Attack on the planet

As a former science teacher in 1970 celebrating the first Earth Day and the implementation of the EPA by Richard Nixon, I am shocked to see how far we have backpedaled in 48 years. With overwhelming evidence from increasingly accurate scientific studies, we now bring you President Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, installed climate-change denier Scott Pruitt as EPA director, and attempted twice to install Kathleen Hartnett White, a woman who knows less about the effects of carbon dioxide on the planet than the average high school science student, to head up the Council on Environmental Quality. All of these nominations and appointments are applauded and supported by deep coal pockets like the Koch brothers, and an unbroken broadcast range of evangelical and conservative talk-show hosts.

It’s a full frontal attack on health, the planet and common sense for the sake of heating up the economy and betting the planet’s future on production and consumption.

This is not just about our guns, abortion, and immigration. The planet is at peril at the hands of politicians who care nothing about the degradation of the planet or the effects tactical nuclear weapons would have on it. It might be time to pull our heads out of the sand.

Along with Donald Trump and Scott Pruitt, we have Ryan Zinke as Interior secretary, who supported measures to increase production of fossil fuels; Rick Perry as Energy secretary, who once vowed to eliminate the agency; and Jeff Sessions as attorney general, who opposed nearly every piece of legislation to protect the environment in his 20 years in the Senate.

It took the signatures of 300 scientists and a few Republicans to cause Kathleen Hartnett White to withdraw her candidacy for the Council on Environmental Quality, so let’s see which fox President Trump has up his sleeve next to protect our environment.

DANIEL SHERMAN

Bella Vista