Slash pesticide safety
A disconcerting first paragraph:
The Environmental Protection Agency has issued a new, more detailed plan for laying off 25 percent of its employees and scrapping 56 programs including pesticide safety, water runoff control, and environmental cooperation with Mexico and Canada under the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Oh splendid, they’re cutting back on pesticide safety. You can see where Trump would approve of that: much of the danger of pesticides is to farm workers who pick crops, and most of those are what Trump calls “bad hombres,” in other words immigrants from Mexico and points south.
In a recent interview, Sen. James M. Inhofe said he would like the department to focus on more traditional environmental concerns rather than addressing climate change.
“What I want them to do is to do what they are supposed to be doing – be concerned about the environment, the water, the air,” he said. “I’d like to see an EPA there to actually serve people and make life better for them.”
Because climate change is just some airy-fairy idea that won’t do anything to make people’s lives worse? Really? Rising sea levels, disappearing glaciers, drying up rivers, crop failures, floods, more and worse storms and hurricanes and typhoons?
Oh well, Inhofe won’t be around for that.
I imagine golf courses are pretty heavy on pesticide use to maintain the unnatural monoculture of their greens. I imagine that cutting pesticide protection would reduce the red tape and regulations that golf courses would have to deal with. Golf courses. Hmmm. Why is that ringing bells….?
Jackin-Hoff, Trumpster and the BANNista: Let them eat “cake”! See how they like that diet change from coke.
Over 60 years ago, Tom Lehrer amused his audience with the witty (and alas prescient) song “Pollution”.
“Wear a gas mask and a veil — then you can breathe, ‘long as you don’t inhale!”
Now, that is my wish for those … those … No, I can’t say it!
Between Inhofe and Pruitt, Oklahoma is doing its best to make sure we don’t have much of an environment left.
And since those air and water regulations have already been slashed, that’s rather…disingenuous…don’t you think?
And they won’t be able to address those “traditional” environmental concerns if 25% of their personnel is let go. They are already too understaffed to enforce the existing laws; I know this, because I have worked in both air quality and water quality units, and neither one of them had much time to do the inspections that were required. So polluters polluted, and every now and then a big polluter would get a big fine to huge fanfare in the newspaper – a fine that they would later whittle down in negotiations, and might not actually get paid at all in the end.
As for all the so-called nasty paperwork? The EPA has divisions that will help with that. A truly big polluter probably has a person on staff to deal with EPA regulations, but the small businesses can usually go to their permitting agency and find that they have an office that does nothing but help them with the paperwork.
A new, warmer world is on its way – perhaps we’ll see some more giant tree ferns, like back in the Carboniferous. Or maybe we won’t, since it might be a bit too warm to support humanity’s needs.
Yes, I fear that by the time those crimes get reacted on it will be totally too late, we humans will be already over the cliff. Good times for primitive plants and cockroaches maybe. (Not a slur on Prez1!!)
Since when is his EPA concerned about our air or water?
I was listening to Radio NZ interviewing an American correspondent this morning. They were talking about Pruitt (amongst other things). To paraphrase part of the conversation:
Correspondent: Pruitt is an extraordinary choice because he’s fundamentally opposed to the mission of the EPA, it’s like appointing someone opposed to public education to head the Department of Education.
Interviewer: Isn’t that exactly what’s happened with Betsy DeVos?
Correspondent: As soon as I said that I knew it was a terrible example…
Hahasob I know, I bump into that thought all the time. “It’s like – oh yes, that’s exactly what he did.”
‘…more traditional environmental concerns’
I think he means Huntin’ and Fishin’.
With side orders of grazin’ and loggin’ and drillin’.