Our retreat on climate is a lost opportunity

Flying into Copenhagen, the first thing one sees is an offshore commercial wind farm generating power for some 25,000 households.

Exploring the city, one sees thousands of residents pedaling bicycles or commuting via public transit. Many drive electric or hybrid vehicles. What my older son and I did on a recent trip to visit relatives in Northern Jutland: take the train.

Well known for being resilient and forward-thinking, the Danes are world leaders in the war against human-fueled climate change.

Meanwhile, America’s fossil fuel industry and its political allies are waging war on people’s trust in climate science and climate change mitigation.

Climate change denialism’s cheerleaders include the president of MAGAmerica and his underlings. Ignoring the role that greenhouse gas emissions play in hurricanes like Ian and Katrina, wildfires in Hawaii and California, and torrential “rain bombs” in southern Florida, here’s what the President told the U.N. General Assembly:

“This ‘climate change,’ it’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion. All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong.”

If you need an expert on con jobs, look no further.

Otherwise, look to the real world to see how greenhouse gas emissions are overheating the planet, melting ice sheets, causing Amazonia dieback, thawing permafrost, collapsing ocean currents, and killing coral reefs.

While climate scientists continue ringing the alarm, signs of global progress are small. Fossil fuel emissions globally are expected to hit record highs this year, even as the Earth reaches or nears irreversible climate tipping points.

The United States owes itself and the rest of the world way more than the same old “drill baby drill” nonsense about fossil fuels.

America desperately needs to unleash its powerful capacity for ingenuity and march boldly toward a sustainable, green future. There’s money to be made, jobs to be had, grandkids to think about.

Yet China seems to be seizing the opportunity.

The Chinese lead the world in supplying overseas markets with renewable technology, manufacturing wind turbines, and making and exporting photovoltaic cells and electric vehicles (with superior range and affordability).

The current U.S. administration is not only sitting out the renewable energy race, it is ordering a full retreat at the worst possible time. The EPA administrator, whose job it is to protect the American people from environmental harm, wants to strip the government of its own power to regulate carbon pollution.

Gone, suspended, or facing elimination: New wind farms; wind and solar tax credits; electric vehicle tax credits; a long-running database that documented the costs of climate extremes; FEMA disaster support; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research and data sharing, including weather forecasts.

It’s like Nero fiddling while Rome burns. Except it’s the planet that’s burning.

Michael Sondergard is a concerned grandfather, a retiree from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and a former city editor of an Iowa City community newspaper.