Atlantic Writer: ‘Manchin Has Virtually Sealed the Planet’s Fate’

Apocalypse Now or is it Apocalypse Again

It was October again Rolling StoneMagazine declared, “Joe Manchin Just Served the Planet.” Manchin described the inferno on earth that was our fate, and it was horrifying.

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin has just cooked the world. I don’t mean that in a metaphorical sense. This is how I see it. Unless Manchin drastically changes his negotiation position, Manchin will always be remembered for the man who at the moment when decision was made, condemned virtually all creatures on Earth to suffering, hardship, death.

And that dire proclamation came just after Senator Manchin stated he couldn’t support any version of the Build Back Better (BBB) bill that went higher than $1.5 trillion.

However, now that Manchin declared he would be a firm NO on BBB, it must be time for a Joe Manchin, destroyer of worlds, encore. On Wednesday, this was. Atlantic magazine staff writer Robinson Meyer writer melted down in “We’re Heading Toward a Very American Climate Tragedy. Meyer started with the same maturity level you would expect of a snowflake following Inauguration Day 2017.

America is about to experience a historic, historical failure. On Sunday, Senator Joe Manchin, the Democrats’ linchpin vote, told Fox News that he couldn’t vote for the Build Back Better Act, the vehicle for much of President Joe Biden’s legislative climate policy.

If that decision holds, then Manchin has virtually sealed the planet’s fate:It is almost certain that the world will warm more than 1.5 degrees Celsius over its preindustrial temperatures by 2040. This will not only be tragic for the United States but it will also mean that America will almost surrender its technological advantages to China. Manchin and the other Democrats subsidizing Chinese industrial supremacy by only passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill and not the follow-up climate legislation is something I find alarming.

Ironically,  if the fate of the planet is sealed, Meyer identified the real culprit just a couple of paragraphs down as — incredibly — not Manchin but…China!

Meyer saw the light, albeit for a brief moment (emphasis added, click “expand”):

And China, which Manchin highlights as America’s main global adversary, does not think this way. The country is no climate hero: Last year, its carbon pollution exceeded every wealthy country’s emissions combined. Its leadership however has taken advantage of new energy technology.For reasons that are not directly related to climate change, it has. China’s dependence on oil from the Middle East and American natural gas has led it to try to find as many resources as possible within its own borders.Because of its years-long history of air pollution, it has a strong political imperative to produce as little as possible.

The Democratic Party will suffer if Build back Better is not successful. Biden has argued that only his moderation, his experience, and his institutionalism can relieve the country’s crises. The House Democrats elected Nancy Pelosi (geriatric pragmatist) and Chuck Schumer (geriatric pragmatists) to the Senate. If this trio of moderates cannot deliver the goods—if they cannot, despite their decades of yammering, actually succeed in passing what is an aspirational but still insufficient climate law—then the center-left’s case for itself will collapse. It will be argued by the left that only radicalism, and not political breakdown, can provide a rational response to the crisis of climate change.

If China’s carbon emissions are higher than those of all other rich countries combined, shouldn’t they be blamed? Nope.

What is his reasoning? Well, because as Meyer explained, China WILL PROBABLY reduce carbon emissions in the future. Really? Perhaps the solution is to wait for them to cut their pollution as Meyer has placed his sacred faith that they will do this. 

In the interim, you can blame Manchin even if a reduction of carbon emissions from the USA would make little difference due to China’s emission.

Here’s what we can expect from the third chapter, which will be caused by Joe Manchin.

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