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Opinion|Beware the Pettiness of the Powerful
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Opinion
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Paul Krugman
BEWARE THE PETTINESS OF THE POWERFUL
May 16, 2024, 7:00 p.m. ET
Credit...Damon Winter/The New York Times
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By Paul Krugman
Opinion Columnist
Sign up for the Trump on Trial newsletter. The latest news and analysis on the
trials of Donald Trump in New York, Florida, Georgia and Washington, D.C. Get it
sent to your inbox.
Donald Trump isn’t exactly Don Quixote, but he does have a thing against
windmills.
Indeed, Trump’s animus toward wind power is one of the strangest obsessions of a
man with many unusual preoccupations (toilets! hair spray!). Over the years, he
has asserted, falsely, that wind turbines can cause cancer, that they can cause
power outages and that wind energy “kills all the birds” (cats and windows do
far more harm). Now he says that if he wins in November, on “Day 1” he’ll issue
an executive order putting the brakes on offshore wind farm construction.
Trump claims, without evidence, that such wind farms are whale killers — either
way, though, if you think he cares about whales, I have some Truth Social stock
you might want to buy.
But the windmills of Trump’s mind aside, there’s a broader story here, one that
goes well beyond the former president: the remarkable pettiness of many powerful
people, and the danger that it poses both to American democracy and to the
future of the planet.
First, a word about the wind. Over the past 15 or so years we’ve seen
revolutionary progress in the technology of renewable energy; the idea of an
economy reliant on solar and wind power has gone from hippie fantasy to
realistic policy goal. It’s not just that the costs of renewable electricity
generation have plunged; related technologies, especially battery storage, have
gone a long way toward resolving the problem that the sun doesn’t always shine
and the wind always blow.
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And while renewable energy, like almost everything in a modern economy, has some
environmental consequences — yes, some birds do fly into wind turbines — these
consequences are tiny compared with the damage done by burning fossil fuels,
even if you ignore climate change and focus only on the health effects of
pollutants like airborne particulates and nitrous oxide.
A CHANGING CLIMATE, A CHANGING WORLD
Card 1 of 4
Climate change around the world: In “Postcards From a World on Fire,” 193
stories from individual countries show how climate change is reshaping reality
everywhere, from dying coral reefs in Fiji to disappearing oases in Morocco and
far, far beyond.
The role of our leaders: Writing at the end of 2020, Al Gore, the 45th vice
president of the United States, found reasons for optimism in the Biden
presidency, a feeling perhaps borne out by the passing of major climate
legislation. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been criticisms. For example,
Charles Harvey and Kurt House argue that subsidies for climate capture
technology will ultimately be a waste.
The worst climate risks, mapped: In this feature, select a country, and we'll
break down the climate hazards it faces. In the case of America, our maps,
developed with experts, show where extreme heat is causing the most deaths.
What people can do: Justin Gillis and Hal Harvey describe the types of local
activism that might be needed, while Saul Griffith points to how Australia shows
the way on rooftop solar. Meanwhile, small changes at the office might be one
good way to cut significant emissions, writes Carlos Gamarra.
*
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Why, then, would Trump want to block such hugely beneficial technological
progress? His motives really aren’t much of a mystery.
Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.
Paul Krugman has been an Opinion columnist since 2000 and is also a
distinguished professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center. He
won the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on
international trade and economic geography. @PaulKrugman
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