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Whether purposeful or not, Donald Trump manages to provide stunning, jaw-dropping moments and actions at a pace impossible for a reasonable person to track while attempting to maintain anything close to a normal life.  Amid outrageous actions (like against the Dreamers & DACA), immoral and despicable commentary (such as emphasizing those “very fine people” who marched under Nazi flags in Charlottesville), criminal actions (Emoluments Clause, anyone), outrageous twitter distractions (commentary against media), etc, etc, etc, there are many items that can fly by without notice.

How many, in the media world and punditry, has picked up and run with a stunning contrast yesterday. As fossil-fueled climate catastrophes strike the United States “From Sea to Shining Sea”, Donald Trump flew out to North Dakota to speak at an oil refinery!

Bill Mckibben, in a tweet last night, sought to shine a spotlight on this the incredible (probably unconscious) disconnect:

1) Irma at 190 mph
2) Harvey at 54 " of rain
3) West ablaze
4) Record California heat
5) Donald Trump talking at an oil refinery pic.twitter.com/MxQylFbzVQ

— Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) September 7, 2017

While a rational and competent President, who put the interests of the nation and Americans above his own self-interest and self-absorption, would be focused on monitoring these disastrous situations across the nation and assuring the most effective Federal response to assistance to save lives and speed recovery, Trump is off promoting tax concepts that would (further) enrich the richest of society at the expense of everyone else (both today’s and tomorrow’s Americans).

When the science is (and has been for decades) eminently clear and incredible strong linking the burning of fossil fuels with climate change AND that human-driven (fossil-fueled) climate change creates circumstances for catastrophes and worsens them, the climate-science denying (“Chinese Hoax) “narcissistic maniac” occupying the White House is off promoting fossil foolish intensification of our use of oil, natural gas, and coal: e.g., Team Trump is working hard(est?) to foster conditions for even more and even worse climate catastrophes in the coming years and decades.

That rational and competent President, as well, would be asking the question:

• (how) Can we reduce the risks of such catastrophes?
  • Drive toward a lower carbon (negative emissions) economy at an accelerated pace.
  • Adopt policies that foster better land use and agricultural practices (that lower carbon impacts, reduced methane emissions, etc …)
  • And …
• (how) Can we reduce the impacts of future natural disasters — recognizing that human-driven climate change creates conditions for new “unprecedented” events and severity events for decades to come (even with the most aggressive efforts to act on climate)?
  • Learn lessons and create resiliency in our society (built environment and otherwise);
  • Invest so that mitigation, resiliency, and adaptation investments are optimized so that resiliency and adaptation investments, as much as possible, also contribute to climate change mitigation.
  • NOTE:  Houston’s medical system and its operations during Hurricane Harvey, as a case study, provide a partial template and ideas for this.

As Bill McKibben highlighted in yesterday’s stunning contrast between climate catastrophes and fossil-fuel promotion, as we are already aware in so many ways, Donald Trump is not that rational and competent President.

UPDATE:  That contrast is even more stunning if you have the strength to listen to Trump’s speech.

Trump is bragging about pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement in the middle of a climate disaster: https://t.co/uovE4Pxyi4

— Jamie Henn (@jamieclimate) September 7, 2017