As a government report warned of a coming climate change disaster, it was revealed that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to scuttle the Office of Science Advisor, created to counsel the E.P.A. administrator on scientific research on which health and environmental regulations are based.
The warning was buried in a 500-page report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), written to justify freezing federal fuel-efficiency standards for cars and light trucks built after 2020.
The study, reported by The Washington Post, said that on its current course, the earth will warm a disastrous seven degrees by the end of this century.
Said The Post:
A rise of seven degrees Fahrenheit, or about four degrees Celsius, compared with preindustrial levels would be catastrophic, according to scientists. Many coral reefs would dissolve in increasingly acidic oceans. Parts of Manhattan and Miami would be underwater without costly coastal defenses. Extreme heat waves would routinely smother large parts of the globe.
But the administration did not offer this dire forecast, premised on the idea that the world will fail to cut its greenhouse gas emissions, as part of an argument to combat climate change. Just the opposite: The analysis assumes the planet’s fate is already sealed.
In other words, since human activity has already doomed the earth's atmosphere, we might as well just ride it out and make as much money as possible.
Apparently the same logic was used at the EPA to get rid of the Office of Science Advisor, which works to ensure that the highest quality science is integrated into the agency’s policies and decisions, reported The New York Times. Since climate change isn't real, why do we need scientific advice?
The action is just the latest at the agency to diminish the role that science plays in its policy decision making. According to Science Advisor Dr. Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, dissolution of the office was just a matter of being more efficient by eliminating redundancies and duplication of effort.
Both of these developments occurred this past week, clearly indicating the Trump administration's blatant disregard for the truth about climate change and its hellbent determination to reduce federal regulations with which businesses must comply -- whether they are needed or not.
So what if parts of Manhattan and Miami would be flooded or extreme heat waves would routinely smother large parts of the globe if temperatures rise an average seven degrees by the end of the century, as predicted.
Who cares?
Nobody in the Trump administration will be around to see it, so what the hell. Let's just not worry about it. Wouldn't want the auto or fossil fuel industries to take a hit, would we?
When these people are finished, what kind of country -- what kind of world -- will be left for our kids and grandkids?