Eight Ways the Trump Admin has Failed Science Education & the Enviroment

Started by Shiranu, January 05, 2018, 04:17:52 AM

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Shiranu

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/rosetta-stones/8-ways-the-trump-administration-has-been-a-disaster-for-science-and-our-public-lands/


(each point within the link links to articles going into them in more detail)



Quote


1.
Trump's EPA won't make mining companies set aside money to clean up their damage to the environment.
...

New Obama-era rules meant other mining industries would, like my dad's employer, have to set aside funds for cleaning up after themselves. They'd no longer be able to extract all the riches and then claim there was no money left for remediation, leaving the state and federal agencies to foot the bill.
Now they don't have to set aside money to clean up their operations. This is going to be utterly disastrous for our waterways, our air, and our lands.
2.
Trump appointed the worst possible Secretary of Education

Betsy DeVos has been a nearly unmitigated disaster for public education. We'll have a very special feature on her within the next few days: the list of her many, many horrid acts is far too long to include here.



3. The tax bill Trump signed into law critically endangers the ANWR



While grad students dodged a bullet at the last minute, the Republican tax bill that Trump signed mandates oil drilling in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. That's a devastating combo punch: drilling will not only ruin lands that are crucial to animals and people alike, but also contribute to the global warming that is baking our planet alive.


4. Trump's interior secretary is just about the last man on earth who should've been put in charge of public lands
Ryan Zinke's more interested in getting in bed with industry than protecting our public lands. He's also keen on slashing funds and staff from the very agencies he's sworn to serve.


5. Trump took perverse pride in shrinking monuments his Democratic presidential peers created
Zinke recommended, and Trump delivered, carving Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments down to a shadow of their former selves. Goodbye, priceless cultural heritage. Goodbye, goodwill towards Native American tribes. Goodbye, pristine wilderness. Too much of it is now up for grabs by industries that will devastate it.

6. Emboldened by Trump's attacks on monuments, a GOP rep plans to take the assault to the next level
Do you think what Trump, his interior secretary, and the Republicans at large have done to our public lands is bad enough already? Utah rep Rob Bishop wants to destroy even more. His “National Monument Creation and Protection Act” is better termed the "No More Parks Act." You know that power that presidents have had that protected priceless lands like the Grand Canyon? Yeah. This bill would do away with all that. If you had any hopes of preserving the best of America for your kids and grandkids, well, the Republicans and the Trump administration aim to take it away from you.

7. And let's not forget all the other damage Trump's administration has done to our national parks and our federal parks employees

From muzzling the National Park Service, to silencing NPS climate change experts, to overturning sensible NPS regulations, it's been one heck of a harsh summer.


8. And, finally: USGS scientists have been prevented from attending critical geological conferences
Zinke's new budget rules meant a drastic 60% drop in attendance for USGS scientists at the American Geophysical Union conference this year. Some of them were denied the funds to attend just days before they were supposed to leave. The Geological Society of America's annual meeting saw a drop of roughly 40%. These meetings are incredibly important for geoscientists. These are professional meetings, not happy fun play times. But the Trump admin doesn't care if America falls behind. And I'm pretty sure they only care about geologists who can find them more mineral, gas, and oil reserves to exploit, preferably within a national monument.

Let's put aside "politics" for a minute and say this... regardless of if you like Trump or not because of his social views or his rhetoric about the economy, I don't think either side of the aisle can argue that he has been anything but an utter failure in regards to our science program, education and the protection of our environment and national parks.


Our scientific community has been extremely hampered; it feels like years ago, but let's not forget one of the first things he did when he got in office was put the gag-order on any government scientists who disagreed with his parties views on things like global warming. This has been a day one war on science, and if you are an atheist (really though, if you are a functioning human being) this should be a line in the sand, even if you don't think the other things he has said and done are lines in the sand.
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Blackleaf

On the first day of Trumpmas, mine Führer took from me...our national dignity.
"Oh, wearisome condition of humanity,
Born under one law, to another bound;
Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity,
Created sick, commanded to be sound."
--Fulke Greville--

trdsf

I looked at the subject title and genuinely stared at it a moment, thinking, "Wait, what do you mean only eight?"
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan

Gilgamesh

In all the ways you mentioned; you're right - he's been a failure.

Shiranu

I will post smaller articles concerning the environment here I suppose, and save space by only posting major articles as their own threads...

https://www.snopes.com/2017/02/06/dump-coal-waste-into-streams/

Though not out-right legalization of dumping waste into streams at coal mines, it does remove Obama's regulations and makes the act much more vague as to what is or isn't waste/what is or isn't an acceptable stream, which leans further in the coal companies' favour rather than the environment's.
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Baruch

Quote from: Shiranu on January 07, 2018, 08:15:05 AM
I will post smaller articles concerning the environment here I suppose, and save space by only posting major articles as their own threads...

https://www.snopes.com/2017/02/06/dump-coal-waste-into-streams/

Though not out-right legalization of dumping waste into streams at coal mines, it does remove Obama's regulations and makes the act much more vague as to what is or isn't waste/what is or isn't an acceptable stream, which leans further in the coal companies' favour rather than the environment's.

Obama was able to blame others, for destruction of water in West Virginia by frackers.  But did he have them arrested?

http://wildvirginia.org/fracking-explosin-in-west-virginia/
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Cavebear

Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!