Trump scales back Obama’s climate, water rules with executive orders

Is it all just a Chinese hoax?

President Donald Trump has openly pronounced his anti-climate change outlook for the United States. Any small increase in global temperatures, he has said, is “nothing to worry about.” In a tweet, Trump noted that he thinks that climate change is “an expensive hoax” perpetrated by the Chinese.

He has expressed this view for over five years, having tweeted on the issue as early as November 2012. “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive,” said Trump.

In contrast to Trump’s claims, 97 percent of scientists agree that human activity and the exploitation of fossil fuels have led to the warming of the planet. Stating that regardless of an individual’s belief in science, everyone will suffer from the impacts of climate change.

Eradicating any possibility that he would maintain an open mind about climate change during his presidency, Trump has elected a climate denier and fossil fuel accomplice, Scott Pruitt, for one of the top environmental administrative positions in office.

Pruitt was recently confirmed the head administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] on Feb. 17. He has since labelled environmental activists as “alarmists” who can be prosecuted.

President Obama’s Clean Power Plan set the first federal limit on carbon pollution for power plants. He sought to reduce pollution by 30 percent; estimating this would save Americans billions of dollars in public health and climate-related costs by 2030.

Pruitt sued the EPA in an attempt to block Obama’s Clean Power Plan. He will now be in charge of this organization, which he has sued 14 times. All but one of these cases were filed in collaboration with fossil fuel industry companies.

One of his top responsibilities is to spearhead the regulation of fossil fuels released nationwide. His constant negation of climate change, arguing that there is “significant debate” as to whether it is happening, has thrown the future of the agency into doubt.

Scientists around the world are questioning earth’s future in the hands of the current President.

The Editors of Scientific American stated that when the “president has tweeted that global warming is a Chinese plot, threatens to dismantle a climate agreement 20 years in the making and to eliminate an agency that enforces clean air and water regulations, and speaks passionately about a link between vaccines and autism that was utterly discredited years ago, we can only hope that there is nowhere to go but up.”

Director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University said, “In my assessment, it is not an overstatement to say that Donald Trump’s climate change views and policy proposals constitute an existential threat to this planet.”

On April 22, also known as Earth Day, environmental activists have will descend upon Washington, D.C. for “March for Science” in Washington D.C. Thousands of people have begun organizing Marches for Science in over 150 cities around the world on the same day.