You Know Exactly Who Is Torching the Earth and Loving It

Let me not quote him once in this piece. We’ve already heard all too much from him, don’t you think? And president of the United States though he may be, he doesn’t deserve to be quoted, not given what he has to say.

It’s true that, in my lifetime, we’ve had all sorts of strange, sometimes deeply disturbing presidents. Believe me, Richard Nixon was no fun. And neither was Ronald Reagan or even, in our very own relatively recent moment, the aging Joe Biden. But nothing like him was ever even conceivable... not until, of course, he happened.

I hardly need to say it, but he—and unfortunately on this planet of ours right now, I really can’t help mentioning him again and again and again, can I?—should be considered the summary of what decline has long meant for great powers, personified in a fashion that may be historically unique for a nation that, not so very long ago, was arguably unique in its global reach and power. Phew, that sentence exhausted me!

Indeed, historically speaking, it’s certainly been rare beyond words (though I swear that won’t stop me from writing this!) to experience such an imperial decline—especially of the greatest power on Earth, possibly ever—both summoned up by and summed up in a lone individual, a single leader, a uniquely mad (and, mind you, not simply as in angry) man.

Consider it beyond remarkable that, in 2024, almost 50% of the American voting public (49.8% of them to be exact) opted to put YKEW back in the White House to do his—and it couldn’t be a more appropriate word, given our world—damnedest to turn this planet into a hothouse of the first order.

If a single poll sums him up in this singular moment of ours, perhaps it’s the latest AP-NORC one. It indicates that about 72% of Americans think this country is indeed heading in “the wrong direction,” while only 26% (and what in the—yes!—world can possibly be going through their brains at this moment?) think it’s heading in the right direction (wherever on this ever stranger planet of ours—or do I mean theirs?—that might be).

And talking about the wrong direction in which the president of the country that, not so long ago, was certainly the greatest power ever is sending us, hook, line, and sinker—whoops, I meant not to mention him again and yet there I went! It seems that I just can’t help myself, nor can I evidently finish this sentence—and honestly, can you blame me on this planet of ours?

Okay, I give up. How can I help myself (or anyone else) when it comes to HIM?

After all, what world can any of us imagine living in anymore, other than his? And given that world, maybe what I actually meant should have been a little more emphatically stated than what I wrote above. After all, to put it mildly (or do I mean wildly?), he’s taking us in the wrong direction, hook, line, and—no, not sinker but stinker (though he is indeed sinking us and this planet, too, in a big-time fashion). And yes, the president who told the world at the United Nations last year that climate change was nothing short of a “con job” and a “scam” seems to be distinctly in the process of preparing to burn down this very world of ours (or do I mean his?).

It’s Getting Hot, Hotter, Hottest

Oh, and only recently, to change the subject for a moment from You Know Exactly Who (or YKEW), a French tourist died after his vehicle became stuck in the mud in the all too aptly named Death Valley National Park in southern California, where the temperature was—and catch a breath before you read this!—116°F! (And mind you, that valley has been setting its own heat records in recent years.)

Now, given the location, you might think that was a one-of-a-kind situation in a deeply desertified stretch of this planet, but if so, think again. As it happens (to flip lands for a moment), on that tourist’s home continent, Europe, according to The Guardian, there have already been an estimated at least 35,000 “excess deaths” attributed to four stunning heatwaves that started in May this summer. Worse yet, when the records for the whole season are in, that number—god save us!—could still rise significantly as parts of that continent continue to go up in flames in a radical fashion. And don’t for a moment think that the idea of this planet being increasingly on fire is just a metaphoric image. As The Guardian also reported, “Wildfires are projected to burn 39% more of Europe by the end of the century even in the best-case scenario for stopping the planet from heating, a study has found, unless action is taken to manage them better.”

And mind you, in some strange fashion, we’re undoubtedly just at the beginning of all this. Oh, and keep in mind as well that we’re not just talking about temperatures on land. I’m sure you’ll be amazed to know that, as The Guardian again reported, ocean temperatures have similarly been soaring of late. In fact, believe it or not, ocean waters set a new temperature record in August (even though the highest ocean temperatures are usually in March or April).

Nonetheless, you shouldn’t find that particularly shocking, since more than 90% of the heat trapped by carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning enters those very oceans. As environmentalist Bill McKibben reminded us recently, “Since our planet is 70% ocean, it’s a pretty good gauge of how hot the planet is getting. And what it shows is that in all the decades we’ve been measuring, it’s never been hotter.” And mind you, “42% of the world’s ocean area is now experiencing a ‘marine heatwave.’”

Phew!... I’m already sweating!

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

In some sense, given what we human beings are doing to this planet and given that the president of the greatest power on Earth, YKEW himself, has been going out of his way in these years to increase the use of fossil fuels while, among other things, trying to shut down new sources of wind power and solar energy, who wouldn’t be sweating?

When it comes to the literal destruction of this planet, however, it seems clear that YKEW simply loves it. He couldn’t, for instance, be more enthusiastic about the scores of new AI data centers being set up (or soon to be set up) across this country (not to speak of the world) that will be powering themselves with immense quantities of—oh, yes!—fossil fuels and so pouring ever more carbon into the atmosphere nationwide (and undoubtedly globally, too). As The New York Times reported, for instance, when a new data center in El Paso, Texas, is completed, “It could emit as much planet-warming carbon dioxide in a year as 360,000 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles, each driven for the average distance logged by American drivers in a year.”

Under the circumstances, what could possibly go wrong?

So, among other things, expect to feel ever hotter on this distinctly broiling planet of ours and consider it beyond remarkable that, in 2024, almost 50% of the American voting public (49.8% of them to be exact) opted to put YKEW back in the White House to do his—and it couldn’t be a more appropriate word, given our world—damnedest to turn this planet into a hothouse of the first order.

And although we’re still months away from December 25 (though don’t count on snow), consider all of that his Christmas present to our children and grandchildren. I’m thinking, of course, about a planet whose major power, led by You Know Exactly Who (YKEW himself!), is giving the phenomenon of imperial decline historically new meaning by working all too efficiently to take the planet down with him.