Nature in the Crosshairs

I never intended for this blog to become a political forum or to spend my time discussing the pros and cons of any party or policy. However, it is 4 days until Americans must go to the polls to cast a vote for either former President Donald J. Trump or the current Vice President, Kamala D. Harris, and with the consequence of that outcome being a potentially staggering blow to the environment, I feel compelled to speak.

While Harris may not offer to those of us who prioritize the planet absolutely everything we desire, she will at the very least, not remove environmental protections already in place—protections, I might add, that have been greatly expanded over the 4 years of the Biden-Harris administration and which have had considerable improving effect on climate change policies. And while I don't claim to know the intimate details of Harris' future plans concerning the environment, the bottom line is that Harris is not a known environmental threat. Therefore, I do not feel it is worthwhile, within the scope of this blog post, to discuss her stance on that subject.

I do, however, feel confident in stating that a Trump presidency would be the death knell for clean water, clean air, many species--plant and animal--already on the brink of extinction, and a whole lot more. The following quote from a July 29, 2024 article entitled “What Project 2025 would do to climate policy in the US”, written by Zoya Teirstein and published in Yale Climate Connections, summarizes the concern very succinctly …

“Broadly speaking, Project 2025 proposals aim to scale down the federal government and empower states. The document calls for “unleashing all of America’s energy resources” by eliminating federal restrictions on fossil fuel drilling on public lands, curtailing federal investments in renewable energy technologies, and easing environmental permitting restrictions and procedures for new fossil fuel projects such as power plants. “What’s been designed here is a project that ensures a fossil fuel agenda, both in the literal and figurative sense,” said Craig Segall, the vice president of the climate-oriented political advocacy group Evergreen Action.”

I think it is abundantly clear to anyone who has followed the former president’s activities over the last decade, that Donald Trump’s sole interest in politics centers entirely on how he can personally benefit from his position. Given another chance in the job, he will use up, wear out or destroy anything that stands in the way of his mission to gain wealth and control—and that very much includes the environment. We can say good bye to clean energy research, energy efficiency guidelines, and safety standards for everything from household appliances to cars and trucks. He wants to significantly reduce the environmental oversight capacities of our watchdog agencies, or even eliminate both the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency. And he won’t stop there.

Big mining and oil industries want more land—our land—to exploit. Under a Trump administration, oil and mining deals will be signed hand over fist and nothing so insignificant to Trump and his cronies as endangered species, pristine wilderness or clear waterways will even be a consideration in the negotiations. I think we will be saying good-bye to red wolves and manatees, pollinators will be a thing of the past, our skies will be filled with choking chemical smog, and the rivers will float carcasses of dead fish among the layers of plastic and waste clogging them.

This is a depressing scenario, but one that has every chance to become a reality if Donald Trump is reelected to the presidency. Keep these things in mind when you go to the voting booth—your future and the future of the planet probably depends upon who you choose when you mark that ballot.