51吃瓜

Hey, who knows? It could be the Gulf Stream or the planet eternally breaking heat records. But whatever the specifics, we鈥檙e living it right now, not in the next century, the next decade or even next year.

You couldn鈥檛 miss it鈥攁t least so you might think鈥攊f you were living in the , especially in broiling, with of temperatures above 110 degrees Fahrenheit; or in or western China on the day the temperature hit degrees Fahrenheit or sweltering, blazing Algeria when the temperature reached an almost unimaginable ; not to speak of broiling Canada with its now burning (a figure that still seems to be rising by the week) and its already flamed out. Don鈥檛 forget Italy鈥檚 ; or Florida鈥檚 seawater, which recently hit an unheard-of . This past July has set the record for the hottest month in history. And don鈥檛 assume that record will stand for long, either.

Who even remembers that this June was the hottest since records have been kept or that July 6th was the in recorded history (and July 3rd through 6th, the hottest four days ever)? if 2023 ends up setting a record for the hottest year, and don鈥檛 assume that such a record will last long on a planet where the previous eight years were the warmest ever. And if I鈥檓 already boring you, then one thing is guaranteed: you鈥檙e going to be bored out of your mind in the years to come.

And with all that鈥檚 burning across significant parts of southern Europe, northern Africa, Canada and elsewhere, yet more carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere, preparing the way for a truly scorching world to come. Just keep in mind that, by the time this piece is published, I could undoubtedly produce a startling new paragraph or two of updated, overheated horrors to send your way.

Yes, as UN Secretary-General Ant贸nio Guterres recently put it, the era of 鈥済lobal warming鈥� should be considered over, since we鈥檙e at the beginning of a time of 鈥済lobal boiling.鈥� And as you sit there sweating and reading this, if that doesn鈥檛 strike you as extreme, consider something else: fossil-fuel companies are still bringing in (even if poor Shell鈥檚 second-quarter profits in 2023 were down to a mere $5.1 billion) as they鈥攜es!鈥� their oil and natural gas operations globally.

Can you blame them? After all, the companies whose executives have what their products would do to this planet and even sometimes responded by funding think tanks that promoted climate change denial have little choice but (if you鈥檒l excuse the phrase) to cover their assets. Meanwhile, China, at the of the alternative energy boom now underway, also last year to build two new coal plants a week on average (while than the rest of the planet combined).

Environmental extremism

Now, tell me that you鈥檙e not sweating at least a little and that we don鈥檛 live on an increasingly extreme planet. And just to add a cheery note to that, check out blistering Texas. El Paso more than 41 days in a row of temperatures at or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (just short of鈥攜es, Ron!鈥擬iami at 45 while I was writing this). However, Texas鈥檚 Republican-controlled legislature is now striving to that state鈥檚 remarkable advances in solar and wind power while raising their cost, even as many of its members push for public investment in the construction of new natural gas plants (which, as a recent study , could prove as greenhouse-gas dirty as coal).

Just remind me: What planet are they living on?

If, however, you truly want to see American extremism up close and personal, don鈥檛 even bother to check out Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, who charmingly enough launched his now-faltering presidential campaign by the 鈥減oliticization of the weather.鈥� Under the circumstances, I know you won鈥檛 be faintly surprised to learn that he had previously rejected the very idea of climate change as 鈥渓eftwing stuff.鈥� (Of course, if the left turns out to be our future, then maybe he鈥檒l prove to be 鈥� oh, my gosh, so sorry, but what other word can I use than 鈥渞ight鈥�?)

No, skip Ron. After all, if you don鈥檛 happen to live in Florida, he couldn鈥檛 be more skippable. Look instead at Donald Trump. Yes, our ( and , as it is) former president and (鈥�!鈥�) aspiring autocrat, who shows of once again becoming the 鈥淩epublican鈥� candidate for president.

Were he indeed to become that and then鈥攁lso 鈥攚in the 2024 election and end up back in the White House, the extremeness of the world we could find ourselves in might be almost beyond imagining. We鈥檙e talking about the guy who claimed that, when it comes to climate change, its full effect 鈥攗h-oh!鈥攖hat 鈥渢he ocean will rise by 1/100th of an inch over the next 350 years.鈥� (Actually, if global temperature rise is kept to 2 degrees Celsius, the sea level near Mar-a-Lago would be expected to rise three feet by 2150, a mere 3,500 times the former president鈥檚 estimate in half the time鈥攁nd that鈥檚 if we don鈥檛 truly turn out to be on a climate-boiling planet.)

Of course, should Donald Trump win not just the Republican nomination but the 2024 election, this sweltering country will have put someone back in the White House who has spent his political career mocking the very idea of global warming and supporting to the hilt the production of fossil fuels. His administration reversed, rolled back or wiped out environmental rules and regulations, many related to climate change, including 鈥淥bama-era limits on planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and from cars and trucks,鈥� according to the New York Times. Meanwhile, he appointed cabinet members who the very idea of global warming.

And, by the way, if you want to measure the mad extremism of Republicans today, try to recall a once-upon-a-time era when they had a outlook than Democrats. (It鈥檚 easy to forget that it was the otherwise lamentable Republican President Richard Nixon whose administration the Environmental Protection Agency.) If you want to measure the extremism of what can hardly be called the Republican鈥攁s opposed to Trumpublican鈥擯arty of 2023, the positions on climate change of most of its possible presidential candidates.

If, in fact, you want a gauge of how extreme this country has already become in this century, just stop and think for a moment about the fact that, as of now, few polling professionals believe a 2024 Biden-Trump election wouldn鈥檛 prove a . That should make you sweat a little more.

Be there, will be wild!

On this sweltering planet of ours, Donald Trump and his Trumpublicans should indeed be considered up-close-and-personal versions of American extremism. Yes, in 2016, Trump won the election by catching the mood of all too many voters with the slogan, 鈥淢ake America Great Again!鈥� or MAGA! (exclamation point included). As I at the time, 鈥淲ith that 鈥榓gain,鈥� Donald Trump crossed a line in American politics that, until his escalator moment, represented a kind of psychological taboo for politicians of any stripe, of either party.鈥� And with his , he added another unforgettable slogan: 鈥淎merica First.鈥� (鈥淔rom this moment on, it鈥檚 going to be America First,鈥� he insisted.)

But America first? Today, don鈥檛 make me laugh. Donald Trump is, of course, running for president as the potential leader of a party that now bears to the Republican Party of the not-so-distant past, and he鈥檚 doing so not on an America First but on a Me-First ticket against a crew of other candidates, most of whom have either rejected outright or simply ignored the very idea that there might be a climate crisis on planet Earth.

In such a state, Trump could become the Me-First candidate of all time and, for him, especially in climate terms, it鈥檚 undoubtedly America 19th. Or do I mean 29th or 129th or 1,029th?

Now, I hardly want to claim that President Joe Biden is the perfect anti-climate-broiling candidate. Still, give him credit. He and a Democratic Congress did , which represented significant climate legislation that, in the years to come, will put hundreds of billions of dollars into reducing American fossil-fuel use and so help cut US greenhouse gas emissions in significant ways. In addition, unlike the Trumpublicans, he at least about Americans living through a heat emergency (though the present Congress will let him do all too little about it).

Still, being the politician he is, despite pledging 鈥渘o more drilling on federal lands, period, period, period鈥� in his 2020 election campaign, he to say no when it came to the new ConocoPhillips Willow Project on federal land in Arctic Alaska (already among the fastest warming places on Earth). It鈥檚 slated to produce鈥攈old your hats!鈥攁lmost 600 million barrels of oil over the next three decades. Nor could he do so when it came to the completion of Senator Joe Manchin鈥檚 baby, the West Virginia Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline that (and only recently the as well) in what鈥檚 distinctly too much of a Me-First (or at least fossil-fuel-producing companies first) world even without Donald Trump.

But count on one thing: the Donald himself is no longer living on this planet of ours鈥攜ou know, the one more than Americans were under heat advisory alerts and 250 million to 275 million of us faced heat indexes of at least (and do put the emphasis on that 鈥渁t least鈥�) 90 degrees Fahrenheit. He now exists on one that鈥檚 sprung directly from what passes for his imagination. Forget the extremist positions he and so many of his followers (not to speak of his Republican presidential opponents) hold on everything from abortion and what books school libraries can contain to what鈥檚 gender acceptable (not much) in this all-American world of ours.

The crucial thing here is that, in the Me-First world that鈥檚 him all the way鈥攅ven one that could, in the end, leave this country in the dust of climate and history鈥攐ne thing is guaranteed: were he to make it back into the White House, the future would be Me-First all the way to鈥� well, either the bank or the outhouse. And he and his advisors are making no secret of that fact.

Thanks to by Jonathan Swan, Charlie Savage and Maggie Haberman of the New York Times, we already know that, were they to make it back into the White House, they would be intent on instantly enhancing the powers of his presidency by concentrating 鈥渇ar greater authority in his hands鈥� and altering 鈥渢he balance of power by increasing the president鈥檚 authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House.鈥� And they are already openly discussing all of this more than a year before the 2024 election.

In other words, Donald Trump is intent on winning the power to create, at best, a Hungarian version of 鈥渄emocracy鈥� here in America that, make no mistake, would help add more than three feet of sea-level rise to the area of Florida near Mar-a-Lago. As for the rest of us, if you鈥檙e hot now, just wait for the return of the Donald鈥檚 Me-First World. Believe me, you don鈥檛 know nothin鈥� yet when it comes to heat. Be there, will be wild!

[ first published this piece.]

[ edited this piece.]

The views expressed in this article are the author鈥檚 own and do not necessarily reflect 51吃瓜鈥檚 editorial policy.