13 December 2018

A Bicycle Mayor And An American In Denial

The United States is the most technologically advanced nation in the history of the world.  Aspiring scientists come here for training and research opportunities that far exceed those of any other country. 

Yet we have a President who, essentially, says those scientists don't know what they're talking about.  Of the recent report on global warming, which he claims to have read, he says, "I don't believe it."


I guess I shouldn't be surprised that my native country would elect such a person:  After all, we have more people--and a larger percentage of our population--who deny evolution, insist that the Book of Genesis tells the literal truth of our origins, assert that the Earth is 6000 years old and even believe that there were dinosaurs on Noah's Ark--than any other "advanced" country!

I suppose that something else shouldn't surprise me:  Wells Griffith, El Cheeto Grande's "adviser" on energy and climate, stood before an audience in Katowice, Poland and touted fossil fuels as the solution to our problems.

Now, Poland still burns a lot of coal, basically for the same reasons other countries use it:  It's cheap, and they have a lot of it.  But even there, as in other European countries, there is a consensus among leaders and everyday citizens that such a practice can't continue if, well, they want to have Katowice, Poland or this planet for themselves, their children or their grandchildren.

What also makes Griffith's pronouncement particularly tone-deaf (I guess I can't fault him for losing his hearing when he works for the shrillest President we've ever had!)  is that in Katowice, a summit dubbed "Paris 2.0" was in session.  And he audience he addressed was part of it.

That conference is a follow-up to the Paris Climate Agreement of three years ago.  Our previous President, Barack Obama, was one of the leaders in the effort to get nations all over the world to agree to reduce their emissions dramatically.  Most of the other signatories to the Paris agreement are still on board with it. But now we have a President who wants nothing more than to build a wall--as if it would keep out people who want to come to this country any more than it would keep countries and people--including citizens of the country he wants to seal off--from bringing environmentally sound practices into their homes, workplaces and other aspects of their lives.


Grzegorz Mikrut


Oh, and while he's cycling through advisers and cabinet ministers (Maybe that's why the unemployment rate is so low:  Look at all the vacancies he's created!), Katowice appointed someone to an office that exists in cities like Amsterdam, Sydney and Sao Paolo.  Meet Grzegorz Mikrut, the Bicycle Mayor of Katowice. 


Anna Luten of Amsterdam, the world's first "Bicycle Mayor"


Fitting, isn't it?, that he should assume this post just as a representative of the US is channeling his boss's denial of science--and common sense.


5 comments:

  1. https://www.pjstar.com/news/20180110/coal-barons-action-plan-became-trump-policy-initiatives

    Chump is just a puppet for this idiot who through is ignorance and greed wants to damage the planet. He got al the lead scientists out of your FDA and replaced them whin the lead lobbyists for the polluting fossil fuelers.

    They played the American voters for the fools that they are and when you had a chance to show disgust at having such a clown as head of state you passed it up.

    Your Congress, this week, showed surprise that when they Googled "idiot" an image of Chump came up and not their own!

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  2. What other country than ours would waste a bazillion board-feet of prime lumber building a replica of an ark that never existed and then putting a theme park around it?

    As for Donald Pumpkinhead and his toadies Mr Mikrut might as well save his logical arguments and go with "it's the bicycle stupid!".

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  3. Coline--I think it was Mark Twain who said that America has never had a home-grown criminal class except for Congress. That they kowtow to Trump as much as they do is proof of that.

    Phillip--You know who the bigger suckers are? The ones who spend time and money to go to that park. At least Walt Disney never presented Mickey Mouse or the Little Mermaid as anything but the fictions that they are. Would that Ken Ham could do the same! Then again, would anyone go to see an ark if they knew the story is fiction--and not even particularly good fiction, at that.

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    1. It would be great fun to see if the damn thing floats though!🙂

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  4. Phillip--That would be fun, wouldn't it?

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