No Turning Back

The world is finally doing something about climate change.  It's not much, but it's something.

And what a something it is!  The Paris Agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions has just gone into effect, with 55 nations joining in to ensure that it will go into force in early November.  While it can't exactly - okay, not even remotely - reverse carbon emissions, its efforts to keep mean global temperature increases  below 2 degrees Celsius and push it down to 1.5-degree-Celsius increase is encouraging, if only because it will highlight the necessity to move away from fossil fuels and more toward cleaner and renewable energy.  It's admittedlygoing to be a long process; people aren't going to give up their Chevy Suburbans for Nissan Leafs and VW e-Golfs overnight.

The deal requires any country that wished to get out of it to wait until November 2019 to do so.  So, even if Donald Trump does get elected President, he has to wait two years and ten months into his term to make good on his bad idea.  And lo and behold - November 2019 is a year before the next presidential election, and if President Trump tries to take the United States out of this deal, that just might prove to be politically disadvantageous for him.     

One thing Trump won't do if elected is bring coal back.  The market has spoken; coal is no longer cool.  More and more businesses that use coal in mass quantities, like power-generating companies,  are moving away from the dirty fuel in favor of more clean-burning natural gas.  Public Service Electric & Gas in New Jersey just announced the closing of its last two coal-fired power plants in the state.

Even corporations are committing themselves to a cleaner and greener energy future.  There is indeed no turning back.