It seems we can’t go a week without everyone being scared half to death by news coming out of The White House. The latest news that will make you believe the apocalypse is almost upon us occurred late last week when it was reported by major media outlets that Alex Jones, the nonsensical owner of alt-right website ‘infowars,’ has become a regular adviser to Trump. Bad news like this coming out of The White House makes me understand why scientists put the Doomsday Clock 30 seconds closer to midnight.
Alex Jones is a well-known conspiracy theorist, and by conspiracy theorist, I mean he just makes stuff up. Take for example, his claim that the government places chemicals called “estrogen mimickers” in juice boxes to turn people gay. Yep, he actually said that. Apparently this is a grand plan by the New World Order to depopulate the world for some reason. That’s all just a load of nonsense but somehow, his conspiracy theories get worse. Jones also claims that: The Sandy Hook shooting was staged; 9/11, the Boston Bombings and the London Bombings were all an inside job; the government can control tornadoes and uses them as weapons and that Obama and Hillary are actually demons carrying out the will of Satan. Now I could go on more about his insane conspiracy theories, but I think by now you get the point that Alex Jones seriously needs a psychological evaluation.
By now I bet you can guess why having this lunatic advise the most powerful and impressionable man in the world is a bad idea but I think we need to look at how Jones’ influence could impact the US’s policy towards tackling climate change. Infowars is well known for publishing articles that question scientific facts and being anti-fact in general. Trump is already perusing an anti-environmentalism agenda in the White House as just it was leaked that he will cut the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) budget by $2 billion in order to raise funds for a 10% increase in defence spending. This will only worsen as Jones begins to inform him of alternatives facts about the environment and manmade climate change being a myth created to convince people to accept big government. Quite frankly if you don’t believe in manmade climate change at this point, you’re on the same level of stupidity and idiocy as people who still believe the Earth is flat. This is an incredibly dangerous. We can’t have a ‘wait and see’ attitude to Trump as many Republicans want us to when he will be causing significant rises in global temperatures beyond the two-degree Celsius threshold. There needs to be active and well organised resistance to any cuts to the EPA’s budget and slashing of environmental regulations because this is an issue that threatens the very stability of world order and existence of humanity. Climate change is not a hoax or a joke, it’s a very real and serious threat to humanity.
Carlo Jaeger, the chair of the Global Climate Forum told CNN back in 2015 that humanity has never experienced a climate above the two-degree threshold. Scientists predict that temperatures going beyond this threshold will lead to super droughts in Africa and sea levels rising several feet, which will mean flooding in areas such as Vietnam, India and Bangladesh, creating an event of mass migration from flooded areas and those affected by droughts. Surely even the most die-hard Republicans can see that this is not just an environmental issue, it is a security one too. Mass migration from areas in the Far East will lead to conflict and racial tension that could destabilise the region. Not only that, the effects of global warming are already affecting areas such as Miami, where they are suffering with increased flooding. Trump has threatened before to rip up the Paris Climate Change agreement, which was the most significant milestone in tackling global warming in decades, despite Theresa May’s assertions to stick to the agreement. However, with Jones’ influence over Trump seemingly growing, it is becoming more and more likely that Trump will follow through with his threats.
So Trump drained the swamp to make way for a cesspool of snakes and lunatics. First it was Steve Bannon and now it’s Alex Jones gaining influence over America’s policy agenda. Who next? Richard Spencer? Wouldn’t surprise me at this point. Hopefully Donald can take a week off from scaring the living daylights out of everyone soon so we can all have a long needed break from believing Armageddon is right round the corner.
Chris Hague
(Image courtesy of Infowars)