I keep hearing the Trump Administration say that CO2 is not
causing Global Warming…science be damned… and that all they really need to do
is work with the states to help keep air and water clean. Then, of course,
Trump goes and revokes EOs that prevent Coal Empires from “Mountain Topping”
and dumping the tailings down the sides of those devastated mountains and into
the streams and rivers below…carrying heavy metals and toxic byproducts out to
the surface water used by communities. And they reverse regulations on clean
water…quietly reducing the cleanliness of our rivers and lakes.
As for their anti-EPA actions, the world’s leader in
fighting pollution and recovering our environment from the extremes we have
pushed it to…they have placed the EPA on the block, if not gone…tied up by
reduced funding, cancelled programs, and blocked access to resources and an
intensely interested citizenry.
Most of us don’t agree with Trump. First is the fact that he
has close ties with other 1%ers who fight the EPA with their fortunes…like the
Koch brothers, members of Trump’s corporate resort Mar-a-Lago in Florida…no
wonder Trump doesn’t want to release the log books on who visited with him.
Back Room Politics are alive and well in the GOP…and the Trump clan is making a
killing on their corporate affiliation with the Donald. And then he insults us
by promoting anti-science as the alternative facts of the day.
The idea that we should live for today’s profits and let the
government clean up our pollution tomorrow does not sit well with me. EPA isn’t
just about water and air…it’s about pollution, and establishing the standards
that will keep America safe for time immemorial. Let’s look at one case, one of
many thousands of super-fund sites. Love Canal, a winner of awards for their reclaiming
of land and conversion of industrial sites into home sites. And, as a result of
the chemical waste stored underground by Hooker Chemical, the land was
poisoned, the ground water was contaminated, cancer ran rampant, and people
died.
Pesticides and herbicides, toxic waste runoff from Coal and
coal fired power plants, fracking waste water from oil and gas production
sites, Canadian pipelines from Canada to Texas…to feed foreign owned refineries
for oil exports that will never profit Americans, but threatens to pollute the
Ogallala Aquifer in the heart of the United States, waste dumping in open
ocean, a practice that we have reduced…but may come back if Trump has his way,
increased acidification of our oceans, reduced controls on over-fertilization for
places like Trump Organization (his company) resorts and golf courses…nitrates
dumping into our water and killing our harbors …dead zones reaching into the
open ocean …
The EPA sets standards to save the planet, and whether Trump
and the Kochs like it or not…we are the Global leader in this field and we must
fight to ensure that we remain the leader. I don’t live in China, India, or
Russia…the nations with the worst pollution…nor do we have polluted harbors and
bays the way China and Brazil do…why, the EPA corrected those issues for us
several decades ago. Now Trump has signed an executive order that directed the
Environmental Protection Agency to limit the scope of what counts as a
regulated body of water under the Clean Water Act.
The EPA is a solid part of the Sustainable process that our
nation is capable of achieving for America, and for the World…our economy and
our history of social equity are the other legs of that important structure.
Trump is working to end our leadership in this crucial global program…one that
must be won now…or future generations will suffer, even Trump’s grandkids,
whether he likes it or not, will suffer…The EPA isn’t just about water and air,
it’s about the survival of the planet; it’s about managing tides so that
islands remain above the oceans and coastal cities survive as well…Trump’s
precious Mar-A-Lago will be under water before Donald Junior can say
“hot-damn…I shot the last Lion”… the oceans are rising, and it’s not just
because of nature. It’s because man has reached 8.5 billion and we pump out
GHGs by the ton, the ice is melting...the reefs are bleaching, and we are
killing thousands of species a year...way out of the box.
Let’s close on a high note. Donald Trump does not
acknowledge Global Warming in the US…but he openly promotes national funding
for protective barriers in Great Britain where his golf courses are threatened
by higher tides than ever before…Telling the British Government that he needs
their funding to protect his properties from the rising seas. Maybe Trump will
bring this idea home…as he strives to make his vision of America great…but
don’t hold your breath. This man isn’t about the truth…he is all for one and
one for the Trump Organization.
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