Gorsuch’s Legacy, and the Planet’s
Op-ed by David Leonhardt - NYT
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Cherry blossoms covered in ice near the Jefferson Memorial in Washington. Win McNamee/Getty Images
The Washington Tidal Basin, the reservoir that sits between the Jefferson Memorial and Washington Monument, is usually jammed with visitors on a weekend morning in late March. They come to see the cherry blossoms that surround the basin in a flush of pink.
On Sunday, however, the area was “basically deserted,” as the website Cherry Blossom Watch noted .
Why? There wasn’t yet much to see. Washington has just had its warmest winter on record (with a February that was warmer than an average March ). The warmth brought many cherry blossoms to the cusp of a very early bloom, at which point they’re delicate. And when a cold spell came last week, it killed many, leaving them wilted and brown.
“This is something that has never happened in the 105-year history of cherry blossoms in D.C.,” Mike Litterst of the National Park Service told The Washington Post.
The real-world consequences of climate change are accelerating. The Great Plains is suffering its worst drought in a century, hurting many farmers . Pollen counts are rising, aggravating allergies. Warming oceans have killed huge sections of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, turning their glorious colors to a bleached white that’s as dispiriting as a wilted brown cherry blossom.
Just a couple of miles away from the Tidal Basin, on the other end of the Washington Mall, Neil Gorsuch had his second day of confirmation hearings yesterday. For a summary, I recommend coverage from The Times , Slate and Scotusblog . You can also listen to NPR’s Nina Totenberg .
Climate change hasn’t been a major focus of the hearings. Yet I expect that the climate will end up being a large part of Gorsuch’s legacy if he joins the Supreme Court.
He could be the deciding vote on pollution cases that will come before the court in the near future. Longer term, when the country next has a president who takes climate change seriously, many efforts to fight it are likely to end up before the court.
Gorsuch is extremely conservative, and the best working assumption is that he will be hostile to environmental regulation. But that’s not the only possibility. “Gorsuch’s record on environmental cases is sparse,” Patrick Parenteau of Grist has written . “His decisions generally reflect the views of a conservative jurist, but not a particular animosity toward environmental regulations. Plus he’s an avid fly-fisher, which surely counts for something.”
Ultimately, some influential conservatives will surely decide they care about the health of the planet. Right?
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The topic here is climate change, and perhaps Mr Gorsuch's possible role. You may agree or disagree with this Op-Ed... but remember: One-line zingers and bumper-sticker mantras are by definition off-topic and will be deleted.
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RED RULES apply:
- Be polite. No insults whatsoever. No insults to particular people, to groups of people, to ideas, ... None!
- Be smart and stay on topic. Contribute substantive thought. Facts and/or reasoning. One-line zingers and bumper-sticker mantras are by definition off-topic, and will be deleted.
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Downer please explain what the topic is if the contents of the article are off topic.
thanks,
Not my job, Sean. Red Box Rules mean I don't have to think, or pass judgement. The author is in charge. That's the beauty of red box rules... Or the scourge... D.
Downer please explain what the topic is if the contents of the article are off topic.
For example, Sean... "Why deletions are made here" is clearly off-topic. If you were truly interested in understanding, you would use Chat to ask, rather than further pollute this article.
If, on the other hand... You are primarily interested in polluting this article, a "meta derail" is a well-known method.
Right?
There's no article to derail, since the topic is off topic.
Dowser has gone to bed. I'll have all this stuff deleted tomorrow.
Good night, Sean.
Great start Bob. You preface your discussion with all kinds of in red notices about your 'Red Box Rules' and the entire 'discussion' has been deleted.
From your first inception of those rules I have argued that every member of NewsTalkers has been made aware of the sites Code of Conduct and it is reasonable to expect the CoC will be respected in the discussion.
For you to blast out at the end of the article, and repeated in your first comment, in red type, warnings against insulting or 'off topic' comments, is an insult to your readers, because it seems you are expecting them to ignore the CoC.
I came here because I was looking forward to participating in a discussion about Neil Gorsuch and his potential impact on climate change. But thanks to your overzealous implementation of your Red Box Rules, ..... there is no discussion.
The Red Box Rules do not work, they are nothing but a format of the CoC, typed in red and they allow the author to delete almost any comment they do not agree with, as being 'off topic'.
I'm sure you will have this comment deleted because it is off topic, but maybe there is a lesson for you here.
Well then, Jerry... Why don't you seed the article you'd like to discuss. I wish you luck.
He's from Colorado he knows the climate we deal with here. If he can help raise our winter average temperatures by a degree or two I will indeed be thankful.
Ultimately, some influential conservatives will surely decide they care about the health of the planet. Right?
One of the things that has confused me about many conservatives is that some of them are also excellent conservationists, yet they seem to be not speaking out on this issue. It fact many of the best environmentalists are hunters and fishers and many of the are conservatives. For some reason they seem to be cowed somehow by other conservatives and I just don't understand this. It would seem an area where there would be plenty of area for common ground.