DENYING CLIMATE CHANGE

DENYING CLIMATE CHANGE

“As the world warms and people, wildlife and the natural environment suffer increasingly devastating impacts, the Trump administration is systematically erasing climate change from government regulations and policies.”

Cynthia Giles served as the assistant administrator for the EPA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (2009-2017). She is currently a guest fellow at the Harvard Environmental and Energy Law Program

In June 2019, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) requested comments on draft guidance on how federal agencies should consider climate when they evaluate federal actions under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Incredibly, the phrase “climate change” does not appear in that document. 

My interpretation of this latest move by the Trump administration is that federal agencies are being pushed to dismiss the risks of climate change. Assuming a continued dismantling of federal regulations this is simply another effort to minimize consideration of greenhouse emissions in reviews conducted under the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA). Climate change cannot be dismissed by sticking your head in the sand and denying scientific findings. Disparaging the science will not prevent escalating catastrophic weather, or extreme heat events. Building levees of misconceptions by stacking repetitive words of denial will not hold back floodwaters.

Inhibiting the ability of federal agencies to do their job as prescribed by current law is an approach fraught with peril – for our children and grandchildren and their children. There is no easy fix there are no short-term technical solutions. So, pull your head out of the sand or the orifice of your choice. Think beyond the last hurricane or the one currently coming up the Florida coast. Climate change is inevitable, and we must plan for it.