Specifics

Environmentalists are well aware that the Trump Administration is putting forth toxic policies at a huge human and environmental cost. Others, such as those who voted for him, or even those who say they're neutral, may not be so savvy. Here, courtesy of the Sierra Club is a list of seven current policies that should be of concern to all; they will damage our planet for generations.

• Moving forward with construction of the environmentally destructive, inhumane border wall.
• A new budget that cuts major environmental and health programs.
• Stripping federal protections for gray wolves in the lower 48 states.
• Beginning seismic testing for offshore drilling off the Atlantic Coast, endangering marine mammals along with countless coastal economies.
• Finalizing new rules gutting the Endangered Species Act.
• Issuing seismic testing permits for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's coastal plain, harming or even killing polar bears.
• Finalizing a reckless new 5-year offshore drilling plan, the first draft of which made more than 90% of U.S. waters available to oil and gas companies.

Not included here, presumably because they're not quite so current, are dropping from the Paris Climate Accord, and allowing the dumping of mining waste into streams and rivers.

You Know Better

This is an open letter to those of my friends and family who know better. It adds up to quite a few of you. I hope you read through it all.

You know better than all of the scientists who study Climate Change. Okay, I'll bring up the 97% agreement you hear about, but only to stipulate that the actual number is higher than that. But whether it's 97 or 99 percent, it's enough to call a consensus. You wouldn't know about the consensus by watching Fox News, listening to talk radio, or listening to the President. Those people know better, and that's why you do as well.

Real scientists, those conducting peer-reviewed studies that are published in scientific journals, all agree; there is no debate on the matter. Is it possible that they are wrong, and that you and Fox News are right?

Of course, it is. In your mind, it may even be likely. After all, you have President Trump on your side. And let's just apply some common sense here. We can't even see carbon dioxide, so how can we say that we're pumping so much of it into the atmosphere. And it's been a cold couple weeks, so how can they say the earth is warming? Forget for the moment that most of Modern Physics is outside our realm of common sense as well.

In fact, history is rife with examples of science getting things wrong. Some individuals (I am thinking of people such as Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, and Einstein)  have changed the world by proving the existing science incomplete, inadequate, or just plain incorrect. Will it happen again? I'm sure it will.

There's only one little itsy-bitsy item to consider: extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The great thing about science, the reason I don't know better, is that it's based on provable facts and that it is self-correcting. In all those instances where the existing science did get it wrong, once that extraordinary proof was presented, the new paradigm was made part of the existing base of knowledge.

Will Climate Science, in particular, be proven wrong? Will you, who know better, be the one to do it? I, for one, will be more than happy to see your extraordinary proof.