The US election results took me by surprise. Yes, call me naive, but even after Brexit I believed the good would prevail, and mostly I believed stupidity had it's limits, the limits of not voting in someone who says things like "grab them by the pussy" or "Mexicans are all murderers and rapists". Well, guess my hope in the human race was exceeded and facts prove that there are actually no limits to stupidity.
Specialists in politics will try to explain this disaster with theories about voting against the system or voting to fight economic crisis, in the hope that things go back to the way they were in the nineties, when prosperity and ostentation were valued in the western world. But honestly it's hard to accept that between two poor choices the Americans chose the one who personifies everything the World doesn't need: populism, misogyny and ignorance. And by the way, it's about time people realize that things will never go back to the way they were in the nineties, that resources are limited and that the Planet won't survive to millions of people driving pollutant cars, eating huge amounts of beef per week and living in enormous houses with twenty TV sets.
And that brings me to the reason I believe the election result will lead to the end of the World. It's not only the fact that Americans will have a xenophobic, chauvinist and rude president. That's their problem to deal with as they realize the man will not make America great again (whatever that means) and will surround himself with the same old politics people are fed up with. What is really devastating is knowing the weight of his future policies in the environment. This is a president who said last May that global warming is a hoax and that he would cancel the Paris Deal, which as everyone should know is not binding. This is a president who ensured fossil fuel lobbyists, workers of high pollutant industries, and all those who are not willing to give up anything about their "American way of life", that his energy plan will put families and workers needs above all. The problem is American families and workers energetic needs are double the British's needs and over two and a half the Japanese's. Moreover, it is proven over and over again that Americans, who represent about 5% of the World's population, waste one third of all the paper, one fourth of all the oil, 23% of all the coal and 27% of all the aluminum OF THE PLANET!
After watching the brilliant documentary [Before The Flood], which I urge everyone to watch - it's free http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/before-the-flood/videos/before-the-flood-trailer/ - I was somehow depressed but still hopeful, as I learned that there is a way of reverting the destruction spiral we're in, which will eventually end life on Earth sooner than expected. But with this outcome there's not much else I can do except mourning. The Planet as we know it is about to disappear. Unless leaders from all over the world keep committed to the Paris Deal and start taking serious and definitive measures to stop global warming, thus showing the US that we don't need them to save the world. Let them live in a sick dependence of oil like their Middle-Eastern friends, while the rest of us survive on clean and inexpensive energy. In the meanwhile, let's hope the hurricanes and serious drought that are hitting America harder and harder every year will open the eyes of those who have the power to take action.
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