions have increased each year over the past six years?
Your essay is shallow in assuming that limiting use of coal will make a big difference - compare emissions from a coal state to California. The problem is much more difficult than politicians admit.
2
@John Bowman "moving troops around the world, military exercises, etc. are major contributors to global warming." I find this assertion highly dubious. Is it even 1% of the total?
Then you assert that California's carbon emissions have increased each year for six years but you provide no support for this assertion.
Hmm. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions
This article show that California has the second lowest per-capita carbon emission out of the 50 states. Second lowest! I'm very proud of my state, 49th in the list. Texas is number 7.
Perhaps your claim about increases is actually correct (though you don't seem particularly reliable) but obviously the fact that California is so low in emissions while having a thriving economy shows that we do have workable plans.
California looks good. You look bad. You are a deceiver.
We as a populace never learn. We keep our jobs but forget that our jobs can cause pollution. We think that a paycheck is more important than how we pollute our earth.
It's time to bring all things together and not just me in the game of life.
Common sense for all is necessary in these pursuits.
Remember we are all in this together, I hope.
1
Thanks for the effort, Dr. Krugman, but there is an immovable bloc of Americans who will continue to vote for Republicans no matter how dirty the air is, how sick it makes them or thousands of other people, or how dire the consequences of unaddressed climate change become. I try to remain hopeful that enough other voters will demand new leadership that confronts the environmental and health challenges we face.
15
Trump appoints cabinet members for EPA and Interior in particular whose mission is to destroy the department. It is more than obvious and follows for Energy, Education, HUD and others. This follows Bannon’s desire to eliminate the ‘administrative state’.
The effect on the environment is already apparent. The EPA has dismantled regulations on safe guarding our environment and wildlife from dangerous chemicals. This alone will take years to recover from.
13
I don’t believe Trump is so eager to Make America Worse on every front only to enrich oligarchs and himself. I believe he is an agent of destruction for powers outside the US, Russia I suppose but no, not the country, the Putin Cabal. It is extraordinary that so many politicians, indeed an entire party, has signed on to letting Russia command us.
21
Fifty years ago, the law that led to the creation of the EPA passed the Senate unanimously, and the House by 96%. Today the EPA is being destroyed from within. Why are we unlearning that lesson? Two reasons.
First, in 1969 we lived in a partisan but functioning democracy. Today we live in a tribal, winner-take-all dysfunctional system.
Second, we now allow unlimited political spending, i.e. dark money, to invade our political system. We live in a donocracy, not a democracy.
770
@Ken L
True. We can thank Mr. Scalia for calling corporations people and opening the floodgates for political spending and dark money with Citizens United.
...and that should be the very first thing Dems do in 20/21. BLAST that Court decision into oblivion by instituting public financing of campaigns.
73
@Ken L - Yeah, the Republican Party of today is a twisted shell of what it was back when Richard Nixon created EPA and signed the major clean air and clean water legislation, and did so because everyone knew they were necessary.
The dark money and the twisting of "conservative" away from any form of conservation of the commons is also something that came about because of another change since then - the gigantic expansion of wealth at the top among corporate leaders, and particularly the willingness of some of the ultra-libertarian (translates into "we're rich and don't want to pay any tax") families that, along with the American Petroleum Institute, started funding disinformation.
Then Reagan started to disassemble a functional federal government, and Newt Gingrich defunded the Office of Technology Assessment, because having Congress get expert advice on things like industry, infrastructure and other parts of a complex, industrialized society might have led to laws that would have helped us plan ahead as some of our technologies became harmful.
33
@Blanche White: The United States Federal Government is a corporation, and Congress is its Board of Directors.
7
It doesn't surprise me that Trump feels this way about regulations. It has often surprised me that the GOP feels this way.
1. New technologies create new jobs that can replace jobs being eliminated because that work is no longer needed.
2. We breathe the same air. Therefore, no matter where we live or how rich we are, if the air is dirty it affects all of us.
3. A good businessperson doesn't want unsafe conditions at work or in the environment because it might hurt the profits or the employees or the people who buy what said businessperson is selling.
4. A corporation's giving back to the community in which it is located creates good will. In other words, tax breaks hurt the community. People resent that.
5. Pollution kills but before it kills it makes people ill and costs billions in productivity and more in social welfare programs that ought not to be needed but are.
The GOP is fooling itself if it thinks that pollution of any sort is harmless, particularly man made pollution.
470
@hen3ry
The explanation is simple when one realizes that "corporations", as a class, are an abstraction. Actual corporations are different from each other. The gigantic ones in the energy industry, who are making the money now, are the ones who are afraid of a change to renewable energy and have the resources to interfere with it. In particular, they have the resources to buy a large political party.
65
@Thomas Zaslavsky I agree but the problem is that corporations as a whole do tend to exhibit some very irrational and selfish behavior. Perhaps it's because they know that if they lobby hard enough they'll get what they want whether or not it's good for America. The days when what was good for business is good for America are long gone, if indeed they ever existed.
40
@hen3ry
It’s not corporations. It’s the people who own them. Corporations are abstract.
32
I read Fox News on a daily basis. They aren't reporting on this. Not a whisper. It may or may not be that Trump supporters don't care, but it's certainly the case that if they get all their news from Fox -- which many of them do -- they simply haven't a clue about this.
512
@dtm I get right-wing email all the time, much of which I find amusing (what Republican politician "destroyed" a Democrat on TV today?), but there are a lot of subjects they avoid, and climate change is one that never appears. Apparently they can't come up with a way to blame it on liberals.
66
Unfortunately it's not just Fox news; other major news networks have been inexplicably and woefully remiss in reporting on this issue.
17
I have a neighbor who immerses himself in Fox News. You are correct. They have no clue. I refuse to engage him in political dialogue because he speaks like Trump. A month ago, I broke my rule and told him, in great detail of the damage Trump has done. He kept saying, how do you know that? Where did you hear that? I never knew that. Well...we know why. Here's a fun fact: he has a Mensa card. I told him he needs to return it as he somehow was given it by mistake.
33
I have asthma and allergies. When they jettisoned the incinerator in my neighborhood my breathing got better. As Eastman Kodak’s business waned my breathing got better. When other companies in my area who use chemicals have fallen off my breathing got better. These companies now have free reign to poison us with their deadly chemicals.
The medications I use are not cheap and I use immuno-therapy. There are people so sick that my allergy doctor requests that I wear no scent when I visit his office.
Trump lacks compassion and cruelty is the point. Revenues without measuring the negative externalities is not profitable to society as a whole. It just delays and transfers costs. Polluters have higher profits but the rest of use have higher medical bills.
401
@Mark Smith ...I hear you...just walking along the sidewalk in my neighborhood the vehicle exhaust smell esp. from Diesel Trucks can be overwhelming. Not to mention the noise and eye watering exhaust emitted from landscapers and neighbors operating their backpack leaf blowers and riding mowers used to remove the fallen leaves from the remaining trees that haven't been cut down or succumbed to attacks from Gypsy Moths or the lack of rain over the last few years. Almost no one uses a rake anymore. Polluting more than ever and cutting down trees...not a good combination !!
23
@Mark Smith Trump represents a new gilded class of robber barons, able to buy it's way to cleaner air.
2
@Mark Smith
I know personally American "climate refugees": an email from a long-time friend tells of her and her Berkeley neighbors "sucking ash" from the California fires; of exhaustion from the constant threat of emergency evacuation-of ready suitcases by the door.
Now they are throwing in the smoke-soaked towel, firming up plans to sell out; to flee their life-long home and move to a faraway state in hope of breathing without anxiety and fear.
7
For the life of me I cannot understand the right's obsession with dismantling environmental regulation.
There is nothing "conservative" about pollution. In fact it should be the reverse. Preserving our shared heritage of land, water, clean air is profoundly conservative.
Even from a purely economic perspective there should be nothing "conservative" about allowing companies to externalize their costs while harming others. If I redo my home I cannot dump my construction waste on my neighbor's lawn. I have to pay to have it removed properly. This principle should apply to companies big and small, and there is no earthly reason why the right should object to this, other than simply favoring certain companies at the expense of all of us and of our shared planet.
The pro-pollution party has no business calling itself conservative, and should have no role in a good government.
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@Victor
When you don’t have to clean up after yourself or make sure your workers do what’s needed in a safe environment, your profits increase.
When you don’t have to look over your shoulder anymore and you know that the people you paid have your back and the entire system of justice is there to ensure that you win any lawsuit that is initiated against you, your profits increase.
When you know you have control of state houses and Congress, you know you can do anything you want. You can profit however you wish no matter who gets hurt. You can be a citizen of this nation with none of the responsibility.
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My understanding is that GOP was environmentally friendly until Citizens United SCOTUS decision came out.
22
@Victor
I couldn't help noticing that Krugman fails to mention the first cause suggested in the study -- "Increases in economic activity." And there's the nub.
Given that in the present state of our industry, energy, and transportation stock economic activity will generate some level of air pollution and that eliminating all air pollution will have a cost, the question becomes one of cost-benefit analysis looking toward producing the greatest good for the greatest number.
Failure to address this question makes one a dogmatist or a magical thinker.
N.B. The study used the EPA's $9.1 million life value to come up with its $89 billion losses from 9700 deaths. Not to be "crass" but it should be pointed out that deaths from air pollution skew in the direction of older cohorts, and old people just aren't worth that much* -- not to mention the savings to Medicare and Social Security funds their deaths contribute.
* Per "dialysis standard" -- $129,000 per year of expected life.
9
I think the destruction of democracy is their biggest legacy.
Because the vast majority of Americans who want clean air are denied their voice and their vote.
Because the vast majority of credible scientists and experts clamoring about climate change are denied their concern and urgency.
Because the majority of citizens have had their votes denied, suppressed, rendered meaningless by Republican gaming of the electoral process.
Because healthcare, education, economic security, and now even national security are no more than chimeras bred by Republican nihilism.
Because my daughter and her generation face a brave new world serving wealthy overlords and their corporate minions with any horizon of change receding to infinity.
Pollution may be measured in airborne particulates with chronic health consequences or by the systemic degradation of democratic legitimacy by those who style their crimes against America as the healthy pursuit of self-interest in a marketplace that excludes most of us.
Let's not confuse symptoms with causes.
Or legacy with infamy.
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@Yuri Asian Excellent points, expressed eloquently.
Would you please volunteer to be a speech writer for a Democratic presidential candidate and later, the nominee?
5
@Yuri Asian
EACH aspect of the black-hearted GOP is worse than the other.
Appointing fascist judges is worse than
allowing pollution which is worse than
the corruption of government and societal norms, which is worse than pandering lies,
which is worse than massive income redistribution (upward) which is worse than
appointing fascist judges.
2
@Yuri Asian
Because the Republicans are no longer a legitimate political party representing the will of their constituents. They are a criminal organization that accepts bribes (sorry, contributions) from the largest corporations and wealthiest people, some of whom happen to be American. The citizens united ruling by the fascist wing of the Supreme Court made bribery and secrecy legal.
3
For most Trump/Republican voters these are merely minor side effects, necessary to get to the main goal of appointing judges who will rule the RIGHT way on abortion cases. All else is of no importance. Education, health care, environment, international relations are all being destroyed by the Republicans under Trump. But the judiciary is groomed to do the RIGHT thing.
54
Abortion & Gay Marriage is a ruse to get the religious right behind these judges. The real aim is to get corporatists on the benches giving corporations a free rein to do as they wish.
1
Under Trump regimen, the department which is supposed to protect the people, has transformed into Environmental Destruction Agency. Hurricanes, tornados and floods are the norm in our life today. But, Trump is busy serving the deep state, sponsor of his reelection and fake propaganda machine. A clueless morally bankrupt creature, Trump has no understanding of the seriousness of environmental crisis. For example, he promotes coal, the worst air polluter. Alas, coal energy cannot survive in the market place because of other cheaper alternates such as natural gas. But, he is forcing utilities to buy coal subsidized by the tax payers. If he truly cared for them, he could come up with alternate employment training programs. The list goes on. The rules for air and water quality have been greatly compromised. It does not make any difference to him that he is destroying the future livelihoods and well being of our children, including his. Not sure, how much money from the deep state is going into his Swiss accounts.
4
Mr. Krugman, I have huge respect for your analytic capabilities so I’m discouraged that you, too, have been persuaded that nuclear power is a necessary part of addressing climate change. Please consult with Peter Bradford or Gregory Jaczko, two former NRC commissioners; Mark Jacobson, Director of the Atmosphere/Energy Program at Stanford; Amory Lovins, a physicist and chief scientist at the Rocky Mountain Institute; Ed Lyman, a physicist at the Union of Concerned Scientists; Arjun Makhijani, a nuclear engineer and president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research; Mark Cooper, an economic analyst at the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School; MV Ramana, a physicist at the University of British Columbia; Mycle Schneider, an energy advisor to the European Parliament. All of these experts, and many more, have concluded that nuclear energy will take too long to ramp up, is too costly, and too unsafe to make a contribution to addressing climate change. Furthermore, it diverts resources away from more effective and viable solutions.
9
I don't wish to contradict, but fine particulate matter just isn't the biggest issue. It's horrible, okay, but how do you live long enough to suffer the long term effects of particulate matter if the global climate change predictions become reality? Every indication right now is that the predictions are conservative.
When climate patterns have changed to the point that coastal areas are underwater, when the seas have died, when the breadbaskets can no longer produce enough food, when we are fighting each other for sustenance and shelter, which hospital are you going to check into for lung disease?
10,000 extra deaths from particulate matter per year is absurdly irrelevant.
It's just a different emergency than you are focusing on here.
11
True, a Democratic President can start to reverse Trump’s destruction of the environment on January 20, 2021. But not only will the Federalist Society judiciary block these changes at least for a while but the are likely to hold that the government must pay damages if the environment is protected.
17
Thank you, it’s history that’s suddenly out of our hands. I think Trump’s legacy will include an educated horror of the power of the Executive Branch.
9
It is interesting that the advent of the Tea Party way back when seems to have been the moment when politicians stopped caring about the people who actually put them in power. The tea party theater of ultra religiosity led to a Congress that began thinking only of themselves and their re-election bids as if God had given permission for them to do whatever they wanted without regard to those who put them office. Perhaps that Gingrich-led upheaval resulted in a marriage of politicians to money and power to an extent perhaps never before seen. Now that Republicans have what they wanted, it's OK to throw Americans under the bus of an increasingly unlivable environment. They have their bubbles.
23
It seems to me that this is trump and the Republican party’s way of population control. Recognizing that the planet cannot sustain 7 billion people let alone the 11 billion projected, the republicans figure that they need to brake the population. What better way than pollution and it benefits the super wealthy too.
6
@Ski bum
"....the republicans figure that they need to brake the population"
If you throw in lax gun regulation, gutted budgets for the EPA, CDC, Public Safety and State Department diplomacy departments, along with a shuttered research policy and an information media shackled to commercial advertising money... well, you've got a winning formula for culling an inconvenient population.
And there's plenty more ways to reduce our numbers - the sky's the limit when you remove our government's mandate to serve the American people.
*All* the people living in America.
1
Republicans show they have no idea how to have capitalism and a good environment. Even though they have seen it done. It is time for them to get out of the way for those of us who know how to do it and some who have already been doing it. If their CEOs and CExs can't figure out how to pay people a living wage and have a good environment, we need to fire them for those willing to try and those who have. If CEOs and CExs won't pay their fair share of taxes, let's get some who can.
10
I have yet to see a case made by the anti-nature crowd as to how the US is worse off from the last 50 years of improving environmental quality.
24
Krugman makes a very important point. However, he shouldn't dismiss the destructive effects on the fight against climate change as a "long-term" existential threat. The effects of climate change are here now and there will be many others in the short-term and catastrophic ones in the long-term (meaning 20 years at most). Trump's actions exacerbating climate change are a crime against humanity and for this alone he deserves impeachment and removal from office.
38
@engaged observer. If Trump is engaged in a crime against humanity, we should expect climate change true believers like almost every Dem presidential candidate immediately after being elected to declare war on China and other countries pumping far more CO2 into the atmosphere than the US does. And as we enter year two of some record shattering cold weather, it suggests that we will soon look back at history and discover that sometimes it’s hot (1930s and 1950s), sometimes it’s cold (1890, 1940s and 1960s & 70s) and sometimes, like now, it’s hot and cold.
@ehillesum I agree with your comment about China as the US can't solve the problem alone. But we can show leadership. Your comments about the temperature are misguided. Climate change impacts far more than the temperature although the temperature has been increasing over time. I suggest you do a little research on the matter.
22
Only China exceeds the US in CO2 emissions. India follows the US. Both China and India are moving aggressively to reduce CO2 emissions — more aggressively than the US. China is rapidly decommissioning coal-fired power plants (though unfortunately building them in other countries). India’s largest utility has stopped building coal-fired power plants, now building renewables.
A policy in which the US aggressively manages CO2 emissions puts us in a position to negotiate trade and other agreements which require countries that import products to the US to adopt similar policies or to absorb tariff penalties.
10
Trump and the GOP, don't let them off the hook here, are destroying the environment AND the judiciary, which is where much of the good change we've seen originated. It will take generations to undo. If we live that long...
41
"Why is this happening?" It's easy to understand. The powerful are rich from their destructive practices and can insulate themselves from the brunt of the consequences that are borne by the lower unworthy. They have bought critical masses in the government and the media, packed the courts and convinced enough people that they are actually looking out for their interests.
"When the axe came into the woods, man of the trees said - At least the handle is one of us."
14
Excellent work by Dr. Krugman yet again, but I want to argue a bit with the idea that the climate change issue is long term.
One, climate change is terrible and we need to undertake dramatic changes to have a hope of survival of more than just a few generations;
Two, the current impacts are already obvious and severe.
This is just not something the world can afford to put off any longer, and no amount of money will shield anybody from it. Or will it?
Here's a thought: whole-house air conditioning that pumps huge amounts of filthy air through massive filters and dumps the waste back into the atmosphere. You'd have to be very rich to enjoy much of that for long, and you'll die sooner without it.
Now what's to stop that from happening? Is the gated community going to become a series of immense domes with clean air and water? Will you be able to afford to live inside one? Would you even want to?
14
The visible plume in the picture of the stack used for the article is condensed water vapor not smoke. Definitely pollutant emissions in there and I’m ok with being critical of environmental protection policies, but the visible stuff is water from the wet gas scrubber air pollution control device. If that was truly smoke you’d have something seriously wrong with the boiler. Not likely.
3
@Lester Keel. It’s hard to take environmental doom and gloom stories seriously when they don’t know the difference between smoke and water vapor.
2
@Lester Keel: I'm immensely relieved that the visible emissions are only water vapor. Do I have to worry about any emissions that are not readily visible?
1
I wonder if the $89 billion figure also tracks the costs of long-term health damage due to pollution. There is increasingly research on autoimmune development due to early exposure to pollution.
12
An increase in air pollution, after years of decrease, is just one of the many detrimental effects of the Trump presidency. While the impeachment is certainly important, it is also important to publicize all these behind the scenes changes. One way or another, Trump will be gone some day but the damage he is doing to our environment will need to be corrected. As will all the other damages he has done to our country.
23
Its corporate welfare.
Oil and Gas industry would be in big trouble if they had to pay for the future cost of climate disruption.
But they get this for free.
104
@may21ok
"Oil and Gas industry would be in big trouble if they had to pay for the future cost of climate disruption. "
Plus the millions of dollars the government gives them in subsidies, tax breaks (depletion allowances, etc.) and the use of public lands for a mere token. We subsidize these and still pay them at the pump for their polluting substances.
Sick. Hopefully, in my lifetime we will begin moving away from gas/diesel-powered cars into electric ones run by the solar-powered grid. But I doubt it. Maybe my grandchildren, or great-grandchildren will see it,
4
Somebody with lots of resources should do a study of the cost in dollars, resources and lives that the Republican Party has run up. I bet it would be monumental. The sad fact is that one group of people--a minority--has brought about more suffering, loss and death over the past 40 years than all the wars we have fought during that time.
34
Krugman's spot on—"follow the money." It's as simple as that. Too often in the Appalachian coal fields (Kentucky, Virgina and West Vurginia), those put in charge of environmental protection too often come from the industries they have to police. Trump has taken this inmate-in-charge-of-the-asylum to the federal level. If state regulators in the coal region failed to act in the past, at least we had the EPA. No more—not only for the present and future but, if the new scary science rules come to fruition, fifty years of advances in clean air and clean water will be at risk.
Follow the money—it leads to Republican state and federal legislators and executives.
72
Something like 60% of lung cancer is diagnosed in people who never smoked. What is happening is something that individuals cannot control by themselves. We need to organize, vote and march, and engage in a nationwide strike when Trump and his Republican allies refuse to accept the results of the election. Mark my words, it's coming.
22
Your figures are wrong:
“It has been estimated that active smoking is responsible for close to 90 percent of lung cancer cases; radon causes 10 percent, occupational exposures to carcinogens account for approximately 9 to 15 percent and outdoor air pollution 1 to 2 percent. Because of the interactions between exposures, the combined attributable risk for lung cancer can exceed 100 percent.”
https://www.lung.org/lung-health-and-diseases/lung-disease-lookup/lung-cancer/resource-library/lung-cancer-fact-sheet.html (look under “Other Causes”)
@Eero "Mark my words, it's coming."
You would think so. It has to be inevitable, right? There is alot of dumb in America though.....................
Air pollution, particulates in particular, have been identified as a major cause of morbidity and mortality would wide. There is extensive epidemiologic and pathologic evidence for air pollution as a cause of vascular disease (coronary artery disease /stroke)and respiratory disease. There have been recent studies linking it to Alzheimer’s disease and even renal disease. I have seen estimates of 70,000 extra deaths per year in the U.S. alone. This may be an underestimate. We spend trillions fighting wars over things that kill a tiny fraction of this number of people. Meanwhile, rather than investing in cleaner forms of energy, we deregulate coal plants and loosen restrictions on exhaust emissions. Does this make sense? What an I missing here?
46
Trump is in the pocket of the resource extraction industries. These companies make huge amounts of money for the owners and little money for their employees. They are heavily mechanized and automated, further reducing the need for employees. These are usually legacy companies with deep roots from the past, a past that Trump seeks to revive, at the expense of future industries that the rest fo the word is heavily investing in. The Chinese would be at the top of that list.
But there is another reason, a political one. As those who read these comments frequently have observed, many readers have reported that interactions with Trump supporters have led them to believe that any policy that makes liberals' heads explode is one they heartily support. Environmental issues are mainline liberal issues that they are highly passionate about. That's why Trump is on a rampage of environmental destruction. It's divide and conquer. Except Trump doesn't realize or want to understand that his conquests are burning down his own house.
252
We must get money out of politics before we have a chance of reversing pollution. Paul Krugman is correct. Money talks. As long as corporations can give "campaign contributions" to elected officials we will not be able to clean up the environment. Trump is a symptom, not the disease. The disease is an excess of money in our political system. Dark money, super PACs, and Citizens United must be reversed so that we can prevent global warming and clean up the environment
Join makeitfair.us. Look up the American Anticorruption Act. Get Involved.
If We Work Together We Can Make a Difference.
63
On climate change, I think something is missing in this analysis. We will find that Trump in his way welcomes climate change (while simultaneously denying human causation on absurd grounds) because climate change introduces many different kinds of chaos, which will provide more and more justification for autocratic leadership. That’s an environment in which he (and many a demagogue) thrives. I think many Republicans sense the same thing and thus show little concern and secretly welcome the era of climate chaos.
17
@Descendent of Breck
in the mind of an aberrant gangster: "Chaos is opportunity."
this is a virtue of all the 'ruling class'/titans of industry.
Pompeo himself cheered on the melting Arctic ice in order to open new shipping lanes, no doubt a thought installed by his corporate masters.
1
@Descendent of Breck
I am quite sure they are not that smart.
One of the brain cells deep in my hippocampus has Tom Lehrer's "Pollution" playing on a loop. It's as relevant today as it was nearly 60 years ago when he wrote it.
30
Thanks, @Jeff. I had forgotten that song, but it certainly fits with Republican shenanigans and, especially, with the Trump regime.
6
Trump could learn a lot by reading The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. Unfortunately, he has made it abundantly clear that he does not like to read. Maybe someone could find a copy … and read it to him?
Trump knows that he will not be on this planet forever. So he just lives in the moment, concerned only about his own personal needs.
We should be wary about electing any person like that. We should instead want politicians who care deeply about the country and those who live in it.
Perhaps we will elect a president like that again, sometime in the foreseeable future?
We can always dream.
22
@Blue Moon : Don't just dream -- make it happen!
Volunteer *now* with your local Democratic party, or something progressive like Indivisible. Start working *now* to ensure that voters are registered and have transportation to the polls. Canvass. Raise money.
Work on local elections, too, so that your statehouse is blue -- no more gerrymandering that has put an artificial GOP majority in the US House too often.
10
In the not too distant dystopian future, I envision the super rich polluters all decked out with designer gas masks, discreetly placed oxygen canisters and otherwise self contained environments, giving a whole new meaning to "billionaires in their bubbles. The rest of us, meanwhile, will die prematurely. Isn't that the whole plan?
It's as though Trump and his environmental destruction agency are throwing every child in America a carton of cigarettes the way he threw paper towels to the hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rican people.
Since all our lungs are being damaged, not to mention all the cancers and other diseases that this added pollution will cause, is all the more reason to demand Medicare For All along with a Green New Deal. There is no going back to anywhere near normal unless we take drastic steps, now, to ameliorate the damage to all life that the Capitalocene epoch has already caused.
A new survey has 13 percent of respondents reporting that at least one of their relatives or friends had died because they couldn't afford medical care. I think the real number is more and getting higher all the time.
Meanwhile, corporate Democratic scolds like Biden have the chutzpah to call those demanding health care as a basic human right "purists."
The real purists aren't the social and climate justice advocates, but the Ideologues who exalt the Market as a public good at the same very time they attack the public good with such a self-righteous vengeance vengeance.
189
@Karen Garcia
Don't forget... We have the likes of former Senator McCaskill pontificating to the left masses on MSNBC when her very first vote in 2017 after Trump's inauguration, was to allow the relaxation of water regulations for coal companies. She wasn't the only Democrat who voted with Mitch McConnell's GOP.
Centrists are nothing more than moderate Republicans without a political party to operate from.
124
@Karen Garcia what you envision as a dystopian future already exists in the form of guarded gated communities.
1
@Rima Regas
And this is how we end up with Trump!
The irony is that utility companies are probably eager to dump their coal plants due to the cost of operating and maintaining these big honking buildings, paying for staff, taxes and all kinds of other overhead. Easier to contract with a wind farm and just pay for the power. Its the same reason you don't hear them clamoring for new nukes or major dams.
13
We are victims of the political economy, Dr. K., as evinced in your words:
"Indeed, modern environmental protection began under none other than Richard Nixon, and retired E.P.A. officials I’ve talked to describe the Nixon era as a golden age.
And Republicans continued to show at least some concern for the environment even after the party began to take a hard right turn. President Ronald Reagan signed a treaty to protect the ozone layer. The threat of acid rain was contained via a program enacted by President George H.W. Bush."
These words reflect the rise of political partisanship which is driven entirely by donors and the lobbying industry, whose very existence depends on taking the opposite position of Dems - whether that position be nonsensical lying or not, it has to be opposition for the funding industry to raise monies and have livelihoods.
The un-tethering of GOPers' policy positions from factual reality, research and scientific analysis as a result of such donor maintenance started out as just political gamesmanship which no one believed - it has metastasized to consume not just the GOP, but now threatens our democracy itself, since tribalism has GOP'ers accepting anything which maintains the power of their party's leader.
Anything at all; and to make things perfectly clear, their leader brags about how he leads them around by the nose.
108
Relaxed standards are being proposed for emissions of lead, mercury and arsenic from older power plants just so that the old plants do not have to be replaced by new lower emission plants. None of these elements is good for your health. There will be deaths of actual real human beings as consequence. The trade off is that some already rich people will get richer.
The only thing the Republicans apparently care about now a days is to stay in power. Duty to country, protection of the environment, worship of right wing dictators, honesty, integrity all of this is irrelevant aside from the desire to maintain power.
I am disgusted with the likes of Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, Jim Jordan, and all the harsh Tea Party Republicans who, unchecked, will burn our temple of a democracy to the ground in their lust for their own narrow interests.
30