Trump Picks Top Climate Skeptic to Lead EPA Transition

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-picks-top-climate-skeptic-to-lead-epa-transition/

by subnaught • 10 years ago

78 38 10 years ago

marricks• 10 years ago

Anyone have anything to offer on what "checks and balances" would be put in place against dismantling the little environmental progress we've made in the past 8 years?

We seem pretty screwed. This guy seems as in the industry pocket as possible.

smpetrey• 10 years ago

Oh yeah, royally screwed.

ocschwar4• 10 years ago

State level actions.

judahmeek• 10 years ago

When many state legislatures are controlled by republicans? Good luck.

ddw• 10 years ago

But emails though

mabbo• 10 years ago

And so it begins

Broken_Hippo• 10 years ago

This was my exact thoughts upon reading the article: So much so that I just sent my spouse the same words.

drzaiusapelord• 10 years ago

So much for the "outsider not beholden to politics" argument eh? This is the GOP playbook of forcing anti-science partisans into important roles and gutting environmental regulations to please industry.

Also so much for the Trump supporter excuses of "Oh, he didn't really mean that, he just said that to get elected -- wink, wink, nudge, nudge," nonsense. Clearly climate change skepticism has become a mainstream view in the US government after nearly two decades of fighting these skeptics. Its incredible how much progress was lost last night.

helthanatos• 10 years ago

Maybe it's because climate change is caused by something other than our cars.

thatcat• 10 years ago

Like what? All the farts of relief by trump supporters accumulating in a thick boundary layer of smug?

c0nducktr• 10 years ago

Funny how many people in tech think because they're good with computers they're somehow smarter than climate scientists.

peterashford• 10 years ago

What are your climate science credentials?

gopetergo• 10 years ago

You can fact check this in 5 seconds, but it looks like the average sceptic is not even able to achieve that simple task.

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emis...

ocschwar4• 10 years ago

Maybe you should offer more than a tantalizing hint for why we should discount 150 years of scientific work establishing that it is, in fact, caused by our cars.

fl0wenol• 10 years ago

You're right!

It's also caused by, but to a significantly lesser extent, raising cattle.

(Deforestation and methane release)

notacoward• 10 years ago

Remember Cheney and the secret energy meetings? Same story all over again. Probably some of the same people. Certainly some of the same companies.

carlisle_• 10 years ago

Less than 24 hours and I've gone from being simply stressed out about work and ready for the election to be over to general depression, feelings of hopelessness for our future, and an overwhelming urge to curl up into a ball for an indeterminate period of time.

irq• 10 years ago

It's 1:49PM here and I still haven't gotten out of bed. Feeling the same way as you.

jonomw• 10 years ago

Feeling the same way. I wonder, in a year, if this election outcome will be visible in suicide trends.

MrZongle2• 10 years ago

Sounds like November 2008 for the average conservative.

darpa_escapee2• 10 years ago

How many conservatives had their civil rights and equality consistently dangled in front of them for votes by the party that just won the executive and legislative elections?

honkhonkpants• 10 years ago

Yeah think of all the indignities those conservatives had to suffer, kowtowing before a black man!

IvyMike• 10 years ago

The only good news is that I'm so dead inside I don't think it even matters. "That's the thing, Will. Americans are optimistic by nature. And if we face this problem head on, if we listen to our best scientists, and act decisively, and passionately, I still don't see any way we can survive." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CXRaTnKDXA

piotrjurkiewicz• 10 years ago

Good. Maybe this will help to shift the focus to real pollutants, which actually harm human health, instead of CO2.

ocschwar4• 10 years ago

CO2 harm to human health involves a more complex chain of causality than merely breathing it in and being poisoned by it. But it is real nonetheless.

sparky_• 10 years ago

Disgusting. Terrifying. It was a nice planet while it lasted.

bkjelden• 10 years ago

Am I being optimistic in thinking that at some point the American public may flip on climate change and denying it exists will become very unpopular?

Where I live we've set multiple temperature records in the last few weeks and may break a record for latest first snowfall ever. Even if correlating the weather outside with global climate conditions is a flawed metric, people have to figure out what's going on at some point... right?

scrollaway• 10 years ago

It'll happen - it's bound to. Progress tends to happen that way, if you look at any of the previously divisive issues.

The problem (and please don't misread this) is that when it's about eg. gay marriage or drug enforcement, it's "only" some people's lives being ruined. That's temporary and localized. When it's about climate change, it's about the long term fate of the entire planet. There's no "rolling back the tape".

It's already too late now. And the US just elected somebody who is ready to undo the past 8 years of its own progress on climate change.

The good news is, Greenland's pretty big and mostly uninhabited.

p1mrx• 10 years ago

It's bound to happen eventually; the question is whether it will happen soon enough to do any good.

m3kw9• 10 years ago

What infuriates me more is the people jumping to conclusion about their futures

windlep• 10 years ago

At this point, I just assume it will all go back to being as wacky as it was under Bush (very wacky). He threw in plenty of people that refused to acknowledge Climate Change too.

Now, its fascinating how much executive power Obama has used to push through policies that neither the House nor Senate would agree to. And yes, Trump will definitely roll them back.

I still don't understand why the Dem's didn't try and change this whole crappy process when they briefly had it all. None of these positions should be so easy to f-up with a new President. They should require actual knowledge and a proper skill-set for the people in them.

abandonliberty2• 10 years ago

Organizations select for power-hungry behavior. Changing these processes would reduce the likelihood of them or their allies winning that power. An individual who reduces the power of themselves or their allies will be weaker/less desirable/less fit than either internal or external competition that does the opposite. It is a race to psychopathy that intensifies with competition.

It's the same for electoral reform or [insert your list seemingly irrational/bad organizational behavior here].

Trump himself said it was broken - but it doesn't matter because he won.

Any frustrations we have are irrelevant unless we have power.

==============================

Details here from a prior post:

1. Iron law of oligarchy (1911 - 1700 words on wikipedia): "all complex organizations, regardless of how democratic they are when started, eventually develop into oligarchies."

2. Dictator's handbook (2011) - Or CGP Grey's summary: rules for rulers (2016 - 18 minutes): "Bad behavior" is emergent from power structures rather than human weakness. From democracies to dictatorships, organizations select for Machiavellian and psychopathic behaviors.

I can't recommend these enough. This life altering perspective takes <30 minutes to go over - plus potentially several days of despair. The problems with the world are not user error. How can technology help?

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_oligarchy 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs

xiphias• 10 years ago

I think Bitcoin is right now the most powerful technology that can help... it got me out of despair when I understood it more. It can't help the climate short term, but at least restructure the power long term to people who hopefully have a better scientific understanding.

Trump Picks Top Climate Skeptic to Lead EPA Transition

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