President Trump has recently taken to his social media soapbox to lambast everything from statue removal to immigration, but he has remained silent about one of our nation’s most pressing issues: the environment.
The environmental issues should be taken the most seriously since climate change and other forms of turmoil may be impossible to reverse. The current administration has proven its loyalties lie with large corporations instead of the earth we walk upon.
In the first seven months of his term, President Trump has not done many favors for our ailing planet. Even before his ominous withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement in July, he had rescinded numerous fracking, water and air-pollution regulations, approved the construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, proposed gouging vital parts of the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget by 40 percent and tweeted his doubts about global warming — a phenomenon that scientists say is undeniably real.
Recently, Scott Pruitt, the EPA Administrator appointed by President Trump, announced that his agency would be rejecting a petition requesting the ban of the organophosphate insecticide chlorpyrifos.
The chemical was already banned from homeowner use after studies showed exposure may be linked to cognitive deficits and nervous system damage, but farmers and agricultural companies can now continue its use. This decision directly conflicts with recommendations made by EPA scientists during Barrack Obama’s presidency to ban the insecticide completely.
On Aug. 20, the Trump administration further emphasized their disregard for science policy when it refused to renew dozens of scientific advisory roles on the EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors, including 38 of the 49 roles on the Board’s five subcommittees.
Similar decisions in May led to further staff resignations in protest of the agency’s decisions. The administration has also weakened the Toxic Substances Control Act’s chemical assessment guidelines and eliminated the federal advisory panel responsible for reviewing and interpreting the National Climate Assessment, a recurring report on climate change research.
All these actions demonstrate how damaging it can be to allow corporate interests to dictate how research is funded and conducted. Pruitt, who has sued the EPA on numerous occasions and has ties to oil companies like Exxon Mobil and Devon Energy, can now restructure the agency’s identity in whatever way he sees fit. If these recent events are any indicator, environmental science is most certainly not his top priority.
The true danger of the policies of President Trump's administration is that the changes they make during this term may not be environmentally reversible by the time a new administration takes over. Social legislation, health care and military presence are indeed complicated and expensive to alter.
However, alterations to these policies are easier than attempting to reverse widespread climate change. Cultivating compassion for ocean acidification or atmospheric carbon dioxide levels is a bit more difficult than doing the same for our fellow marginalized and oppressed human beings, but it is what we must learn to do.
Melting sea ice and irreversible ecological cascades are problems we may not have the resources or technology to deal with, whether as a nation or planet. Our Earth is not something we can bring back from the dead.
