On and since the Feb. 18 date the U.S. officially rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement, President Joe Biden and John Kerry, his National Security Council Presidential Envoy for Climate Action, have been thumping for their planned international summit to fight climate change, scheduled for April 22, Earth Day. They pledge that between now and April 22, the U.S. will have spelled out its plans for achieving marker goals of CO2 reduction by 2030, harping that “this decade” is the make or break. Kerry said on Feb. 19, in one of several media spots, “It’s what people will do in the next 10 years that matter. That’s what we have to talk about.” On one media event, he spoke alongside UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who added his own sour notes to the chorus, that efforts to stop carbon emissions, “must go much faster and much farther.”
A media echo chamber effect is coming from many other voices chiming in. Sir Michael Anti-Coal Bloomberg held an evening call with reporters on Feb. 18 to extol his efforts with state and local governments to see that coal plants close as rapidly as possible. Never mind that it was coal and nuclear that saved the day—such as the day is going—in the central states cold wave.
