As President Elect Trump settles into the idea of becoming the leader of the free world, he’s got some business to attend to. One of the most important matters is appointing his new cabinet members. One of the jobs he needs to appoint a new head to is the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency. Since Donald Trump began his presidential campaign, he has been shaming the environmental movement and claiming that climate change is nothing more than a conspiracy created by the Chinese. People have been waiting since his election to find out Donald Trump’s next move towards the environment, whether it be forward or backward. So who has our President Elect appointed as the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency? I want you to focus on the word protection.
Myron Ebell is the man for the job (I say this with the highest level of sarcasm). He is a figure in Washington who, again and again, has made clear he is “against what he sees as an alarmist, overzealous environmental movement that has used global warming as a pretext for expanding government.” Ebell has voiced his belief for opening up land for federal logging, oil and gas exploration, more coal mining and giving more authority to the states in these decisions. And remember the Paris Climate Accords? A monumental movement that the world participated in to forward the efforts in stopping climate change? Well Myron Ebell has, time and time again, urged the Senate to reject these accords. President Obama has made significant strides in protecting our planet and preventing any further damage done by climate change. Now President Elect Trump and Myron Ebell are threatening to undo all of this work.
Myron Ebell also gets his “credentials” from a conservative policy group known as the Competitive Enterprise Institute. To sweeten the deal, they received a considerable amount of their funding from ExxonMobil. Another source of funding was an organization known as Donors Trust. They are staffed by a significant number of past employees from Koch Industries or conservative groups supported by the brothers. Ebell has spent much of his career, with nothing beyond a basic background of science, questioning the correlation to increased climate change events and human interaction. Also, instead of supporting the idea of energy rationing, Ebell believes the U.S. needs to go full blast into the use of coal, oil and gas for our economic growth and continual job creation.
With all of this information in the public eye, it is a shock that Ebell is even a candidate for the job. Last month we as a planet reached our carbon tipping point. Environmental disasters are increasing in severity and occur more often than ever before. The ice caps are melting, and a significant number of the species we share this planet with are dying out. We are at a crucial point where we can truly save our planet or we will doom Earth and everyone and everything that live on it. As the future generation, we need to watch Ebell carefully. It is our job to protect our planet from corporate and political greed, such as what he will insight. Only time will tell, but I encourage all young people to make their voice heard and protect this beautiful planet we call home.