The global community may as well understand the motive behind Trump's withdrawal from the climate agreement. Greed.

This was a non-decision and completely immoral. The so-called decision by Trump was made long before the announcement; it was made before his election.

While Jeff Judson and Willie Soon believe they are qualified to comment on the deadly trend of Earth's climate, I haven't found Gilbert Garcia. The link with the article took me to an obituary page of many Gilbert Garcias. (click here) So, it is difficult to defend or critique Gilbert if I can't read his work.

But, I can still comment on the article/opinion paper.

June 11, 2017

By Jeff Judson and Willie Soon

As a policy analyst and atmospheric scientist, (click here) we felt the need to respond to Gilbert Garcia’s recent column attacking U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith’s “anti-science” support for President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, or PCA.

Smith is right to oppose PCA, which has the dubious honor of simultaneously being environmentally worthless for the planet and economically punitive for the United States. In fact, PCA is really more about global wealth redistribution than it is about the climate. The 2016 analysis of PCA by Bjorn Lomborg of the Copenhagen Consensus Center found that even if every single signatory met its nonbinding commitments, global temperatures would be reduced by at most 0.2 degrees Celsius in 2100 relative to the baseline case of no PCA.

Simply put — any impact on the climate produced by this treaty over the next 80 years would be negligible....

Lamar Smith is not qualified to comment on climate. My sincere guess is that if there is a Gilbert Carcia (hispanic - mixed race really, Gilbert is not an ethnic name - half breed) there would be some solid facts to his work.

Texas District 21 demographics

 

• 57.1% White
• 4.1% Black
• 3.8% Asian
• 28.5% Hispanic
• 0.10% Native American
• 6.1% other

On the other hand Lamar Smith simply speaks to impress his ignorant constituency who have little literacy benefit to understand the climate crisis. (Although, the literacy rate is fairly good. 92 percent have graduated from high school and about 45 percent have a bachelor's degree from college.) 

After all, the flooding in San Antonio only kills folks once in a while. And, of course, it is never attributed to the climate crisis. It just rained a lot. There have been at least six major floods in this congressional district, but, it just rained a lot. The flooding continues today.

March 10, 2017

By Andy Jechow

Cibolo, Texas (KXAN) — The body of a woman (click here) swept away in floodwaters outside of San Antonio on Friday has been recovered, according to News 4 San Antonio. 

Police in the suburb of Cibolo, just northeast of San Antonio, say a family member called for help overnight after the victim, identified by News 4 as

Shireal Boulanger, 58, said she was in a car surrounded by water.

Transportation officials later heard a man — the woman’s husband — screaming for help near an Interstate 10 frontage road at Santa Clara Road that was flooded with more than three feet of water. The man, who was found clinging to a tree, was rescued and treated for hypothermia along with cuts and bruises.

The man told rescuers that he and his wife were swept away as they drove down the frontage road.

Hm. These things happen. Very sad. God will forgive them for their sins.

There is a woman taking note of the disastrous administration.

May 20, 2017

By Sharon Lerner

...But Smith, (click here) who has boldly argued against funding for an institute that studies the toxicity of substances such as lead and asbestos, and has rushed to the defense of Monsanto’s RoundUp, is no longer just throwing bombs from the margins. With Trump in the White House and Scott Pruitt at the helm of the EPA, Smith now has the power to turn his visions of regulatory rollback into realities.

Already this session Smith revived two bills that, before the election, had been dismissed as nuisances. The Honest Act, which grew out of a strategy developed by the tobacco industry, is designed to prohibit the EPA from using public health research; the other bill, known as the EPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act, was crafted to allow industry representatives to serve on scientific boards. Both bills were passed by the House in March....

I don't doubt Ms. Lerner is correct and has done her homework when discussing Smith and all his cohorts, but, she is discussing the wrong methodology. We know science doesn't matter to these buffoons. So, why discuss science?

The Paris Agreement on Climate is not about a disputed scientific basis for ACTING on climate to protect life on Earth. The Paris Agreement on Climate has the word AGREEMENT in it's title. The conclusions have been made and the focus is what do we do about it. That is where the discussion lies. Got it?

Now Mr. Lamar Smith states that the Paris Agreement on Climate is fraudulent. He states it is a SCHEME for wealth distribution to other countries. Imagine that?

This is from a symposium in 2011.

The Challenge (click here)

In policy discussions of climate change, mitigation has been the main focus to date but adaptation to climate change is moving up the policy agenda. Simulation models suggest that the negative effects of climate change disproportionately fall on the developing world. Some argue that such effects have already started to become visible in the form of agricultural damage, displacement of people by floods, etc....

The United States of America has the second largest HISTORIC deposit of greenhouse gases in the world. The UK is the first, but, it has been a long time proponent to end the emissions, so the responsibility of the USA is undisputed. It is just that people such as Mr. Lamar Smith don't accept the responsibility of their country in the real world. Mr. Smith is from Texas where 60 percent of the state's wealth comes from oil stocks.

May 21, 2014

By Johannes Friedrich and Thomas Damassa

...For context, (click here) at the beginning of this time period—1850—the United Kingdom was the top emitter of CO₂, with emissions nearly six times those of the country with the second-highest emissions, the United States. France, Germany, and Belgium completed the list of top five emitters. In 2011, China ranked as world’s largest emitter, followed by the United States, India, Russia, and Japan. Tellingly, while the United States was the world’s second-largest emitter in both years, its emissions in 2011 were 266 times greater than those in 1850....

While men such as Mr. Lamar Smith demand that fraud needs to be the primary reason to oppose the responsibility of the USA at the Paris Agreement on Climate, he is a church going man that believes in God. He believes in god the way his church defines it and not the god that sees responsibility for all humans on Earth. God is not a citizen of the USA.

In 2014, (click here) the top carbon dioxide (CO2) emitters were China, the United States, the European Union, India, the Russian Federation, and Japan. These data include CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion, as well as cement manufacturing and gas flaring. Together, these sources represent a large proportion of total global CO2 emissions....

Mr. Lamar Smith's country, the United States of America NEVER changed it's place in the emissions of greenhouse gases. Since 1850, the USA has been second in emissions globally. That is undisputed.

So the issue is not whether there is a responsibility by the USA, the issue is WHY is the USA not accepting it's responsibility? In the case of Mr. Lamar Smith the problem is politics. He is stuck in a rut. He has to back the 60 percent petroleum portfolio of Texas, pretend flooding is sent my god and work to legitimatize the Paris Climate Agreement.

See there are special WORDS at work here. The word taxes is a bad word in Texas. Most folks don't like paying taxes. But, when the word REDISTRIBUTION of wealth is attached to the word taxes there is a special kind of social sin attached to that concept. Most Texans realize government costs money and has to be paid for, but, THE REASSIGNMENT of wealth is a sin. It is a capitalism sin. Capitalism demands that the people that create the economy and jobs and accumulate wealth deserve to keep it. They are only suppose to pay the same amount of their income to taxes, hence, the American Flat Tax. 

That is nothing but immoral greed. Let's say the flat tax is 14%. The fourteen percent that comes out of an annual income of $50,000 has a very different impact on a family's quality of life than an annual income of $1,000,000. So, as far as people like Mr. Lamar Smith is concerned what is FAIR is everyone contributing the same way.

Now, the Paris Agreement on Climate demands the wealthiest countries provide HELP to the poorest countries. That is what Mr. Lamar Smith considers redistribution of wealth and resents all of it.

Mr. Lamar Smith is not only immoral, but, should be behind bars for all the pain and suffering he causes his own constituents with his wacko lies and deceptions, but, the entire population of the Third World, especially Bangladesh and Burma. 

The discussion is not about the FACTS that 97 percent of scientists agree on, it is the 'skipping out of town (Paris)' that the Trump administration has decided is best for his party and their rhetoric. A rhetoric that is killing people, causing ciimate refugees, the loss of species and the entire collapse of fisheries around the globe. I remind, an ally to the USA, Australia is losing The Great Barrier Reef and that alone endangers a food supply and export of Australia. The loss of the Great Barrier Reef also is an economic loss for Australia and tourism. 

Mr. Lamar Smith should be listed among other American politicians that are turning their backs on the global community while the USA continues to be second in greenhouse gas emissions as of 2014.