Trump Administration's Obnoxiousness With Greenland Is Tacit Acknowledgment Of Climate Change

The United States is again making dumb noises about
annexing Greenland, diplomacy and legality be
damned. While the Trump administration denies
climate change exists, this whole mess
is largely about climate change. 

Greenland is back in the news again, as the Trump Administration is ramping up its efforts to take control of the big Arctic ice heap.  It's a move that practically nobody else wants other that Donald Trump and his not-so-merry band of MAGA cultists. 

One irony is that Donald Trump denies the existence of climate change, yet that very real warming of the planet is a big part of what's behind all this. 

To back up here, Trump last week appointed Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry as his envoy to Greenland. Landry said he would travel to Greenland to convince people living there to become part of the United States. 

Good luck with that. 

Greenland is a self-governing Danish territory. Officials in Greenland, Denmark and the European Union unanimously condemned Trump effort to annex Greenland.  A big majority of Greenlanders want increased independence from Denmark, but they really, really don't want to become part of the U.S.

Somebody from MAGA always says the quiet part out loud, and the ever-reliable Fox host Brian Kilmeade gave us this:

"Greenland has been ignored by Denmark for decades. Now they're not, because we have shown interest. They have about 60,000 people there and we have a huge military base. Look, we are going to need their natural resources to mine them - you'll (Denmark) be able to get some of that. But in the meantime, we have to expand our base there and access to the waterways, because the Arctic is melting and we need access there. 

Russia and China is (sic) trying to dominate. Plus, what are we in, the era of the Viking? What is Denmark doing in our backyard?"

Phew! There's a lot to unpack there. Our "need" for natural resources, as if we could just go in and take them.  Sure, Donald Trump said we need Greenland for security, not minerals. But it's about the minerals as much as it is about security. Especially in the sense of  how much money the grifters associated with Trump can make from exploiting Greenland.  

Kilmeade seems to think it's horrible that puny little Greenland wants to control its own future and puny little Denmark should have the gaul to be in control of Denmark.

Greenland is in our backyard, since it's hooked on to North America. Trump is like the homeowner who sees a ball accidentally thrown into his yard by neighborhood kids. He's the type that would keep the ball instead of throwing it back over to the kids. 

CLIMATE CONNECTION

But since this is a climate and weather blog, there's one piece in Kilmeade's screed that I want to focus on. It's where he said "the Arctic is melting."

I thought all the MAGA types deny human-caused climate change. They say it's a hoax. So why is the Arctic melting? It's true that Greenland is pretty steadily losing some of its massive ice cap to a warming world. 

Maybe Kilmeade will sputter that the climate changes "naturally," but how do you explain such a massive melt that developed over decades, not centuries like most of Earth's past episodes of natural warming and cooling?

Ultimately Trump's one-sided crush on Greenland is about the climate change that he publicly denies exists. 

As Al Jazeera tells us:

"Climate change and a rapidly melting ice sheet are the main reasons the Arctic has become a geopolitical hotspot

The Arctic is heating at a rate four times faster than the global average, increasing its accessibility for maritime trade routes and resource exploration - including by non-arctic countries as well as those with an Arctic presence. 

China has deployed vessels capable of serving both military surveillance and research functions in the region. The purposes are to collect data and secure access to resources and shipping lanes, which are emerging as a result of melting ice."

In addition, Russia is deploying missile systems and weapons testing in the Arctic, and has grown its naval presence near the top of the world. Canada is planning to shore up its military and diplomatic presence in the Arctic because of those Chinese and Russian moves in and near Greenland. 

So the security risk is real, but as usual, Trump's bluster, lies and utter untrustworthiness is botching it. 

Russia and Chinese military and espionage geeks are undoubtedly loving all of this.

What probably would have made a lot more sense was to light a fire under the European Union over the Arctic security threats, then negotiate some sort of alliance involving Denmark, the U.S. and other European nations as a counterweight to Russian and Chinese threats in Greenland and elsewhere in the Arctic.  

But nope! Trump just has to be a clownish bully to appease his own fragile ego and the expense of the rest of the world. 

For years we've been told that a warming planet would make political, social and military conflicts more likely. It's too bad Trump is working os hard in aiding and abetting the "hoax' climate change to make all that happen sooner and more dangerously than most of us thought.   

Trump Administration Tries Mob-Like Tactics To Try Stopping Shipping Efficiency Standards, Of All Things.

Trump administration officials used what were basically
mob-like tactics to scuttle a propose international
green/climate change fighting shipping accord. 

A November 3 Politico article illustrates just how scary efforts to combat climate change are to the Team Trump. 

They're resorting to methods that you'd almost see in a bad mobster movie. 

First, the background: 

As I posted at the end of August, the International Maritime Organization is negotiating a "net-zero framework" for shipping, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions form the international shipping center. 

The IMO, which has 176 member countries, regulates the safety and security if international shipping and works to prevent pollution on the oceans and seas.  

The  U.S.under Trump wants no part of clean shipping deal, because Trump thinks climate change is a "hoax" and emissions regulations are just aimed at wrecking the U.S. economy. 

Trump world thinks that, but pretty much nobody else. Whatevs. 

Back in August, we learned that Trump was strong arming countries who supported the proposed agreement. At the time, he was using his usual tariff threats. 

Now, according to Politico, it's gotten way worse. 

"Eight envoys, officials and civil society observers from Europe, granted anonymity to describe the fractious closed-door discussions and protect their relationships with those involved confirmed national delegates had reported they had been threatened with personal consequences if they went against Washington."

'Our negotiators had never see this before in any international talks,' said one European official, who had spoken to negotiators. 'People being summoned to the U.S. Embassy in London - intimidation, threats of cessation of business, threats of family members losing visas."

I'm sure any international negotiations over commerce -  or anything else for that matter  - often get tense, and we never hear about it. 

But this had to be especially bad if negotiators are willing to talk to the media, even if they do it anonymously. 

Given these are Trump people, the U.S. delegation didn't abandon tariff threats, no siree They threatened Caribbean nations with tariffs mules they agreed to postpone the shipping emissions decision, Politico reported.  

U.S. officials basically admitted this weird, excessive pressure in an October 10 press release from the State Department.

The threats in the press release against nations that sign on to the green shipping agreement include barring ships from those nations from U.S. ports; imposing visa restrictions and increasing fees on maritime crew member visas; imposing additional port fees on ships owned, operated and flagged by countries supporting the agreement; and imposing sanctions on officials supporting these climate policies.

That last one gets me. Sanctions on individuals are usually used on war criminals, or at least adjacent to war criminals. You know, like Russian oligarchs promoting the war against Ukraine, that type of thing. 

The State Department press release also labeled the planned accord as an "unsanctioned global tax regime."

What it really would have been is the first global carbon-pricing system. It would have charted ships $380 per metric ton of every extra to of CO2 equivalent they emit. Vessels would have been rewarded for reducing their emissions. 

Notice I'm referring to this thing in the past tense. 

That's because ultimately, the Trump administration's mob tactics worked, at least for now

As Politco reports:

"In a close vote, the summit chose to delay the emissions tax for a year - a feat viewed by many as a near-death blow to the measure and a major victory for Trump. Dozens of countries from Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia agreed to the delay." 

Short term, these strong-arm tactics from the Trump team worked. In the long run, they rarely do. Nations just find a way to work around the United States. That cuts us out of future negotiating and economic power. 

Eventually, individuals, governments, you name it come to understand that Trump's aggressiveness is not strength, but weakness. 

If Trump thinks he's turning us into more of a superpower than ever, he's mistaken. Instead, he's turning the U.S. into a backwater.