More Damage

Bears Ears

More damage to the environment was done today. Our President decided to reduce the sizeof two National Monuments by two million acres. This action will make Trump’s friends, including the Koch Brothers and other fossil fuel interests very happy. Human beings, including the same Native Americans that Trump recently insulted, animals, plants and the atmosphere, not so much. Mining and drilling will begin as soon as this item clears the Republican courts.

At this time, it appears that the Republican Tax Increase and National Debt Explosion will provide the Trump administration his first legislative victory. The only other thing he’s been at all successful at is decimating the environment. This is just another step in the ecological train wreck that America has become.

In a previous post, I expressed the hope that the end of Trump will come sooner rather than later. Although the Russia investigation provides some hope for an end to the Trump administration, it can’t happen soon enough.

Shame

Photo credit: Institute of Physics

It wasn’t unexpected. But it was deeply disturbing nonetheless. A New York Times Editorial called President Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord ‘stupid and reckless’; the nation’s dumbest action since starting the Iraq War. I would add the word ‘shameful’ to the list of adjectives.

The Paris Agreement was a triumph of the human condition and spirit. We human beings are facing the greatest threat to our existence since the possibility of global nuclear war, and prior to that, since we came out of caves for the first time. Global warming is something that we caused, and yet we have the knowledge and resources to correct it. The fix is entirely a matter of collective will.

That will is the only difficult part. But the hard part was already done. All America had to do was to stay the course. And that course was undoubtedly in the right direction. Trump has shamefully perpetuated the myth that climate change is a hoax; that this accord, and other regulations hurt the American economy and jobs. In fact, the exact opposite is true.

Paris wasn’t a panacea. It was merely a turn-around; the first step towards correcting our course. It was necessarily complicated, as any agreement among 195 nations would be. Only two countries, Syria and Nicaragua, failed to sign. Now we can add the United States of America to that shameful list.

Trump’s decision is blatantly political. Yes, it was a campaign promise. Trump has kept some, and he’s broken many. Never mind that many, though not all Republicans favored this direction, some even writing a letter to Trump to urge him to dump the accord. This was about appealing to his base. Steve Bannon, Vlad Putin, and many who voted for Trump in hopes that he would ‘put America first’, especially American jobs, will be happy. Human beings of the near future (read: our kids and grand-kids) who need to breathe the air, drink the water, and live off planet earth’s bounty, not so much.

In the near term, America’s already eroded world leadership is now much further diminished. Our economy, jobs, security and of course our environment will suffer.

We can only hope that Trump will be impeached sooner rather than later. His treason and obstruction of justice are coming to light more than ever. Even the Republican party, try as they might, will not be able to stop the carnage. The problem is that with this and other actions, he’s already done tremendous long-term damage to our environment. And he’s brought shame, more than ever before – and that’s saying something – on his, and our country.

People's Climate March, 2017

Gathering on the Mall before the march

Debbie and I marched on Washington! The event was the 2017 People's Climate March. In spite of sweltering, record heat - 91F on April 29 - we joined hundreds of thousands* of like-minded others, marching on Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House, where we surrounded the building. Too bad President Trump was not there. He was 'campaigning' in Pennsylvania.

The heat only put an exclamation point on the message of the day: that the climate is in crisis, and we need to correct our collective course. This article in the Washington Post summed it up quite well.

It was a profound experience. So much so that I could almost say it was a life-altering one. How much so? Time will tell. But one thing's for sure. I will keep marching, keep writing, keep fighting.

For more about why I march, please see my previous blog post, Legacy.

*Just found out there were 200,000 of us!

We began the march at the Capitol - we're still gathering here

We're lining up. Look who joined us!

Debbie and I with our signs

There were gobs of us in the sweltering heat

The march ended as we surrounded the White House

Legacy

March for Science Cleveland                          photo Martins Krebs

Presidents famously begin to think about legacy - how they will be remembered by history - during their waning years in office. Most of the rest of us, not so much. But then again, maybe a little.

Those who are fortunate enough to be wealthy often plan to pass some of their riches to their children or to charity. The gesture can often be altruistic. To take the financial aspects of legacy a bit further, many Conservatives and Libertarians are fond of saying that they don’t want to bestow future generations with the high public debt resulting from our wasteful public spending. I believe this concern is also laudable. In fact, there is much to be said for fiscal conservatism. Whether curtailed spending ought to come from reductions in military or domestic spending is another matter, but one left for another forum. The bigger question is this: if you don't want to burden your offspring with debt, why would you burden them with a poisoned planet? It seems to me that many of the people who are so very concerned about spending and the budget are not at all phased by the extreme removal of environmental regulations by our current President and Congress.  Isn't leaving clean air and water for our children the most important legacy of all?

A while back, in a post entitled, In What Universe?, I described how our President had rescinded a law to prevent dumping of coal waste in streams. I asked how such people (and those who support/vote for them) face their children and grandchildren (as well as other questions, like where is their human decency?). It was meant to be provocative, and got the desired response from a couple Facebook friends, some of whom would probably identify themselves as Libertarian. One who took issue tried to turn the tables, wondering how I would face my own kids after supporting the previous President, who had taken seven years before signing the order for the law in the first place.

My conscience is entirely clear on the issue. President Obama was not perfect, and in fact did relatively little for the environment during his first term. During his latter years in office, however, his environmental accomplishments were nothing short of spectacular. This article, from the Berkeley/UCLA School of Law, illustrates the accomplishments even further. Just for starters, the list includes:

• An international climate agreement, due to his leadership
• Improved fuel economy and generally cleaner cars and trucks
• Energy production pollution limits
• Clean energy investment
• And much more

I am quite proud of the fact that I supported President Obama, and I think we can all literally and figuratively breathe easier because of his environmentalism. That is quite a legacy. I wonder what the eventual legacy of President Trump will be?

I don't know whether it's yet proper to say that I'm in my waning years of own life (who knows, I may yet have a few good decades left), but I am beginning to think about how I am leaving this world for my children and grandchildren. I've actually often thought about how I may go about leaving the world a better place. Certainly there are as many ways to do this as there are people on the planet. Taking care of the poor, building a company that provides good jobs or simply loving someone may be some of the ways.  If you've guessed that my own hope for a meaningful legacy is for it to involve the environment in some meaningful way, you would be correct.

March for Science Cleveland            photo Veronica Dancer

Back, therefore, to the kids. Will they be better or worse off as a result of how I've lived my life? More importantly for them, and for all future generations (related and not): will the planet be a better place? I truly don't know. All I can do is try.

Try how? For one thing, I'm not especially well-off, so I probably won't be able to leave the environment (or the kids, for that matter), a fortune of any kind. I most likely won't even have as much time to volunteer, and/or protest as I'd like, although this, I believe, will be changing. It doesn't look like I'm even able to convince very many people to appreciate the environment and the planet, as I do - unless they already do.

But I can indeed donate at least some funds to the cause. And I can at least begin to protest, as I did at the March for Science, and as I will for the People's Climate March in Washington. Believe me, this protesting and marching stuff is entirely new to me. And although I'm probably not convincing gobs or people, perhaps a couple here and there will listen. Part of that, of course, also involves this blog, dontpoopinthepool.

Here then, as clear as I can make it, is my plan for an 'Environmental Legacy':

• Live my life as if the future of the Earth depends on it (it does, by the way). This means going out of my way to recycle, to not be any more wasteful in terms of energy, than I feel necessary, and to always make intelligent, informed choices regarding day to day environmental decisions.
• Continue to try my best to convince others to do the same. This will be, by necessity, in my own gentile way, because... that's my way. I think I may have some measure of influence over immediate family members, but others, not so much. I'll keep trying, however.
• Continue to try to convince people of the facts regarding the environment in general and the climate in particular through the writings of this blog. It certainly can't hurt. Once again, it's my way.
• I will march! I've already started, with my participation in the March for Science. It will continue at the People's Climate March in Washington. I've never been this much of an activist; in fact, I've hardly ever protested anything. That's all changed now. 

I don't know what the exact outcome will be, but this battle for the planet must be fought. And for our children's future, it must be won.

Poster for the People's Climate March

Qualification

In the news this week:

-> White House and EPA plans to gut support of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. 

-> President Trump signed an executive order aimed at rolling back major environmental regulations to protect American waterways

The assault on the environment continues. Don't even get started on how we need to cut the budget deficit. The same people who are so concerned about that want massive increases to military spending.

Everyone says they like clean air and water, even President Trump. Some people, like him, then begin to qualify it.  

You are either for clean air and water, or you are for corporate profits, and therefore against them. 

False Dichotomies

Beliefs



We all have our belief systems. Some have more of a basis on facts, but all rely at least to some extent on faith. Even those of us who espouse a scientific view must still have some faith in the science of their peers as well as those who have come before and helped build the pyramid of scientific facts upon which our current beliefs are based. Then there are those who base their beliefs more on faith than fact. Many a debate has been had between those with a scientific and those with a religion based world view.



Even if we accept that science vs religion is a dichotomy (and some of us would not concede this), the environment in general, and climate change in particular, does not need to be in the middle of it. For even those of great religious belief must still accept that some scientific facts are true. And some of those facts have to do with keeping our planet verdant for future generations. Little to nothing in religion tells people that they should exploit natural resources until they are exhausted, burn fossil fuels until the air and water are polluted, or dump industrial or coal waste into water systems.






Regulation



Here is another dichotomy, and, I believe, another false one: environmental regulation suppresses jobs and the overall economy. It's true that regulations do sometimes reduce jobs in certain sectors, but they then create new jobs in others. In fact, an award-winning 2013 paper by Berkeley economist W. Reed Walker shows that there is "increasing evidence that benefits from environmental policy far exceed the costs."






Support of Renewable Energy



And finally there's this related one: the government has no business supporting renewable energy. Jobs and the economy are based on our fossil fuels. This article, from that bastion of liberal thinking, Forbes magazine, debunks and disputes this entirely.  It's still (in spite of our recent election results) not too late for our country to take a leading role in the economy of the future.

In past posts, I've listed sources that show our government's historical and continuing subsidization of the fossil fuel industry. It's well past time for this to stop, and to start putting clean energy first.

In What Universe?

Things are happening so fast in Washington, that it's nearly impossible for us normal people to process it. I've heard that so many lies are emanating from the Executive branch that the fact-checkers are facing exhaustion. One thing is perfectly clear, however: the environment is under attack.

Last week President Trump signed an act of Congress rolling back the stream protection rule, a regulation to protect streams from mining pollution. Yes, this really happened. This will, in effect, allow coal waste to be dumped into rivers.

I have seen and heard arguments about why this should be good for jobs, industry and preventing governmental overreach. I have seen and heard that we can "have a clean environment without needless regulation." I have heard the assertion that this rule was only put in place by President Obama in the last days of his Administration. Here is what I have to say to the Republicans and their new President about these justifications.

You have no moral or ethical justification whatsoever. Greed has won this battle, even as the war continues. In what Universe is it okay to dump coal waste in streams? How do you pass a law like this, and then face your children and grandchildren?

Now comes the next phase of the assault on clean air and water. Senate Republicans have confirmed Scott Pruitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency, an agency that he and President Trump have promised to dismantle.

To my Republican friends, I have to ask: you are presumably getting what you asked for. What has happened to your human decency?