Trump Allies Plot to Take Over the European Union - TomDispatch.com

Trump Allies Plot to Take Over the European Union - TomDispatch.com John Feffer, The End of Europe? January 23, 2024 It's bad enough here in the U.S. Yes, unlike Donald Trump ("Drill, drill, drill!"), Joe Biden has attempted to do something about our overheating planet. And indeed, his Inflation Reduction Act poured billions of dollars into creating a cleaner energy America. Still, last year -- the hottest ever -- this country set a new record for oil and natural gas production (with, sadly enough, more to come), while the Biden administration has so far done little to stop what Bill McKibben and Roishetta Ozane have labeled "the single biggest fossil-fuel expansion on earth, the buildout of natural gas exports from the Gulf of Mexico." In fact, American exports of liquified natural gas have surged during Biden's years in the White House. And yet, were The Donald to retake the Oval Office, you could simply forget about any of that. For starters, you could just assume that he would once again withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate accord and put real energy (so to speak) into repealing the Inflation Reduction Act. In fact, he's already running for the presidency on the promise of doing just that, while denouncing the Biden administration as “loyal to the environmental lunatics” and promising to “maximize fossil fuel production.” No surprises there. It's simple, in fact. To reelect Donald Trump is potentially to write an epitaph for humanity. Unlike this nation, however, the European Union has long had a reputation for doing more to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions than any other region on the planet. Unfortunately, as TomDispatch regular John Feffer, whose remarkable novel Songlands focused on climate change, suggests today, that may soon be ancient history. It turns out that Europeans are now increasingly electing their equivalents of You Know Who to high office; yes, indeed, right-wing maniacs ready to heat the planet to the boiling point. My suggestion: take a deep breath, then check out Feffer's overview of a Europe that's heading in all too disturbing directions all too quickly. Tom