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Trump Picks Top Climate Skeptic to Lead EPA Transition
- marricks 10y agoAnyone 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.
- ddw 10y agoBut emails though
- smpetrey 10y agoOh yeah, royally screwed.
- ocschwar 10y agoState level actions.
- judahmeek 10y agoWhen many state legislatures are controlled by republicans? Good luck.
- eganist 10y agoStart getting the larger population centers to refuse to do business with states which reinstitute damaging energy and environmental policies. New York and California can move mountains here.
- ocschwar 10y agoHere in New England we already have an interstate compact on climate action, so non-federal interstate cooperation is a pretty normal thing. True meanwhile the red states will go apeshit, but we have to start somewhere. And given that the Paris Conference will start discussing trade policy regarding non-signatory nations, I think even Trump will have to sit up and pay attention soon.
- mabbo 10y agoAnd so it begins
- Broken_Hippo 10y agoThis was my exact thoughts upon reading the article: So much so that I just sent my spouse the same words.
- drzaiusapelord 10y agoSo 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 10y agoMaybe it's because climate change is caused by something other than our cars.
- thatcat 10y agoLike what? All the farts of relief by trump supporters accumulating in a thick boundary layer of smug?
- c0nducktr 10y agoFunny how many people in tech think because they're good with computers they're somehow smarter than climate scientists.
- CamperBob2 10y agoNo, it's just that no one understands the failings of computer models better than we do.
- peterashford 10y agoWhat are your climate science credentials?
- darpa_escapee 10y agoHas an opinion and works with computers.
- carlisle_ 10y agoLess 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.
- helthanatos 10y agoI woke up laughing. This is marvellous.
- ocschwar 10y agoI take it you don't have a daughter.
- irq 10y agoIt's 1:49PM here and I still haven't gotten out of bed. Feeling the same way as you.
- jonomw 10y agoFeeling the same way. I wonder, in a year, if this election outcome will be visible in suicide trends.
- MrZongle2 10y agoSounds like November 2008 for the average conservative.
- darpa_escapee 10y agoHow 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 10y agoYeah think of all the indignities those conservatives had to suffer, kowtowing before a black man!
- lucd 10y agoYou just elected the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.
- IvyMike 10y agoThe 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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CXRaTnKDXA
- piotrjurkiewicz 10y agoGood. Maybe this will help to shift the focus to real pollutants, which actually harm human health, instead of CO2.
- ocschwar 10y agoCO2 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_ 10y agoDisgusting. Terrifying. It was a nice planet while it lasted.
- bkjelden 10y agoAm 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 10y agoIt'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 10y agoIt's bound to happen eventually; the question is whether it will happen soon enough to do any good.
- m3kw9 10y agoWhat infuriates me more is the people jumping to conclusion about their futures
- windlep 10y agoAt 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.
- abandonliberty 10y agoOrganizations 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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_oligarchy 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs
- xiphias 10y agoI 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.