We cannot afford to ignore climate science
emissions from coal fired power plants.
The Trump administration’s own analysis of its new plan states that it will increase carbon emissions and result in an additional 1,400 premature deaths by 2030 due to diminished air quality. Yet during a recent rally, Trump touted this new rule that leaves some of our country’s biggest polluters to regulate themselves or choose to not regulate their emissions at all. This is on top of the Trump administration’s announcement to roll back federal clean car standards that would reduce vehicle emissions and increase fuel efficiency for new vehicles.
There is an overwhelming consensus amongst scientists across the United States, and the world, that human contributions have magnified the effects of climate change and increased the risks it poses to humans and our planet. Nonetheless, this administration seems to have little respect for scientists, data, facts or common sense. Both the Department of the Interior and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have disbanded their climate science advisory committees altogether, and there have been numerous disturbing reports of this administration attempting to hide climate science information from public view. Not heeding the findings and advice of scientists is unwise at best and at worst, it puts our planet and our children in danger.
In Nevada, we don’t need to read a scientific report to see the effects of climate change. It is already in our own backyard. Dozens of fires have raged through Northern California and Nevada this summer, producing a blanket of smoke in the region and contributing to some of the worst air pollution levels ever recorded. This unhealthy air quality reached the equivalent of smoking multiple cigarettes a day. The last three years have been the hottest ever recorded — and we’re on track to break that record again in 2018. The heat is causing earlier snowmelts in the Sierra Nevada mountains and is creating longer and drier wildfire seasons.
Yet despite the overwhelming evidence of the irreparable harm posed by climate change, the Trump administration has