Deniers will head every agency dealing with climate change
It’s as if Donald Trump wants to willfully ignore coming catastrophe – or maybe is putting his own interests first:
The heads of Donald Trump’s transition teams for Nasa, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior and the Department of Energy, as well as his nominees to lead the EPA and the Department of the Interior, all question the science of human-caused climate change, in a signal of the president-elect’s determination to embark upon an aggressively pro-fossil fuels agenda.
Trump has assembled a transition team in which at least nine senior members deny basic scientific understanding that the planet is warming due to the burning of carbon and other human activity. These include the transition heads of all the key agencies responsible for either monitoring or dealing with climate change. None of these transition heads have any background in climate science.
Trump has also nominated Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt to lead the EPA and is expected to pick congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers to head the interior department. Pruitt has claimed that scientists “continue to disagree” about the causes and extent of global warming while McMorris Rodgers has said that former vice-president Al Gore, who has championed climate action, “deserves an ‘F’ in science.”
The president-elect has vowed to pursue an “America first” energy policy that will open up a new frontier in domestic coal, oil and gas extraction while eviscerating the effort to combat climate change, which Trump has previously called a “hoax”.
Trump is personally invested in this agenda. According to his latest financial disclosure records, Trump held investments in the fossil fuel companies Shell, Halliburton, Total and Chevron. His largest energy investment was in BHP Billiton, with the documents showing a stake worth up to $1.015m.
Trump also had interests in Energy Transfer Partners and Phillips 66, which are behind the controversial Dakota Access pipeline that Trump wants to see completed. Jason Miller, a Trump spokesman, has said that Trump sold all of his shares in June but has produced no evidence to prove this.
Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, said of Trump’s choices: “These are people that had slipped out of the conversation, we haven’t been even debating them in years because they were so out of step with where the American public and business is going on climate change.
“Now they’ve leapfrogged into the White House. The world has been turned upside down and it feels like basic science is up for debate. Will we now have to debate whether gravity exists too?”
The lengthy Guardian article breaks down the agencies, the appointees, and the money trail. Go read!
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Copyright 2016 Liberaland
By: dave-dr-gonzo
David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.
* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.
13 responses to Deniers will head every agency dealing with climate change
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mea_mark December 12th, 2016 at 10:08
If it is what Putin wants, then that is what we will get.
The Original Just Me December 12th, 2016 at 12:00
Hummm, stick it to them , RIGHT ???
Robert M. Snyder December 13th, 2016 at 00:00
Let’s review:
1. Lots of people say that Putin is a bad guy who doesn’t respect the U.N.
2. Putin has high favorability ratings in Russia.
3. Russia is a very cold place that could benefit from a warmer climate.
4. Russia has vast quantities of fossil fuels.
Even if the US, Canada, Australia, and Europe agree to limit carbon emissions, what’s to stop Russia from continuing to increase their emissions? It seems that they have everything to gain and nothing to lose by doing so. If you were Putin and you were convinced that more CO2 would warm the climate, wouldn’t you want to burn as much fossil fuel as possible? How can we realistically expect to get compliance from countries like Russia, or China for that matter? What’s in it for them?
Obewon December 12th, 2016 at 10:11
Each of Trump’s FNC nominees all deny reality. Every year since 1977 is globally warmer than the 20th century average. Earth is now +2°F above the 20th century average. And it’s only 2016. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/05a2bc9d5a9a4fd5f2f6206a0794d1f3891dee3764d4f80652a0e0cbc87cab7e.png
The Original Just Me December 12th, 2016 at 12:00
But it’s cold outside ? LOL :+)
Suzanne McFly December 12th, 2016 at 10:47
But his daughter is a “strong supporter” of our environment and rump met with Leonardo DiCaprio and Al Gore. Was that just smoke in mirrors? OF COURSE IT WAS, THIS WHOLE CAMPAIGN HAS BEEN A DAMN FARCE.
The Original Just Me December 12th, 2016 at 11:59
Is this the same daughter that is ” Best Friends ” with Valdimir’s Girl Friend ????? The one she went and spent time with right after the election ???
Suzanne McFly December 12th, 2016 at 12:05
Yup, that’s her.
The Original Just Me December 12th, 2016 at 12:29
Hostess with the Mostess, Ties to Valdimir.
The Original Just Me December 12th, 2016 at 11:57
The Unites States could NOT be in a Worse predicament than than the physical Goat Lovers of America put us in.
anothertoothpick December 12th, 2016 at 12:05
Criminal government by oligarchy.
.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1ee621cb22a773481cb4db8fea19112c95b62cf0b70cd6244cc1372a924862a6.jpg
Charlie Seivard December 12th, 2016 at 15:22
They will suffer with the rest of us. Denial does not change reality.
amersham1046 December 12th, 2016 at 17:31
Trump is setting environmental sciences back 50 years