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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Comment
Peter Kalmus

The US supreme court just made yet another devastating decision for humanity

‘The myth of American exceptionalism will offer no protection from deadly heat and climate famine.’
‘The myth of American exceptionalism will offer no protection from deadly heat and climate famine.’ Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

The US supreme court’s overturning of Roe v Wade was a direct attack on women. It will result in countless deaths, especially among vulnerable women, and it set civil liberties in the United States back by half a century. Now, the court has made yet another devastating decision for humanity.

In a 6-3 decision, the openly partisan and undemocratic court ruled in favor of a lawsuit brought by fossil-fuel-producing states against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The decision strips power from regulatory agencies and advances the Republican goal to end government oversight. In particular, it eliminates one of the only remaining avenues for systemic federal climate action: using the Clean Air Act to phase out fossil fuel power plants. As a result, it may now be mathematically impossible through available avenues for the US to achieve its goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, which is anyway feeling dangerously unambitious in light of recent climate disasters.

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