Trump and the Environment

Lately when writing about President Trump I have emphasized his clownishness, his craziness, his seeming inability to focus on anything of import. But despite his cartoonishness, the aura of fakeness about him, he is very real and has been doing very real damage. Some of the damage is being done to the environment.

Trump's views on the environment were quite clear before he took office. Several years ago he claimed that climate change was a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. He has never reversed himself. Trump's attack on the environment has several foundations:

1. His obsessive crusade to undo everything that President Obama accomplished
2. His tendency to view everything through the prism of business
3. His penchant for extreme, unscientific views on nearly everything
4. His realization that his base distrusts environmental regulation as a liberal scheme

#1 is pretty self-evident and doesn't require much exposition.

If you look at almost everything Trump does, it all comes back to money, to the hallowed bottom line. Precious few issues don't boil down to his position that if it lowers the cost of doing business, it's good, if it increases expenses, it's bad. It's a simple calculus, so simple in Trump math that it's more like first grade arithmetic. It really can't be argued that many regulations cost money. If there's a regulation that limits the amount of pollutants that an automobile can emit, it will cost more to produce than one that can belch forth as much toxic smoke as possible. It costs a factory more to safely dispose of it's waste than to simply dump it in a river. If you listen to virtually every proclamation that involves environmental regulations, it is justified as a money saver, as a job creator. It is seldom if ever framed as contrary to established science; the environmental impact is simply not an issue. Think back to the announcement about the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord - it was explained as burdensome because of the costs.  The overturning of the rule prohibiting certain coal waste products from being dumped was promoted as a way to increase coal industry jobs, not addressed as being environmentally unneeded. With Scott Pruitt as Environmental Protection Agency Director we have someone who so disagrees with the actual mission of the agency that he regularly sued the EPA while Attorney General of Oklahoma. In addition to Pruitt, the agency has been filled with industry lobbyists and has removed agency professionals from the decision making process. Her is a list of environmental regulations either overturned or in the process of being overturned:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/05/climate/trump-environment-rules-reversed.html?_r=0

Trump's statement that climate change was a Chinese hoax was mentioned earlier. He seems to have a very shallow understanding of science and no desire to learn more, especially if it contradicts what he already believes. Based on his proposed budget Trump sees little worth in scientific research and has cut the budgets of many agencies that do that research, such as the National Institute of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, not to mention the EPA. 

Finally, there's the appeal to his base. Much of what Trump says and does is designed to "piss of the liberals". Right-wing talk radio, in particular Rush Limbaugh, have derided "environmentalist wackos" for years, feeding a revulsion among many of anything that is "liberal". He appeals to a scientifically ignorant segment of the population, making false claims, knowing that if he makes them loud enough and with enough schoolyard insults, his base will cheer. 

Yes, he is a clown, but he's a dangerous clown.