Defend Mother Earth from Dirty Donald
For normal people, watching Donald Trump can be very enraging
and tiring. Trying to figure out what
makes the man tick is like an exercise in clinical psychiatry. Trying to predict his next move is like
joining a gambling game on the Titanic.
Whether small detail or big picture, he gives ordinary
people an awful lot to fret over. There
seems to be a cumulative numbing effect as we watch him stretch or embellish
his “alternative reality” day after day.
Sometimes it seems like he has uttered enough falsehoods and crossed
enough ethical lines to provide for his own downfall. This may be proven true eventually but that
day is still in the future.
Meanwhile, people who consider themselves liberals or
moderates must stand aghast at the president’s attitude toward the environment. He is anti-science in his thinking and denies
that climate change, the warming of the earth’s atmosphere, is occurring.
He supports the dirty fossil fuel industries. He refuses to support new clean energy
sources: solar, wind, and thermal. He is
pro-business to a ridiculous extent, the “business” of exploiting natural
resources without mercy for quick profits and without regard for
consequences.
He is also obsessed with carrying out his anti-Obama
agenda so anything the last president did to address environmental concerns,
Trump is systematically undoing. Here
are some examples:
He pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Pact.
He is rolling back standards to improve car mileage rates.
He is rescinding Obama-era coal emissions standards
He intends to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to
oil and gas drilling. This is a pristine
area famous for its caribou herds and the indigenous people who depend upon
them.
He is shrinking Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Escalante
National Monuments (some 2 million acres) to make way for exploitation of lands
adjacent to them, which will dramatically impact and destroy areas set aside
for the enjoyment of the American people. Pollution and Industrial waste,
sometimes toxic, will move across boundaries and negatively impact the health
of national parks and monuments.
He had the audacity to appoint as the head of the
Environmental Protection Agency a man named Scott Pruitt, a man who was opposed
to the purpose of the agency he was to lead!
These are just a few examples but you get the idea. In the midst of us being overwhelmed at times
by Donald Trump’s narcissistic and bombastic personality, we must not take our
eyes off his actions and policies. He
already represents the biggest setback to the modern environmental movement yet
seen.
I know many of my friends care about the environment for
themselves, their children, and everyone
else. Climate change is real; the
warming of the earth’s atmosphere is real; and we need progressive leadership
based on science to address the growing challenges regarding the health of the
land, water, and air. There are numerous
groups one can join or support financially.
Among them:
World
Wildlife Fund
Environmental
Defense Fund
Greenpeace
Friends
of the Earth
Audubon
Society
National
Wildlife Federation
Natural
Resources Defense Council
Save
the Whales
These
groups provide education and suggest policies for legislators. They have many
active projects to study and protect wildlife. Some will engage in direct
action and several have the means to mount substantial legal challenges in
court to ensure that existing environmental laws and regulations are enforced.
I encourage you to stay informed and do what you can to help
protect Mother Earth from the actions and policies of the current
president. As his lunacy worsens,
ordinary Americans should step up their game to oppose the president’s
short-sighted, profit-driven decision-making.
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