So, election day is over and I know we all just want to move. I'm sorry, did I say move? I meant move on. Trust me, I'm right there with you, but I just can't right now. This news affects not only the state of this country but of the entire world (with us being the most powerful country and all.)
Since Trump was elected, he has been tasked with putting together his cabinet, and all of the chosen members have been quite... controversial, to say the least. Trump is no stranger to controversy, so though people were outraged many were not surprised. But, I do think one thing that caught many Americans a little off-guard was the appointment of Myron Ebell as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
For those who don't really know who Ebell is, he leads the environmental and energy policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Now, some of you may be thinking, "he heads a sector in charge of energy policies for a major corporation so he seems pretty qualified to me." And to that, I would answer, "yeah, it sounds pretty good." But looking deeper into it, you would discover that the company is partially funded by fossil fuel industries. Also, the fact that Ebell co-chairs an organization dedicated to ¨dispelling the myths of global warming" (this quote is from Frontline, by the way,) Cooler Heads Coalition, is sort of a deal-breaker too.
That's right guys, the prospective new head of the EPA doesn't believe in climate change and he's not even a scientist. He says the reason 97% of climate scientists believe in (and have done research on) man-made climate change is to get rich. Which I think is really ironic coming from a man who receives a ton of money from companies who benefit from the use of these heat-trapping emissions.
Trump or Ebell (or both, probably) also want to quit the Paris Deal, which was agreed on just last year. I'm not really going to get into too much detail about the specifics of the deal, but it was basically set to slow down the effects of our carbon emissions on the planet.
If you were wondering, the reason it only aimed at slowing it down and not stopping it is because all of the toxic emissions in the atmosphere are going to stay there for thousands of years and there is nothing we can do about that. What we can try to control, though, is how severe the consequences of these actions are. At this point, it looks like that's not going to happen either, so...
*Sorry, I spaced out. Just had a small panic attack thinking about how we don't mind destroying the very thing that gives us life. Anyway, I´m back now!
Where was I? Ah, yes, climate change!
Looking back on it now, I do remember Donald Trump saying something to the effect of climate change being a hoax invented by the Chinese. I mean, who can blame me for forgetting, though. It was really buried under all the more... alarming things he's said throughout his campaign.
