In abonkers consultation with CNNlate Thursday , Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt double over down on the climate censoring that ’s become foundational to this administration ’s environmental agenda . Alongtime denierof man - made climate change , Pruitt told CNN it is “ insensitive ” to discuss the character climate alteration may have play in strengthening Hurricane Harvey or Hurricane Irma .
Fromhis interview with reporterDaniella Diaz :
“ Here ’s the issue , ” Pruitt differentiate CNN in a phone interview . “ To have any kind of focus on the cause and effect of the storm ; versus helping people , or really confront the effect of the violent storm , is mislay . ”
…
“ All I ’m suppose to you is , to use time and effort to turn to it at this spot is very , very insensitive to this people in Florida . ”
Where to begin with this ?
mood variety , a phrase Pruitt tellingly skirt in his reaction , has been pushed to the margins since the day he became EPA decision maker . Herefused to supportthe scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate modification in his confirmation earshot and has made erasing climate change hold forth a fundament of his term of office , striking it fromthe EPA ’s siteand from theNational Institute of Environmental Health Sciences ’s site , stop funding for mood advocacyawards , and even submitting a budget that wouldend Union financial backing for climate changeresearch .
Pruitt ’s finger’s breadth - wag effort to turn global heating into a tabu may be softer than his boss ’s assertionthat climate change is a “ hoax,”but they ’re united in a policy of erasure and demurrer . This has nothing to do with Hurricane Irma or Hurricane Harvey . This is about enacting a unforgiving deregulating order of business and using any mean value necessary to silence detractors , even at the toll of ignoring what ’s energizing these catastrophic storms .
How do you prevent storms without understand their causes ? Even the mostmeasured assessments of mood change ’s impacton Harvey and Irma points to warm sea and rising sea level . In a written report on theambivalent datum on climate changeand Hurricane Harvey , climatologists separate Gizmodo that , by even their most conservative estimate , Harvey was “ more intense , big , and longer lasting ” than it would ’ve been without the force of clime change .
What about that is insensitive ? The lies only became more obvious as the Pruitt consultation continued :
“ What we need to focus on is access to fair water , addressing these areas of superfund activities that may get an attack on water , these effect of memory access to fuel . … Those are things so important to citizen of Florida right now , and to discuss the case and effect of these storms , there ’s the … place ( and time ) to do that , it ’s not now . ”
Scott Pruitt ’s land tenure as EPA has incessantly countermine each retrieval effort he ’s list here .
Pruitt has said that he wants the EPA to address superfund sites — heavily contaminated areas that , if offend by floodwater , could carry contamination all throughout the hurricane ’s path . Just last workweek , AP reporters found that the EPAstill had n’t visit 11 superfund sitessurrounding Houston , falsely claim they were unprocurable . Instead of fast - tracking on - web site visits , the EPA attacked the journalist for “ cerise - picking facts , ” without actually rebut the taradiddle itself . Who does that help ?
Those most vulnerable to the effects of the storm are the people who subsist near chemical substance plants , landfills and wastefulness handling centers;overwhelmingly low - income people . The EPA has a consecrated department to understanding how societal inequities exacerbate the effects of pollution and environmental harm . It ’s call the Office of Environmental Justice and Trump ’s brass proposedeliminating the programby zero - ing out its funding . Is n’t that insensitive ?
And at last , the logos of the Trump / Pruitt environmental agenda isrelaxing restrictions on fossil fuel companiesin the skip they ’ll run as job make engine for blue collar America . But thelack of attach legal oversightmajorly contributed to why petrol chemical quickness encircle Houston ’s poor , and why these ship’s company were n’t required to disclosethe genuine dangers to residents , even as they keep exploding . Pruitt haslong - hit tie to the fossil fuel industriesand , whilepushing for bass cutsto his own faculty , nearly 400 are result this calendar month , is reportedlytrying to come out lobbyistsfor polluting industries on EPA payroll . Whither “ sensitivity , ” administrator Pruitt ?
[ CNN ]
Climate changeHurricane Irmascott pruitt
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