<h1 toutiao-origin="h1" > "extremely cold" Under the United States announced its return to the Paris Agreement</h1>
Yang Nan is an assistant researcher at the Institute of American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
2021-02-21 13:13
Extremely cold weather suddenly swept through the town, with the thickest snow spot reaching up to two meters.
More than 2.6 million shops have been forced to close, with insufficient supplies of goods and severe food shortages.
Texas, USA, suffered from extremely cold weather, and a large number of turtles were frozen. Image source: IC photo
The power system suddenly collapsed, the indoor temperature dropped below freezing, a large number of people had to burn kitchen gas or curl up in the car in the middle of the "unconventional way" to heat, and even risk carbon monoxide poisoning to cut wood and burn fires; millions of household water pipes burst, the water supply system was interrupted; 33 people were unfortunately killed, more than 4700 turtles were frozen and rushed to the coast....
Stills from the movie "The Day After Tomorrow"
The above scene is not a clip from the famous disaster movie "The Day After Tomorrow", but a realistic profile of the Blizzard in Texas in recent days.
It is in this context that on February 19, local time, US Secretary of State Blinken issued a statement on the same day that the United States officially rejoined the Paris Agreement to deal with global climate change.
Blinken said the Paris Agreement was "an unprecedented framework for global action." "Now, just as we joined the agreement in 2016, it is just as important to rejoin the agreement today, and the work we do in the coming weeks, months and years is even more important." Blinken said in a statement.
White House Deputy National Security Adviser Sherwood Randall pointed out that the extreme weather events experienced by the central, southern, and eastern United States this week have once again proved that climate change is real and happening, and the United States is not fully prepared for this; in the future, the United States will strengthen critical infrastructure to meet the challenges that may arise.
As the most dazzling region in the southern United States, Texas has always been known for its developed petrochemical and energy industries, and is also a well-deserved "engine" for cutting-edge technology research and development in the United States. Because of this, despite this once-in-a-century snowstorm, few people have taken the initiative to associate the above picture with Texas, a developed region that ranks among the best in the world.
The snowstorm became the first major test facing the new U.S. administration. Biden has authorized the Federal Emergency Services Administration (FEMA), a division of the Department of Homeland Security, to assist the local area and is about to declare the state in a state of "major disaster." At present, although temperatures in Texas are beginning to rise and electricity is gradually recovering, a large number of people are still trapped in their homes, and more than 13 million residents do not have access to clean water. Compared with the hunger and cold conditions of the affected people, more than 4,500 sea turtles have been evacuated to greenhouses for the first time and carefully cared for.
Disasters will eventually pass, but this "ice and snow storm" has also triggered multiple thinking about the current homeland security of the United States.
First, the collapse of The Texas power system is undoubtedly a concentrated portrayal of the "old problem" of the general obsolescence of U.S. infrastructure. Massive blackouts brought not only darkness, but also chaos. For a long time, this kind of emergency has always been the "heart disease" of the US government, and a large number of security experts have also made various complex "victim" scenario presets, including terrorists launching cyber attacks that paralyze the power system.
However, no one could have imagined that the darkness that shrouded all of Texas this time was due to its own poor pool. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, more than 60 percent of Texas' grid facilities have been in operation for more than 30 years; in the face of extremely cold conditions and huge demand for electricity, these "old antiques" born in the Cold War era are soon overwhelmed and "disarmed."
Second, this dilemma also reflects the dilemma behind the monopoly industrial structure in the region. The resource-rich state decided it could achieve "self-sufficiency" without being "at the mercy" of the federal government, and established the nation's first independent power system operator, the Texas Electric Reliability Commission (ERCOT). In 2011, ERCOT was paralyzed after a sudden cold snap that left more than 3 million users without power.
In response, the U.S. Federal Energy Regulation Commission also issued a 320-page report, ordering the company to renovate the power grid as soon as possible to ensure safety. However, a decade later, ERCOT's "double-mindedness" proves that it is difficult for the unprofitable private sector to actively fill the security holes that exist in its own systems; it is necessary for governments to maintain their own participation and regulation of critical infrastructure.
Finally, from a broader perspective, the disaster has also sounded the alarm for the U.S. government, which has been extremely indifferent to global climate change over the past four years. During Trump's four years in office, the U.S. government has withdrawn from almost all important climate-related international mechanisms, the relevant legislation of the US Congress has been stalled by the continuous partisan struggle, and even the Texas government itself has frequently "lost" in the face of lobbying by energy interest groups, and it is difficult to introduce bills to improve the climate.
Whether it is the deadly wildfires caused by the Heat Wave in California in the summer of 2020, or the blizzard extreme cold in "Frozen Texas", they continue to prove to the United States, which holds the world's second largest carbon emissions, that the negative effects of climate change are real. In the latest issue of The Economist magazine, the authors take the opportunity of Blizzard in Texas to call on the new US administration not to miss the "last window of opportunity" to tackle climate change.
However, after the collapse of Texas power, there is no shortage of American people and the media eager to "throw the pot" of the problem to the "frozen and can't rotate" blades on wind power facilities, and call for an increase in the occupancy rate of fossil fuel power generation in the state, ignoring the objective fact that such clean energy power generation facilities only account for 10% of the state's power generation facilities.
In this sense, the overall perception and attitude of the American people on climate change is still full of uncertainty; although the Biden administration has announced the return of the United States to the Paris Agreement, it is still unknown how far it will eventually be able to go on climate issues in the face of the "multiple tears" of the US government and society in the future.
(Look at the news Knows editor Zhao Xin Hao Miaomiao)