I have spent the summer hiking in the forests of Northern Arizona. There is a new trail to try every day. Take a look at a map of our national forests and you will see the vastness of public land.
In NYC, federal land is measured in square feet. So our views on public lands inevitably differ. When it comes to mines out West, it's pretty much a NIMBY thing. If they want to build a mine in a remote corner of Utah, those who live nearby deserve more of a say. The rest of us are not much affected. It's similar to public housing in New York. It is necessary but not necessarily welcome. As for gold mines, they are a huge part of our history. If they were barred in places from South Dakota to California, it would have caused a war.
Are mines necessary? Their existence all over the world suggests that they are. If we don't have mines in the US, China will dig more in Africa, and the environmental harm will just move.
This thing about protecting open land is complicated, just as is locating public housing. National parks are one thing. But national forests are a fancy name for woods and one grove of ponderosa pines is the same as all others, unless we are talking about the ones in my back yard.
Since you're talking about preserving the land in Alaska and the West, those of us who live here should have the biggest say. And if a mine creates lots of jobs in a forest and nearby residents want the mine, you'll have to do some fancy talking to talk them out of it.
9
@michjas
What a short-sighted point of view. Your claim that a mine in Utah doesn't affect you in Arizona is absurd. The land is connected by rivers, by the wind, the ecosystem doesn't know boundaries because it is all one living whole, and the whole is more fragile than it might appear.
I'm from the west. I know the great forests and harming part of them can lead to harm to all of them, particularly when mining is involved. We're not talking little holes in the side of the mountain like the Westerns show. Modern day miners take the tops off of mountains and leave moonscapes. Mine tailings get into the land and worse into the water.
And no, local landgrabbers should not be consulted. This is what is happening in Brazil. For the sake of enriching a few people the world is losing a priceless and irreplaceable treasure.
We must, must realize that there is no such thing as "my backyard," because we are all connected.
Above all we must honor the fact that national parks and forests and monuments belong to all of us and are not up for destruction by corporations that sometimes aren't even American. This is theft, it is vandalism, pure and simple.
Finally though, if there is exploitation of OUR land, our resources, we the people should all get a dividend. I'll bet if the miners and drillers and land destroyers and water killers had to pay a dividend to the people they wouldn't be so interested in stealing our heritage.
369
@Sophia is right. Mining, especially modern mining methods, are a disaster for the land. The toxic waste of the mines will eventually seep into rivers and the aquifers that feed creeks that feed rivers. It will also affect the ranchers, farmers, families and municipalities that use water from wells drilled into the aquifers. WAKE UP AMERICA. IF YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR LIVES, CARE ABOUT YOUR CHILDREN AND THEIR CHILDREN.
191
@michjas "The land is vast."
And the majority of it is already mined, logged, grazed, or drilled. Habitat fragmentation is placing large vertebrae animals in danger of extinction. Since 1500, 300 mammals have gone extinct as a direct result of human behavior. It will take millions of year for evolution to replace them.
We humans are killing off our own companions in the vast Universe and leaving our children and all future generations this once beautiful planet as an industrial hellscape.
105
Obama never put in place regulations reducing CO2 emissions from power plants. He may have tried, but since the regulations did not reduce CO2 emissions and also violated the Clean Air Act, they never took effect, blocked by the federal courts.
Trump just issued new regulations that do reduce CO2 emissions.
It is not only misleading for this opinion piece to assert that Trump rolled back Obama regulations, it is an outright, intentional lie.
Greenhouse gas reductions: Trump 1; Obama zero.
4
@ebmem I think should check into what's happened to carbon emissions (so far) under Trump--they are up 3.4% and will continue to rise.
On President Obama's environmental policies and efforts you may want to read this: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/28/519003733/trump-takes-aim-at-a-centerpiece-of-obamas-environmental-legacy
Like Trump, you seem more interested showing your distain for President Obama and in doing some kind of bizarre scoring than in substance and concern about the environment.
204
@ebmem
The Clean Power Plan of August 2015 put in place a Federal and State partnership and method with targets for reduction of CO2 emissions which would most definitely have worked without the need for "regulations" that you refer to. And there was a failure to participate backup for those states failing to do their part which would have involved Federal regulation.
Trump scrapped it wholesale and replaced it with a gutless regulation that addresses ONLY newly construted Natural gas and coal fired plants, leaving zero plan at all for the vast majority of the existing production. The article is accurate in describing what Trump did as a rollback of sane response to an existential threat!
100
@ebmem
So much fiction, and absolutely no supporting evidence... just Trump talking points at play here.
His relaxing of methane containment standards (issued under Obama) alone will have very negative consequences for our environment. Why? Because methane is one of the biggest contributors to climate change facing the planet.
91
The President is endangering the country in EVERY way. And the Republicans aren't merely complacent, they're complicit.
50
If there were no other reason to scorn Donald Trump, the environmental damage he and his administration have inflicted and continue to inflict is more than sufficient to rid the country of his noxious tenure in office.
38
“Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.”
- Wendell Berry, poet, novelist, environmentalist and farmer
28
"It is not clear why Mr. Trump is doing this, apart from wanting to make Alaska’s Republican leaders happy. The economic gains would be uncertain at best."
I'm pretty sure that means that Trump is removing protections from the land as a matter of principle. It is not in the economic interests of much of anyone to try to exploit the land. In short, Trump is pressing a button that says unprotected with regard to long that nobody wants to work. In short, this is a big to do about nothing.
1
The reason educators are working so hard to get kids outside and into the woods will help prevent the next Trump who has no affinity for the outside world that is not a manicured environment like his golf courses.
14
Do we have a healthy balance between the needs of local
citizens and the desire of some environmentalists that nature
just be left alone.
Two years ago we had a forest fire that destroyed a forest
on Federal Land that had be set aside not to be logged for
the last 20 years.
Local Loggers lost jobs and income and the forest was burned.
Sensible thinning of the forest would have provided work for locals
and helped to prevent the fire.
Meanwhile, it is 70 years since the European Theatre of
World War II began, on Friday, September 1st, and as far
as I can tell not a mention on the NY Times Front Page -
how quickly we forget the greatest tragedy in human history.
4
@John Brown
Yes. It's amazing how environmentalists and protectionists can advocate so strongly for 'no development' (while using and expecting to continue
to use all the modern amenities which necessarily
depend on resource extraction) while totally ignoring
the historic, current and predictable devastation
caused by wars. My 7th birthday was at the peak of the Cuban Missile Crisis and, although the adults pretended to us that nothing was amiss, we children were very aware of a immense and imminent danger. Historian Paul Boyer describes his memory of that day in his excellent book 'By the Bomb's Early Light', as a young adult in college "watching the clock in Emerson Hall creep up toward 11 AM on October 25th, 1962 -- Kennedy's deadline to the Russians -- half expecting a cataclysmic flash when the hour struck . . . "
It's easy to focus on 'saving the environment' but much more difficult to address the still imminent threat to the planetary ecosphere of a nuclear exchange.
6
While we’re all distracted by Trump’s latest inane, illiterate, bullying, paranoid tweet, the worst damage he’s doing isn’t grabbing the headlines. Once he’s gone, we’ll recover from his ugliness and regard the Trump era as a bizarre aberration in presidential history. What we may not be able to recover from is the devastation he's wreaking on the environment.
43
This article shows why we must be vigilant in the face of Trump's constant distractions. While he tries to divert everyone's attention in another direction with his racism, white supremacy and anti-intellectual nonsense, the criminals he put in charge of our government are working hard to destroy the environment, crush civil liberties and deny health care to all of us. Vote this crew out in 2020 and consign them to history so we can rebuild the damage they've done is such a short time.
21
Too many Democrats think Trump is merely stupid and crazy and unable to do anything big. They measure Trump like a normal president and decide that he is incompetent.
They are measuring Trump the wrong way. Trump doesn't care how Democrats measure his presidency. The Party of Trump doesn't care about how the Constitution measures his presidency. While some Democrats are still talking about compromising with the Right, because the whole point of constitutional government is to move forward through compromise, the Right and their favorite-president-ever is trying to go backward by undermining the constitutional framework for negotiations and compromise.
Trump says crazy things all day for a reason. He does it so that he can unilaterally undermine centuries of decided law, to help global corporations (that he or his family or his business associates have shares in).
But more importantly than short term financial gain, the Right and Trump attack the Constitution because the rule of law, designed to protect the Rights of all citizens, cuts into profits for global corporations and the billionaires that own them.
Watch CNN's series on white supremacists for example. They are against the Constitution because it makes minorities equal to them under the law. Evangelicals want to replace the Constitution with their bible. Global billionaires help these overlapping groups to weaken the rule of law.
Trump creates world chaos because that is how you cancel elections and loot the USA.
29
Its really a shame that the progressives (particularly journalists and media giants like the NYTs) have no clue about psychology other than the apologetic, victimhood and self deprecating approach to everything. The left has two faces one is the face of pretentiousness and the other is victimhood. Take a minute for reflecting and consider that if all your time (Trump's) is spent on self defense you may not have a lot of time to think about the forests. Watching your back and dodging arrows is a full time job. This is an observation and suggestion only.
2
@DED - Hmm. Victimhood defines the President. His latest attempt to deflect blame for a trade war that's slowing growth is to blame businesses for being hurt by his tariffs.
Pretentiousness defines him, too. Or as he'd put it - "Pretentiousness defines Trump".
But anyway, how does that apply to situations like the Pebble Mine? Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski was in favor of the mine in 2014, but here's what she said after the EPA reviewed what it said was a very flawed and incomplete impact assessment from the Army Corps of Engineers:
"“We as Alaskans shouldn’t be willing to trade one resource for another. So you’re going to have to convince me that you can actually build this mine and do so in a way that will not harm the ecosystem that is supporting and sustaining not only the salmon, but the people and everything else that is in that region. So it’s a very, very high bar that I think has been outlined,” Sen. Murkowski said. “I’ve seen some comments, they seem to be more confident they can meet the concerns that were expressed by EPA… But again it was not just the EPA. It was the EPA, and the state, and the Department of Interior and other agencies that all seem to share the same concerns. So based on where we are now, based on what I’ve seen, they have not met it. They have not met the requirements, in my view, for a permit to issue.”"
https://www.ktuu.com/content/news/The-Dividing-Mine-Part-2-Murkowski-Pebble-present-differing-views-of-EPA-528930831.html
7
This article states that Trump is, "Almost pathologically dedicated to obliterating anything President Obama had done to reduce global warming gases, preserve open space and help endangered species." The truth is that Trump is not almost but definitely pathologically dedicated to obliterating what President Obama did to protect the environment, fight global warming, defend endangered species, protect consumers, prevent another global financial meltdown, provide health insurance for millions, offer care to our poorest citizens, improve education, etc. Trump is a B-O-T-B (Born on Third Base) spoiled, ignorant, lowlife brat lacking any good vision for our nation or good will towards out citizens. Lacking self-accomplishment he is hostile to those who, unlike himself, didn't come from and were given exorbitant wealth at the get-go but rose up on their own merits and efforts.
22
Please, please, everyone reading this article, view the NOVA series on PBS called "Earth from Space." It should be required viewing for every person on Earth ... especially politicians.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/earth-from-space/
We need to change the way we live, completely, or we will not see the turn of the next century. We are using 1.5 Earth's worth of resources now. This is unsustainable ...
Will anyone listen? Probably not. The best thing that can happen to this planet will be the extinction of humans. We are a cancer on the Earth and the sooner we are gone, the better.
14
Really...He has a "mind". I don't think so.
13
Trump’s utter disregard for environmental preservation/protection and the overall well-being of our planet doesn’t surprise anyone - specially longtime New Yorkers like myself.
Over the 30 plus years, we have witnessed numerous instances of Trump’s shady business deals, narcissistic behavior, solipsistic temperament, hedonistic lifestyle yada yada yada. In summary, Trump’s Raison D’être is: “What is in for me”.
Ergo there is no point criticizing this perfidious provocateur who is masquerading as the President - it’s going to fall on “deaf ears” or be dismissed as “Fake News”.
Let’s vote en masse to get him out in 2020. ‘Nuff said
22
Trump is not the only one.
Americans are generally ignorant about the ecology in general .
They absolutely don't care.
Trump is not the cause . He is a symptom.
8
Please People: Trump is breaking a LAW. A Law that we VOTED into LAW in the 1960s. That law is NEPA., The National Environmental PROTECTION ACT, a list of six Principles that would avoid all of these environmental Disasters and that the EPA is now VIOLATING daily. Please raise an ALARM!
https://repository.arizona.edu/handle/10150/288978
15
I'm surprised he doesn't want to sell it back to the Russians in exchange for a trump tower in Moscow.
8
Trump, the most personally selfish human being in the United States, who cares nothing about anyone or anything else, including nature and our world, other than himself.
19
Rather than question why Trump and the Republicans are caving in to the industry driven policies that destroy our environment, how about some hard and specific investigation about the money that is changing hands in order to buy access to the policy makers. Stuff that makes even voters who don't know a thing about the environment sit up and wake up.
15
@rich
There are hot 2020 senate races approaching where knowing who's pocket which senator is living could make the difference in controlling the Senate and maybe saving the world.
7
Is anyone watching what stocks the Trump family and friends are buying? Like "Northern Dynasty Minerals" for instance? And yes, tailings ponds DO leak.
20
The old adage 'You get what you pay for' has never been more apt. Clear air, clean and clear water, abundant wild-life, thick forests and plastic free oceans don't come without cost...but it's small change in the overall scheme of things.
Unraveling the limited 21st. century environmental protections is of benefit to whom? Certainly not the human race and most certainly not the rest of Earth's creatures great and small...with the possible exceptions of cockroaches and extremophiles.
Threatening the future of life on Earth is indeed a crime against humanity - a crime where even the winners are losers, a concept Donald Trump and his pliant Cabinet and administrative appointees fail to grasp.
No one should have this power - let alone someone who is demonstrably non compos mentis.
13
These are the people who voted for Trump. He's already shafted the farmers. The factory workers ? They've got to know by now that Trump's promises to bring back American manufacturing jobs were just hot air. The only Americans he's taken care of are the rich. Not enough votes there to re-elect him. He needs to keep somebody on his side. Trump's family and friends are making too much money off Trump's stay in the WH. No cost is going to be too high for them to keep it that way.
16
If Trump wins re-election it is said he will use his term to payback his distractors and revenge is part of his narcissistic personality disorder. Trump values loyalty above all as he is insecure and knows he is a blowhard pathological liar and fears exposure. Our country will suffer economic damage , negative international relations with our traditional allies while moving closer to Putin's Russia with a wink and nod from Moscow Mitch. Air and water pollution will become disasters and FOX NEWS will claim all facts are fake news as our dear leader cannot err on any matter.
13
Destroying God's Creation is the first thing on every Republican's mind; their war on nature never rests.
18
The younger generations have most at risk as our planet is being systematically destroyed by the greedy and the ignorant--Trump being actually both.
Young voters must come out in huge numbers to eliminate this serious Trumpian/Republican threat to the environment and the survival of our planet.
19
Colorado has been fracked to death, Utah's National Monuments have been reduced in size, mining will now destroy the Salmon in Alaska and the Boundary Waters in Minnesota, other National Monuments and Native American religious sites will be destroyed.
For a party that claims they are religious and care about everyone's right to religion, they sure don't give a hoot for respecting the Native American's religious sites.
17
What a disgrace is Trump to these United States; a proto-fascist if allowed, by a pliant republican party, to get away with his authoritarian unhinged abuse of power.
14
For Trump and his people it's all about money. Make as much they can, damn the consequences. One day, when this is over, we're going to find that every decision and announcement he made was telegraphed ahead of time to someone in his family or inner circle so he and they could profit from the outcome. The ultimate insider knowledge. They're all crooks. Anyone who votes for this guy in 2020 deserves the disaster that is certainly coming if he is reelected.
15
Remember that it's not just Trump. He has summoned up a seemingly inexhaustible supply of second- and third-raters who specialize in exploiting the rest of us, to help him turn our public goods into marketable commodities, and, in the end, kill us all.
I would call those exploiters who purport to be public servants "public enemies," and I would call the private entrepreneurs, simply, "predators," if it weren't for the fact that genuine predators, like sharks, are essential to the health of so many real environments.
It's hard for me now, after many years of nonviolent commitment, not to see the struggle against these predators and public enemies as a war.
15
Most of the regulations we're talking about occurred in the last 6 months of Obama's presidency. Why so late?
I believe strongly in keeping the environment intact and that includes forests. I also believe in protecting the habitats of wild life. However, I have yet to see a real assessment of the impact of the rollback of these recent regulations. Are we really going to allow corporations to come in and wipe out forests, mine for minerals in sensitive areas, and pollute the environment? If that answer is yes, then I hope the Dems come up with a good counter to Trump for 2020. That's yet to happen and there is a lot at stake if Trump continues.
Instead of running on reparations, free college for all, debt forgiveness and a takeover of the healthcare industry, I wish Dem candidates would focus more on responsibility, starting with the environment.
7
The Dems have come up with lots of counters to Trump. Any one of the declared candidates would be an improvement. If the ballot let me choose between Trump and Dead Dog, I would vote for Dead Dog without reservation, knowing that Dead Dog is an improvement over the Trump Crime Family.
11
I remember traveling through Sudbury, Ontario in 1967. It looked like a moonscape as a result of the nickel mining there.
11
This president is a clear and present danger. Not just to America but to the entire world. I'm a patriotic American who disagrees with everything this administration stands for and everything it does and says. As a result, I am praying for it to fail -- completely. Sadly and tragically, it is succeeding in too many ways and damaging everything that it touches.
This president and administration must be booted from office in a massive landslide. That will restore some of the faith I once had in America. The alternative is too terrible to contemplate.
19
This is the libertarian side of Trump which accompanies his racist side. It is to allow capitalists to do whatever they want without government regulations. It has to lead to environmental destruction. The libertarian view is fatally flawed but those making fortunes from capitalism follow ii because it is compatible with their desire to make as much money as possible. The result is climate change, pollution, and extinction of species.
13
Every Trump action is designed to enrich a few (cronies), and reinforce at their expense the "sovereignty" of many (plebeian).
8
We need a sincerity test for the owners of the extractor companies. The problem has been that they don't have skin in the game — their own personal skins. Would they sign a contract to face a firing squad if their operations poison the land and the waters?
5
Trump was born with a billion dollar silver spoon firmly placed in his mouth. I would like to suggest to your readers that this is a big reason for his lack of empathy. Simply put: he can afford it. He got elected for casually dissing minorities, women, immigrants, and 'liberal elitists'. The entire focus of his 73 year old man-child self, now, is to impress the kind of people who watch World Wrestling Federation matches. As regards the environment, he is certainly well-insulated from any damage he might do. The only way to get him to reconsider is for Fox & Friends to complain about the damages.
10
The Republicans and Trump and other Countries’ right wing political parties see environmentalists as the Enemy. It is a cause they can all get behind on, so they leap on any opportunity to destroy either the environment or any wild native animals, preferably both.
It’s an easy political stance. They very much enjoy the reaction of environmentalists to their destruction. It very much affirms their biological urge to dominate and control which they perceive as their identity.
7
Trump's formula is from way back in the past: Cut taxes on industry, allow them free rein, hope they employ people while you rake in the lobby money.
A forward looking approach would be to tax people and help new, green industry to grow, employing more people, even creating new professions.
Instead, America became complacent somewhere in the 70's, as the oil and chemical industries gave money to our 'leaders'. Even a modest investment at the time would have created the green industries we need.
Oh, for the text book example of pure hypocrisy; A congressman from a gulf coast oil loving state complained about 'subsidizing' green energy. 'Subsidies' how scary ! ...
The oil industry has been subsidized from the beginning thru lobbying at every level, up to and including war.
It's never too late ... unless we decide it is.
7
I hope we bring an end to this lawless administration. Another four years and it will be too late.
14
We know the symptoms for insanity. Tout the cure. Call for his impeachment!
9
And then there is the applauded and increased massive cruelty to animals via factory farming ("kill 'em faster!") and environmental destruction (what habitat?). The crimes of Trump and his henchmen are nauseating and unfathomable.
10
The pristine lands left in America after this madman has ended his term will fit nicely on the head of a pin.
9
This administration is evil. There is no other word for it. Plain evil. Uselessly so. Wantonly so.
15
Donald Trump is, to use a favorite word of his, a "nasty" old man. He is a nightmare. I can only hope that enough Republican voters will regain their senses and courage to vote this most evil of politicians out. Worse than Watergate? Oh, way, way worse than Watergate.
14
What could possibly underline the importance of getting rid of this dangerous fool more than his ignorant, short-sighted assault on the natural world. These treasures belong to the world and should be protected with that in mind.
Another four years of trump would be a huge disaster for us all. He must go.
12
Honestly, it appears the only thing he thinks or cares about is building a false narrative that transforms him from the reality, that of a lazy, intellectually-challenged, amoral oaf to his mythical aspiration of a virile, gifted genius. In his fantasy world, he is also a responsible steward of the environment.
9
Trump is an environmental criminal and so are fossil fuel companies their executives and lobbyists. There will be a reckoning when environmental justice annihilates them and their families.
12
Reminds me of the movie “Wall Street” ...
How much is enough??
How many yachts can you water-ski behind??
Greed is not good.
10
Please remove trump and his administration. They do nothing but destroy. Congress, you must wake from your hibernation and act to save this country for us and future generations. trump destroys because it makes him feel big. He is actually the smallest of humans. A heart and mind that grow 3 sizes smaller each day, unlike The Grinch.
8
Trump is destroying everything around him including our, government, our Constitutional rule of law, our economy, our relations with our true allies, and perhaps mosty importantly the environment.
Trump has a lifelong history of ruining everything he touches. He was placed in office by a corrupt election organized by the Republicans with Russian aid. Trump is the destroyer, yes!. However, and most importantly, we must ask who placed the ignorant egomaniac Trump in a position where he could damage not only all Americans, but the entire planet. The answer is the Republican leadership. We are all at great risk because of their power hungry greed and contempt for our country. They must be completely replaced along with Trump in the name of all living things.
11
This always lying, totally corrupt, Russian compromised, failed president will be reviled in history.
15
The one consistent theme in all his actions is trying to wreck everything that's good about the U.S.
8
Time to remove this pathological, narcissistic cretin from the office before any more permanent damage is done.
He has proven himself unworthy of the job and has degraded the country and the office in 2.5 short years.
I do hope the Dems are keeping track of all trumps nonsense so that the rollbacks can be rolled back when he is finally gone.
Start with the "tax cut".
8
I guess 'drain the swamp' literally meant get rid of wetlands and then multiply the number of lowlifes on the take from America's natural resources, getting cheap licenses to public land, tax write-offs and permits to pollute while the taxpayer pays to clean up after them.
8
Trump has a natural affinity with people seeking a profit, that is his whole life. He sees the quick buck as the highest virtue. Any regulation that hinders opportunity is therefore contemptible. It’s a world in which the smart exploit the suckers, the righteous turn God’s bounty to cash. He sold his own soul years ago. America and Greenland are assets to be stripped.
7
The occupant of the White House is driven by revenge, sabotage and chaos. And his supporters evidently think the damage is just fine as long as it offends "liberals."
5
Dorian, climate change incarnate, aims to teach trump and his Florida properties a lesson
3
If an area is economically depressed, perhaps the solution is to move.
But like our persistence in rebuilding in locations vulnerable to hurricanes, we are stuck on stupid.
4
Horrible. Trump has no understanding of, nor affinity for, Nature. I'm sure he thinks that he's "in Nature" when he's on a golf course. I'm also sure that anything truly wild & un-manicured would frighten him. As this article makes clear, he and his corporate cronies see Nature as something to exploit, and eventually obliterate, pave over, develop. This is the mentality of most developers, though Trump is an extreme case. Add to Trump's crimes the destruction of the Amazon--- the Earth's "lungs"---- by the ignorant lunatic running Brazil, and the future of our Mother Earth looks awfully grim.
267
Ruined landscapes are visible from the air. West Virginia in particular bears huge scars from “mountaintop removal,” a euphemism for utter destruction left behind. Nothing grows in the poisoned rubble for decades, if ever.
8
Should we consider the idea of adding category 6 to hurricane and accordingly
upgrade trump WH as Cat.6
Aside from hurricanes and other disasters he takes the cake as the biggest destruction in our country modern history.
11
You are wrong that Mr. Trump's opposition to all (Obama) environmental laws is "almost" pathological. It is totally pathological, as is his stances on immigration (racism) and distributive justice (Democracy). It is also Criminal, whether in simply breaking current law, or in ignoring the widespread human rights violations that are predicted, and are presently, occurring under his policies, especially doing nothing about global warming/climate change. Pathological and Criminal--this is what Republicans have signed up to.
11
Make no mistake. It's not about profits for other companies. It's not about hatred of Obama although that's a nice side benefit for his "base." It's not about Trump company's profits. It's about "plunder for pay" to stuff the Republican 2020 re-electon coffers.
It's about the dark money that these beneficiaries know they are expected to funnel to Republican re-election coffers. This was perfected and heralded by Republicans in the days of terminating Federal and State jobs and turning them over to "contractors." Jeb Bush was ecstatic about it and a perfecter of it this method of funding, (shaking down contractors), to fund Republicans in Florida.
It now works efficiently since John Roberts' Court's ignorant decision that "money is speech and corporate dark money is okay."
Trump and his enabling political agency heads know full well the intent of this flurry of deregulations is "plunder for pay" to stuff the 2020 Republican re-election coffers.
12
@Liam Jumper
They get to keep their campaign coffers if they lose, too.
4
Framing Trump's wilful destruction of our environment as commerce versus conservation is off by 100+ years. Teddy Roosevelt championed aspects of environmental preservation as a gift that his generation could bestow to the future. Today, we are fighting for our survival against the certainty of catastrophic climat change if we fail to act decisively right now. we know Trump's "policies" consist of his own incoherent reality TV thinking applied to whatever the super-rich and Wall Street could make a higher profit in the next year. My question to the NYT is why do you still support those same interests?
6
As a young Eagle scout, we explored, with an excellent guide, The Boundary Waters area. Over 150 miles by canoe. What I saw and experienced there has stayed with me for the rest of my life. At one point we were 100 miles from any type of road, even dirt. The quality of the water reflected it. Need a drink of water? Dip your paddle deep into the crystal clear waters, and raise the blade and handle high so that the water flowed directly into your mouth. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of square miles of lakes and forests. This is the true treasure of our planet, not dollars in a bank account at the expense of a destroyed environment, our true mother. Wouldn't try this, certainly if Trump and his money grubbers get their way. Their ignorance astounds me. It cannot be rebuilt. Throw these heathens out of office, before it is too late.
13
What's on Trump's mind: golf and whether Hurricane Dorian will destroy Mar-a-Lago, building his wall, anger in tweets attacking his enemies, Fox news, who's disloyal and plotting against him, his rallies, tariffs, ways to make immigrants lives awful; how to persecute the F.B.I. to bend it to his will; hate in tweets attacking his enemies, especially the "fake news" media, how to exploit the environment for profit.
What's not on Trump's mind: the rule of law, gun regulation, the environment and global warming, the emoluments clause, being nice, apologizing for all his insults, concerns for those in need, compassion, empathy, sincerity, and honesty.
11
President Trump is famous for bragging about the economy, which actually he has had precious little to do with.
He’s also famous for blaming everything bad that ever happened in the world before he took office on President Obama.
Once Dorian begins wreaking havoc on us, he’ll soon be blaming President Obama for not doing enough to fix the environment.
Just wait.
10
Mrs Trump visited the House of Jean Rostand in Cambo-les Bains near Bayonne last week , with all the ladies of the G7 presidents.
The garden of this house is fabulous for representing the biological diversity of the earth. Jean Rostand was a famous biologist ,professor and researcher of Embryo genesis of amphibians, a parthogenetist.
And an activist about ecology. he died in 1977.
An island is named after him in the Antartica.
Of course he was the son of Edmond Rostand, the famous playright of Cyrano de Bergerac. 1897 I think . And the film of Rapeneau. Almost Ragueneau.
Mrs Trump watched some nice basque dance and sipped some local wine of Irouleguy. That Mr trump said she loved very much.
Mr Trump when he returned to the USA hurried at destroying 20 years of regulation for the ecology. 100 laws discarded.
Of course neither of Mr nor Mrs had any idea of who was jean Rostand or his father. Even less who was Cyrano de bergerac in the 17 th century with his " Voyage dans la lune ".
Even the Met on its show about the moon, shows the film by Melies but completely ignores the first magnificent novel about traveling to the moon that inspired Rostand's play.
I guess ignorance is where evil starts. As it always was.
Some want to travel, even to the moon. Others just want to revert to their closet mind.
4
As Richard Bruce Cheney will be viewed by history as a torturer and war criminal, Donald Trump’s number one legacy will be as an Environmental Criminal. Of course with this man, his sins are so legion that this will get lost in the shuffle.
12
Everyone forgets that Trump was elected to be a human wrecking ball to even common sense just to show his supporters that he will end all federal regulation for makin money for him and his rich cronies. They in turn hoot and holler in approval at all his mindless rallies.
13
It is one thing to have not an ounce of love and respect for your country, including its abundant natural beauty. It's quite another to go out of your way to destroy it.
Since Trump has no interest in or capacity for showing such love, but is determined to leave his mark, his default position is to wreck and ruin. "I can kill anything better than you can, I can kill anything better than you." The rotten little boy lives on.
12
This headline should be “Trump Intends To Destroy The Planet Before He Leaves Office In 2020”.
12
Somebody should point out that the President who started the idea of National Parks was an Republican. Of course, the President who ended slavery was a Republican, too. The GOP has sold its soul.
9
I wish that I would never see
That greed incarnate, golden "T".
A "T" with Hunger Manifest -
Own all sweet earth, ignore the mess;
A "T" to lord o'er God's green day,
Her leafy arms get in the way;
A "T", this Summer, everywhere,
A nest of robbers chew Her bare;
In Her bounty, Man doth explain;
Lies right of harvest, or complain.
Defiled gift left by fools like me,
Even God's name co-op'd by "T".
4
President Evil and his band of morally bankrupt minions are on a mission to destroy life as we know it. This administration looks at scientific data, determines what needs to be done to save, protect, and improve our planet, and then does the exact opposite. It’s as if they are trying to accelerate the annihilation of mankind in some sort of depraved experiment.
13
This is an excellent review of Trump and the environment.
I need to point out the limitations of the man in one other area.
That is gun control. He is a coward in that regard and you all know what I mean. A big, weak, selfish coward.
I might mention an article in this paper today on the fact of 51 dead this past August by mass shootings. You failed to point out that in that same 31 days 1240 other persons were murdered with guns in a "less than" mass shooting category. That is a fact and that fact is that 40 persons are murdered with guns each day in the US.
And the president lies and lies and lies about what he will do. He is a narrow, deceptive president and he needs to be removed.
10
It is imperative to the nation and the planet that on November 3, 2020 Trump must be flushed into oblivion.
11
one or two decades from now, given the deoxigenated features of trump-think, there will be less need to fill up the tank and take your Family to see and appreciate and enjoy Nature... it will be massively under assault and mostly gone.. sooner or later this kind of toxic thinking will be coming for the National Parks.
6
We all know how viciously vindictive trump is. I believe he is doing all of this on purpose. He does not love America. As a matter of fact he hates America. Why? Because the vast majority of Americans hate him. He only loves those members of his base that think he is Gods gift. Deep down inside trump is nothing more that a sad little mean child.
11
We have returned to medieval times. The America's new Lords (oligarchs and corporations) have learned that politicians and governments can be paid off. They have emerged as the new ruling class --- money will buy you anything. They will continue to rape and pillage the environment and ignore climate change for their gain and benefit. They will get richer, have land holding larger than some states and create tax exempt foundations to give their money to so their philosophies and influence exists long after they die --- they have learned that if you are rich, you can take it with you in America.
6
@KD Lawrence
This dynamic is not new. You might want to read up on the railroad barons of the late 1800's for a longer perspective (to give just one example).
3
Magnificent. Never stop.
1
NO, the environment is one of the first things on Trump's mind, for two reasons.
1. Environmental protection and mitigation of climate change were important to Obama. Anything important to Obama is anathema to Trump, and he will do anything possible to reverse any and all of Obama's accomplishments and oppose any of his policies.
2. Environmental protection and regulations that maintain public safety and health reduce the ability of the 1% to increase their fortunes. If the choice is between the public good and the enrichment of his cronies by relaxation of public safeguards and lower taxes, he will always choose the latter. Environmental protection is important to Trump because of it's unacceptable cost to him and those who bankroll his campaigns.
6
I am engaged in a legal battle which is costing me tens of thousands of dollars to protect a parcel of land here in Western, MA which is home to threatened turtles and amphibians in a bog.
I find that the same voices that will send in comments about the evil Trump are silent in my neighborhood about the extermination of these inconsequential beings.
Because our community needs more and more housing, because there are more and more people. the greedy developers step in to meet the housing demand and make a fortune, and it is easy to blame them.
But the developer is up front about what matters to them. Money, personal gratification. I can fight that and am allowed to argue against it.
What I am not allowed to argue is the role of population growth, the impact of millions of immigrants on the environment every year.
The vilification of Corneila Scaife May a few weeks back was a case in point, someone whose fight to protect nature led her into conflict with those who favor unlimited growth in population.
some of us who spend our lives fighting to protect nature see the greatest threat to nature as being population.
And the real threat is local in every decision to cut down a forest, to house animals in factory farms, to exterminate a species of snake because it interferes with tourism, to kill coyotes because they are a threat to pets, to kill deer because they have no natural predators ... all because political correctness says we can't talk about population
5
Actually, Cornelia Scaife May seems to have done a great deal to aid and abet the greedheads who you claim to be fighting. This also just in: the Right also regularly attacks population control programs around the world, while lecturing white women on the need to have more babies.
7
@Robert
Robert, do you really care about these little creatures?
It doesn't seem to me they matter to you.
I would be surprised if you were to say you really are interested in nature or have a reverence for all life. Perhaps you do, it just doesn't sound that way.
I doubt you know what a pangolin is and why they are threatened or the red not and why it is threatened, or the bog turtle of which there are about 40 left.
If you care about these things then the fact that white women are not having enough kids to replace our huge population is a good thing (its a very small minority who argue for further growth) , but it is meaningless when in fact it is people of color who thanks to medical advances for the most part developed by western civilization are having huge numbers of children. Africas population goes up by 30 MILLION a year - in 1900 the population of the entire continent was 130 million.
I have had the mic grabbed from me at Dem conventions for talking about population and yes I am going to court in October to do what i can to stop the slaughter of what you might deem inconsequential creatures compared to the satisfaction of every human desire. And yes it is costing me a lot of money, but like i said for the politically correct it is just to easy to demonize the motivations of those who think all life is sacred not just human , and because of those beliefs object to population growth, further immigration and think it a greater threat than the greedy capitalists
2
We have to wonder what the people advocating for the unrestrained monetization of our resources think about the future of their families.
I think the divide in our nation, bottom line, is the culture war. how incredibly sad.
6
@The Iconoclast agreed. The word you are looking for is "commodification" of resources.
3
Thank you for writing this. For the last three years we have seen many years of progress get eroded away by this Administration and our out-of-touch Congressional Delegation. Bristol Bay supplies over half of the world's sockeye salmon and the Tongass is one our most treasured natural assets. Both are not only wild and beautiful and filled with natural treasures, they provide tens of thousands of environmentally sustainable jobs. Things are dark now, but with the help of people from across America we will persevere and permanently protect these one of a kind natural treasures.
7
Who knows what Donald Trump's relationship with wild lands has been. Maybe as a young man he would hop in his rig , make his way back into a wilderness, pick up an elk road, crash a hogback (ignoring the pain of heel spurs) down to a stream with his favorite fly rod and spend the day fishing but I don't think so.
For Trump a picturesque landscape is one that has been altered to meet his definition of beauty and is artificially maintained. You know, the forest floors must be swept clean regularly. Of course, his primary concern is always profitability. Wild salmon disappearing, no problem we just farm fish. Old growth forests with mixed stands of trees, cut them down a replace them with the most profitable mono crop available.
He would consider it an honor to have the worlds largest tailings pond named after him.
9
What do we need more copper for? I remember reading a few years ago that the copper industry was lobbying fiercely to keep the penny in circulation. Which means that we already have an excess supply of this metal and artificially inflated demand. Stop making pennies and leave the Boundary Waters alone!
4
@Dialoguer
Pennies are almost entirely zinc with only 2.5% copper
https://www.usmint.gov/learn/history/coin-production
I do agree with you about making more pennies, they should be abolished but not for their copper content.
5
@Fred
But so many prices end with 99cents. What happens when you give a dollar?
1
John Kenneth Galbraith said that the ongoing dilemma for conservatism was having to come up with a morally acceptable reason for being selfish. This apparently went on steroids starting with Reagan. What is unfathomable to me is how these people have come to this point. They have children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Do they think that "exploit everything for profits now" is a better way to go than leaving a better world for their progeny? How do people arrive at that worldview?
13
Paving the way to a new and inhospitable life on the one planet all countries share - the leaders - especially ours, don't seem to get it. For the life of me I can't understand how petty power plays can dominate a force that knows no boundaries or political parties. One earth - one human race, and it is facing it's evolution or extinction.. Politics won't stop the forces of natures unless humans intervene and protect it
10
Most of those logs in the Tongass would be exported to China, along with the mill jobs. Because of mechanization in the woods, logging provides few jobs these days.
But the logging company owners would grow rich off export log prices, which are typically 25-50 percent higher than prices domestic mills can offer.
Communities would be left with a devastated landscape and broken remnants of their wildlife populations, including salmon, which feed the whole forest with nutrients gathered at sea.
15
Since this president only notices things that affect his property and finances, one can only hope that any environmental regulations currently protecting the ocean area around the mar-a-lago and Doral golf courses will be ditched immediately (like on "Day One") when a Democrat takes over the White House. Given the damage this (censored) administration has done to the American landscape and environment, it would be only fitting. Let's open it up to oil exploration and major industrial shipping. A few warehouses full of Chinese shipping boxes should improve the view for the Dotard as he relaxes on his beachfront property.
And maybe Hurricane Dorian will hit mar-a-lago, which will catch the attention of Mr. Me First and Only, and he will realize what the power of Mother Nature really is. The EPA and FEMA administrators could bring a truckload of paper towels to throw at the golf courses, so he could help his people clean up. I'm sure the Administrators of Puerto Rico who have had a lot of experience dealing with an oblivious Washington will be able to help, too, if they can take time away from their own mess that still hasn't been cleaned up by FEMA. It might change the whole course of mankind's survival if trump figures out that climate change is real from personal experience. Go Dorian, go.
11
And yet climate change is probably the most significant challenge facing us.
7
On a slightly different environmental topic, the Trump administration has stopped the construction of over 20 gigawatts of windpower off the Atlantic coast. The reason given....... environmental concerns.
17
Trump had proven again and again that the only thing he cares about is himself. He has no care one way or the other for the environment. But almost all liberals have two things in common - they strongly dislike Trump and they are strongly in favor of preserving our environment.
Trump will therefore do everything he can to cut back on all environmental protections simply for the satisfaction of getting revenge against liberals.
Additionally, he has a particular dislike for Obama, who in addition to being a liberal, had the gall to publicly roast and therefore humiliate him at a House correspondent's dinner. He knows that everything he can do to reverse everything Obama did will irritate him.
Trump lacks the intelligence and knowledge required to have any understanding for the advantages of protecting our environment.
8
This planet is not ours. We have no right to despoil or destroy its bounties, which are the birthright to the entire biotia, to which we deeply depend for our existence.
10
I doubt Donald Trump has ever stepped foot in wilderness or even a forest for that matter.
Of all the terrible things Trump has done since becoming president, his destruction of our public lands depresses me the most. He won’t be happy until he has turned our country into a wasteland while stuffing wads of cash Inyo the pockets of industry
How are Republicans ok with any of this? Do they not have children? Do they not appreciate the beauty of this country? Unbelievable.
Vote in 2020, as if your life depended on it, because it does.
10
@Raydeohed
Republicans consider themselves not liberal but conservative.
Are the words "conservative" and "conservation" related terms?
Go figure. I can't.
3
@Raydeohed
The republicans have children but they view them as assets.
2
@Raydeohed and the irony of it all is that a Republican president Theodore Roosevelt made conservation a part of his agenda. That is how conservation got put on the map. Roosevelt gets most of the responsibility for that, he and John Muir and Gifford Pinchot.
2
This article and this paper for that matter are always peddling the idea that one person, the President can destroy the environment the way of life democracy itself. This is obviously not true but it makes for good shocking articles. Oh My, Trump is ruining the environment. He does not believe global warming! Trump doomed us and our future generations! Give me a break. Obama did not save us. Trump will not sink us. Government is much larger than the President. Our fate is not left up to the whims of a reality TV show host.
@Mark With a view to the long-term and the world beyond America, Obama in fact was trying to "save us." Selfishly thinking of nothing but the short-term and indifferent to consequences, Trump is in fact sinking us. So, what do you suggest, Mark? What's your solution? (Pro tip: "meh" won't get you far in life.)
6
@Mark
"Our fate is not left up to the whims of a reality TV show host."
Oh, how short sited one can be. People among them children are dying in the ICE detention centers.
trump and his minions are in the process of destroying the government. They are not filling open positions, then are actively discouraging employees. The head of the USDA gave the scientists in its science department an ultimatum to move to Kansas City then renegged on agreements for incentives and work at home.
https://www.govexec.com/management/2019/07/usda-employees-who-didnt-already-opt-move-kansas-city-may-be-out-luck/158816/
It's typical of the destruction that trump has in mind. The madness of King George has nothing on the madness of King Donald the bully.
5
Trump’s obsession with undoing everything President Obama achieved is not “almost pathological.” It is probably a textbook example of pathology. Trump is so obsessed by trying to blot out Obama’s legacies that he is blind to the long-term consequences of his ignorant, counterproductive choices about publicly owned resources—among so many other examples of his destruction. The nation is held in thrall to one mentally ill man’s psychosis. All we can hope is the courts and Democrats in Congress hold him back until he can be removed from the presidency, one way or another.
8
This article points out the disastrous effect of Trump’s environmental policies, and his belief that global warming is a fraud.
But population growth makes fighting global warming far more difficult.
Sir Thomas Malthus raised this problem in his 1826 essay, “An Essay on the Principle of Population.” This issue was taken up again by biologists in “the Limits to Growth,” of 1972. This book raised the possibility of “overshoot and collapse,” a scenario in which world population would temporarily exceed carrying capacity of earth leading to a subsequent die-off.
These views were ridiculed by politically correct and branded as racist.
The key argument regarding population growth is simple: If population in a country grows at 3% per year, the population doubles every 23 years, requiring twice as much food production, twice as much water, twice as many hospitals and schools.
Syria experienced 3% growth for decades. Then came a bloody civil war.
If the reader were to travel to Delhi, Karachi, Lagos or Cairo, he or she would be astounded by the bone-crushing poverty.
How is it that you raise these people out of poverty? Any realistic proposal involves energy which contributes to global warming.
The population of Africa is slated to double by 2050. Can you not see how this will contribute to the loss of species in Africa? And to misery of millions of Africans?
Why then does the NY Times avoid a full discussion of population growth and its implications?
4
Amazing. Lefties and Democrats push pop control around the world and Planned Parenthood here at home, Trumpists and Republicans attack both every chance they get, so obviously pop control is something Democrats and lefties never thought about and do not support.
2
Surly even the most dim witted of trump supporters do not want to destroy the environment, air and water, for short term profits. Many like trump and the trump of Brazil, Bolsonaro, and Kochs, and many old republicans will be long dead before the consequences of their short-sighted and uninformed policies come home to roost. They all need to be voted out NOW before they can cause anymore harm or damage. 2020 cannot come fast enough!
8
John Prines "Paradise" sums it up.
Can the First Nations tie this up in court as an abrogation of treaty rights?
6
Trump and his craven minion are able to do this because we as a nation don't stand up and speak up. Perhaps we are all drugged by the false reality of technology and consumerism, and the willingness to sell our future for the prospect of short term monetary gain. I can't tell you how many people who have told me they support Trump despite his warts because their 401K is going up up up. They don't seem to realize there is a cost to unbridled exploitation of the natural world, or if they do, they simply do not care.
What we need is a resurgence of the environmental movement of the 1960's and 70's, similar to the current Hong Kong demonstrations. Only then will political leaders make environmental protection a priority. Unless we are willing to fight for the only home we will ever have, it will be gone in the blink of an eye.
5
@tom I recall the time around 1990 as a high-point for environmental awareness. It seemed that thinking green was really catching on. "Reduce, reuse, recycle" seemed to be everywhere. Compact cars were popular. People everywhere seemed to be wearing fleece and hiking shoes and had a newfound appreciation for the outdoors. And then, predictably I suppose, people fell like lemmings for SUV advertisements intended to exploit people's newfound interest in nature. 'Love nature? Drive all over it!' And things went downhill quickly from there. Companies like Porsche and Audi held their noses and started producing SUVs because they knew "stupid Americans" would by them. It was that easy. Fast forward to today when efficient engine technologies that could enable exceptionally fuel efficient cars are instead being used to produce ridiculous horsepower numbers. We do it to ourselves because, like lemmings, we don't think but instead go with the crowd. Personally, I think we're doomed.
4
@tom
Make legislators accuseTrump of violating NEPA!!!
2
Headlines which merely promise to list the ways the Trump administration is doing wrong fail to interest. They read as same old same old. Please start titling your op-eds in ways which suggest what the solutions could be, so they capture the interest of those who will vote in 2020.
2
To a limited extent, I agree. Articles that merely highlight a problem without suggesting solutions merely add to social frustration, anxiety and a feeling of helplessness. But there are many who are either disinterested in environmental issues or fail to understand the implications. And many are simply ignorant of what is going on. Either way, I still believe it is important to report on environmental issue so as to raise social awareness. It is our responsibility, not that of journalists, to use the information to take action and find solutions.
4
Trump's destructive actions--lifting laws that limit commercial activity in some of America's most pristine areas is a twisting of his serrated knife into the heart of our precious national treasures. That he takes pleasure in inflicting maximum damage to so many institutions and places that the vast majority of Americans hold dear clearly demonstrates his loathing for everyone but his base. He is an angry, bitter danger to the commonweal!
9
Much "shame on you" backlash has come at those who've commented that they hoped Hurricane Dorian would make a direct hit on Mar A Lago.
Fair enough. Although those in that camp confess they would NEVER wish harm physical or otherwise, to anyone in the path of a possibly deadly storm.
To wish that trump, who seems to be composed of equal parts, spite, greed, stupidity and evil, a man who obviously takes great pleasure in dishing out hurt to his perceived enemies no matter the cost, should be on the receiving end for a change is - to use one of his favorite words - fair.
He's been taking from, hurting and destroying people's livelihoods and property his entire life, never having paid a price or felt a moment's contrition. Were he to experience what he's done to others by having his gold plated monument of excess - Mar A Lago - taken from him, he might understand the pain he's inflicted on others.
I wish that for him. It's called payback. I can't think of anyone more deserving. And for that I do not apologize.
12
Unfortunately, even if that were to occur, Trump would do just fine. His losses would be covered by insurance, and he would somehow end up collecting more than it is worth. Then he would refuse to pay the contractors and get away with it. Then, just like at his Scottish golf resort, he would build a 50-foot seawall at taxpayer expense. And somehow his supporters would not only think it was right and just but would nod their heads in brainwashed fashion when he convinces them he was ill treated.
3
Actually, the environment is the second things on Donald's "mind."
1. Beg, borrow steal.
2. Destroy the environment.
3. Destroy Obama's legacy.
3
This is akin to war crimes and worldwide genocide. We need Nuremberg like tribunals, with Nuremberg like penalties, for climate change deniers, delayers and despoilers in industry and government and especially for the liars and criminals of the Republican Party. They have known and now know exactly what they are doing - destroying the planet to make a buck - and their greed and callous disregard for humanity and the earth must be punished on a scale commensurate with the nature of their crimes, first at the ballot box and then, with the due process they always seek to deny others, in a court of law.
9
Trump and his enablers certainly covet the money and power that comes from mining these public lands, but there also appears to be a vandal mentality at work. There’s pleasure in destroying beautiful things and pleasure in distressing those who care.
7
@Jay Hart
The nasty malign bully mentality reigns on the right. They are genetically that way because they're descendants of those who enslaved and tortured others and those who took advantage of ordinary workers. If they changed it would destroy their self regard.
5
End the reign of trump and his minions. What they have done or are trying to do to our environment should be a chargeable crime. Maybe, just maybe, we can have a great country. We must have clean air and water and alternative fuel resources. We must respect nature. We must leave an inhabitable world to the future us.
7
It's too obvious. Get Trump out of there (the White House) and retake leadership for the U.S. and the planet on the environment. This is the Earth we are talking about, not mindless politics and "us vs. them" or "America First" idiocy. Anyway, we've said the same thing daily for a long time. Forget the Republicans as well.
6
Trump's concern for the environment is like his concern for anything else other than his personal envrichment and himself: nonexistent. All he cares about is his deep and soul-destroying narcissism. The real criminals here are the Republicans in Congress who sit by silently and abet the environmental damage he is doing without a peep of complaint.
8
Trump has never had an original thought about anything. Intelligent people favor conservation: it's gotta be bad.
4
Too easy, there is always and only one thing on Trump's "mind"..... Trump.
5
The Tongass National Forest is the largest national forest in the US, and what you see for several days when you take an Alaska cruise. It is. It is in a sense "our Amazon Basin". It would be the height of insanity to do anything to harm it. Of course that means it's on Mr. Trump's to-do list...
6
When all is gone, we can hunker down on Doral.
4
@db2
Looking at the present trajectory of Hurricane Dorian and fact that Mar-a-lago is under evacuation orders, there's no guarantee Doral would be an option.
6
@N. Smith
Can we move Mar-a-Lago into the path? Just wishin’ On a star.
3
How long would it take to reverse all of the Trump travesties if the Democrats win in 2020?
4
An America President said this in 1961: "As we peer into society's future, we -- you and I, and our government -- must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.
Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield."
President Dwight Eisenhower ... For the full speech use the following weblink.
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/eisenhower001.asp
4
The best government that money can buy. Drill it into every American’s head until they get it.
4
If we weren’t scared before, trump’s poison policy should do it. Bigly.
4
The Enviroment is Big Time on Trump's mind ...as he just cancelled a trip to poland because of the hurricane threat......and its really becoming very hypocritical for ANYONE to complain about the enviroment if they drive a gas burning vechical and there house does not have Solar power!
who in congress will step up and stop this madman?
5
So you care more about a forest you will never visit getting a tiny bit cut down than the workers you don't care about having a decent living.
Urban, elite arrogance personified.
@Tim
Sorry. The workers are getting bupkis because it's the YUGE industrialized conglomerates that are pocketing the profits.
And YES. Everyone on the planet should care about this especially with the rainforests in the Amazon and Congo burning down.
8
@N. Smith No. The workers are getting to live where they want, in rural areas, and get paid enough to live there.
You seem to think they should be forced to live in urban areas because that fits your lifestyle better.
1
Impeach before he ruins more of our stolen heritage.
I am sad for the Native Americans.
7
I do not think Donald Trump KNOWS anything about natural resources, so he could not possibly care.
A totally vapid, intellectual void.
5
Vicious, violent, extreme right-wing greed and sociopathy. Anyone who supports this destructive, end-times trend deserves the detestation and any action that can remove them from our society, permanently, before they kill the rest of us. Sickness, corruption, oligarchy has overtaken our country. It's almost too late.
6
Just stop reproducing, and possibly a future human as bad as (or worse than!) tRump may never be born.
Bottom line: the world needs fewer of Us.
1
Why does Donald Trump hate the United States so much? There is nothing good, valuable or pure about our country that he hasn't undone, poisoned or besmirched. What is really going on here? Someone must know the underlying dark secrets...
6
@JD
It’s because No One liked Trump from his very beginning. This is all his revenge.
2
His ignorant egocentrism aside, Trump takes his orders and agenda from the corporate heads who helped install him. He is a clear and present danger to our national security and needs to be removed. For elected leaders in Congress, this comes down to a question of loyalty. Are they actually loyal to our country or are they opportunists representing private interests that endanger our national security?
4
I thought a telling tweet was the one he sent of a trump building on Greenland with the supposedly joking tweet " I promise I won't do this to Greenland". Ha ha. This from an unabashed liar and hater of everything good and pure in this world. My mother told me to never wish time away. Sorry Ma - 2020 can't come soon enough.
3
A potentially rich oil field has just been discovered on the east side of Fifth Avenue, roughly between 21 and Tiffany’s. This discovery may yield billions of dollars worth of oil, or just a lot of gas and hot air. Exploitation will be destructive but potentially profitable. In a parallel development in South Florida, a Danish Company arrived in Tallahassee with what is reported to be “several steamer trunks” stuffed with krona with the intent of easing their path toward leasing offshore waters to build a wind energy farm. Despite short term hurricane warnings, the company says they have identified a particularly ideal location just two miles offshore from Palm Beach and expect to develop a source of electricity sufficient to power all the sleazy massage parlors and exclusive country clubs in Palm Beach County and possibly as far as Boca Raton. The markets are closed for the holiday today, but are expected to react favorably to these two blockbuster energy deals. It is not known if either project will gain the approvals needed to move forward, but the bribes involved in currying consideration, and the market manipulation profit opportunities even their attempts stimulate, will be good for rich people, so President Trump is said to be “on board” as long as his children receive paid seats on the boards of any company seeking to develop these resources.
6
The NYT Editorial description of the negative effects of Trump’s aggressive business war against the natural world is of course disheartening. One line caught my eye under the Pebble Mine section, illustrating the effect of Trump’s “lifeline” to the mining project in the pristine Alaskan wilderness: “This caused the stock of Northern Dynasty Minerals, the mining company, to soar.” Once again we find capital supporting a project that will have an adverse future effect on our planetary life support systems. Capital is a wonderful tool when responsibly used. But it’s short term vision of return forces many of us in the major funds to unwittingly support projects that will affect our children and grandchildren. Capitalism falls short in long term planning if it lacks the common sense guides that we would hope our government leaders could provide in the form of justifiable regulations. Without regulations the world is an oyster to those who profit by its exploitation. But tomorrow there will be no oyster.
4
I have come to the conclusion that Republicans' brains are wired to understand, believe, and say the very opposite of what is true, reasonable, demonstrated by research, and best for a majority of the people and this nation's future.
A big one is the meaning of public versus private. While most of us believe that "public" refers to the people as a whole or ordinary people. So we have government services for lots of people paid for by taxes for public health, public transportation, public education, public parks, public hospitals, public roads....
But Republicans evidently see red when they see the word "public," because they believe that everything that is public for the people should be privatized as an another opportunity from which the rich can make more money for themselves and their investors.
Here is a Utah politician's explanation for Trump allowing outmoded private fossil fuels companies to explore, extract, and pollute our public lands at little cost. He said: Public lands means that these public lands are for the oil and gas industry too, since they are part of the public.
Vote Republican and privatize what is public: Social Security, Medicare, roads, parks, highways, and bridges, etc., so investors can maximize their profits from the people while minimizing their upkeep and maintenance costs and their accountability to the public.
8
The proposed Pebble Mine's tailing ponds would contain over a trillion gallons of goopy tailings, which are loaded with toxic chemicals that are used to extract the valuable materials from the ore such as cyanide used in gold mining.
The toxic soup leaches into ground water and downstream rivers and bays, and kills anything it touches. Contaminated tailings ponds attract and kill migrating birds.
And once formed, tailing ponds remain untreated at countless numbers of abandoned mines throughout North America.
Why? Because it costs billions of dollars to remediate tailings ponds and mining companies are only in this business to get minerals out of the earth and leave ASAP with any profits it can make, without dealing with the high risk ponds they created and the toxic soup they leave behind.
The act of giving one mining company a free reign over a huge, pristine salmon fishery that support a diverse, geographically-large native population and supports our lower 48 states with nutritious food, while at the same time creating a toxic time bomb in the form of tailings ponds filled with a primordial sludge of untreated toxic chemicals. is not only bad for the environment.
It is bad business.
Which is something Trump has lots and lots and lots of experience creating, managing, and fostering.
9
@Ed One only look at the superfund cleanup of uranium tailings in Moab, UT to see the toxic time bomb.
3
This OUR land not the loggers & drillers. What if there is no oil or gas or uranium in these once protected areas? Do they just leave the landscape destroyed & move on to another spot. Think of strip mining. How many Superfund places are there where hazardous & death causing chemicals have been dumped during mining? Arsenic for gold? Lead from zinc & galena lead production? The list goes on & on.
4
All Trump wants is to "win" and get reelected. This article and many comments frame his thinking and his wants like he is a normal president that considered the trade-offs of jobs, resources and the environment. He didn't. He just came down on the issue as was best for his base.
If his base were pro-environment, then he would have gone that way.
Seems to me, when we respond to him like he did think the issue through, we are getting played by him. We put our energy into discourse that will have no effect on him or his base. This wasted energy of ours is probably part of his strategy too.
3
We can take our country back from the oligarchs. Vote in 2020 to save our children, and to save our resources and environment from those who are bent on its destruction.
6
After all we have learned, ecologically and environmentally, in the past 100 years, it is madly dismaying that such earth dunces with conquistadors' gilded worldviews would now gain control of the future of the wild world.
Maybe, maybe, after individual #1, we can finally say we are over peak dumb and get on, full speed, toward saving the earth and man.
266
@vole
Frankly, after the disaster called "Trump", I'm not at all sure that mankind deserves to be saved. Humans are the worst thing that ever happened to our planet and Trump is one of the worst humans that ever happened.
49
@vole
"Maybe, maybe, after individual #1, we can finally say we are over peak dumb and get on, full speed, toward saving the earth and man."
Between our failed education system that -- among other things -- does not teach objective thinking and rational, science-based thought, and the firm grip of social media on our minds -- especially those of the young -- I see no reason to even imagine that the American people are "over peak dumb."
If only ignorance were painful.
42
@vole. Given the inability of voters to understand what is in their best interests there is a very good chance the wrecking ball administration will be re-elected and continue their destruction. Individual #1 is clearly intent on destroying any positive action by any previous administration, but particularly Obama. #1 has never gotten over being humiliated by Obama at the correspondents dinner. It is beyond understanding how anyone with enough functioning brain cells to get out of bed each day can support the tRump catastrophe.
45
I live in an area where the Federal government has just finished removing toxic soil in the last few years..the remnants of the mining industry of the 19th and 20th centuries, after raping the land and walking away with wealth beyond imagination, leaving a swath of dying miners and sick civilians in it's wake.
Several towns were bought out, shut down and now, no longer habitable, are ghosts created by greed and avarice.
High schools, homes and businesses, once the settings of human hopes and dreams are quiet now.
Watch closely, America. Trump has his own dreams for us. And they don't include what makes us great again.
411
@American2019, Good last line, but remember that it's not just Trump. He has empowered an inexhaustible supply of tenth-rate exploitation specialists to help. I would call the ones who purport to be public servants public enemies, and I would call the private entrepreneurs, simply, predators, if it weren't for the fact that real predators, like sharks, are essential to the health of so many real environments.
45
I grew up in beautiful North Idaho. It is a place of immense beauty, rugged country and unfortunately vast wealth. The Silver Valley is a half hour drive east Coeur d' Alene and the mining practices decimated that area with the toxic tailings dumped right off Interstate 90 and into the C d'A river. The loggers are no better by clear cutting vast checkerboards of land throughout the panhandle and can be seen on any commercial flight to the area.
If you need to see the results of what industry does to pristine places you need go no further than Niagara Falls and compare that to Yellowstone Park. Thank Teddy Roosevelt for that. He saw what the opportunists did to that majestic waterway and was determined to not let that happen out West.
274
@Ted Siebert
Before I went out west I thought the people there would be great environmentalists. I said to myself, who would appreciate nature more than these people. In fact the environmental damage caused by logging and mining alone has created an environmental nightmare out west comparable with the worst superfund sites in the nation.
33
Of local people, mostly only Inuit care about the environment.
The others think they are entitled to jobs where they live, no matter the consequences.
Many Alaskans are among the worst. Using the huge tides to dump raw Anchorage waste water into the sea killing Beluga whales, building everywhere they like etc.
37
Once again, the total disregard & onslaught of the environment leads back to the Great Communicator. "Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do." said Reagan. "If you've seen one redwood, you've seen them all."
Trump in all his egregiousness is merely carrying on the legacy of the much touted "greatest Republican of them all."
Sensible extraction of natural resources can be done, but not with the short term profiteers leading the way as we've had since the Eastern White Pine was decimated in earlier centuries, when the forests & streams seemed limitless.
To paraphrase Hemingway, we'll go broke gradually & suddenly.
7
Often quoted here "the Obama Administration" but I'm not sure we aren't talking about executive orders. When China and the rest of the developing world try to access the world's mineral wealth. Will the environmental regulators in the US and the EU say no? How will they react? Could it lead to war? Do we have the right to stifle their economies and condemn them to poverty?
'
2
@JoeG
Actually what is stifling *our* economy and condemning the less fortunate to poverty here in the US is a refusal to conform to the market forces and the future and develop clean renewable energy. Big fossil gets trillions in subsidies and its toxic waste is not limited to greenhouse gases. For example, coal waste includes more radiation than nuclear plants, let alone the many other forms of toxic waste in the likes of coal ash ponds and watersheds, and gag orders about health problems associated with living near fracking, oil refineries, and coal mines.
Both the economy and the future depend on a rapid transition away from the behemoths of profit tied to anti-science, anti-knowledge, and short-term profits.
9
@JoeG How could U.S. or EU regulators stop activity in any region except those under their control? Also, if you really look into what "development" often means, the vast majority of whatever wealth is created flows into relatively few hands with most local people getting the crumbs.
Often there is a boom-and-bust cycle that does not provide dependable employment. Once the area becomes economically unattractive, either due to market forces or because the resource has been exploited, the jobs vanish. What is left behind too often is pollution and devastation.
4
@Susan Anderson
I don't know about Mass but Texas and Iowa are doing a good job responding to marketing forces. Speaking of poverty do you know anyone that can't afford gas to get to work or pay their energy bills. I agree coal is a mess but natural gas can replace it. Not pure enough?1600 coal plant are slated to be built around the world. Do you have a right to stop sales of coal to them? Shouldn't you be more interest in NG which if reports of newer designs are true can be extremely clean.
China is making a rapid transition to being developed. They produce millions of electric vehicles and use solar and wind. But are still dependent on coal. It might be conspiracy by evil coal but are you sure the there isn't an Evil Green lurking in the background? Would they care when electricity is .60 kWh? There's big money in being green.
Are you sur lithium won't cause irreparable harm to the environment? You need to apply a little more cynicism.
I live in rural north central Pennsylvania. People who want to see what natural gas drilling (fracking), logging, and coal mining leave behind (and it's not jobs) should come here. The coal mines nearest to me (about 40 miles away) were exhausted long ago, but the treeless slag piles remain along with ash pits from the power plants that once burned coal. About 50 miles from me, the Centralia mine fire has been burning since 1962. Fracking, in addition to the water pollution, has made wildlife islands where populations of all kinds are dwindling because the habitat that is left is too small to support them. For instance, bat habitat is gone in many areas, so are the bats along with many important pollinators.
Many places in my area were clear-cut for timber decades ago, some remain treeless and the rest though replanted were stripped of all of the old growth forests that many birds require.
When I was a child, my father took me to look at the Susquehanna River near to where we lived. It was red with mining acid from upstream and dead fish were floating all over the surface of the water. I'll never forget the sadness on my father's face and his words to me about the responsibility of caring for the river when I grew up.
This administration has no respect or appreciation of the natural world and no regard for wildlife. Hopefully, there will be change after the 2020 election and a return to the care we need to give to all of the natural places in our country.
1289
@NicePerson
More than half of the forests of America are east of the Mississippi, which includes Pennsylvania. The acreage of forests in the US is greater today than it was in 1900, farming efficiencies having allowed some forests clear cut for farming to return to forests.
The forests east of the Mississippi are privately owned or owned by the states and are professionally managed by foresters who sustainably harvest wood for lumber and paper.
In contrast, more than half of forests west of the Mississippi are owned by the federal government and managed, if you can even call it that, by the federal government. The wise environmentalists have lobbied for the federal forests to be left to nature.
When is the last time you heard of out-of-control forest fires east of the Mississippi River?
A just solution for someone like you would be for the federal government to expropriate 50% of the land in Pennsylvania, which might include your home, and allow it to "return to nature." Fifty years from now, your grandchildren could experience wildfires, like the unnatural West where natural forest fires have been suppressed for 50 years rather than the forests being managed.
7
@ebmem, the acreage of old growth forest isn't, so false equivalency right off the bat. Tree planting does not restore forests and biodiversity to their former state. The environment is in no way better off than it was in 1900.
196
@ebmem: As a natural resource professional, I need to break the news to you that there has been a paradigm shift in forest management in the western forests in the last 30 years. Come on: catch up.
The forests are now managed using selective timber sales and prescribed burns. The wildfires you reference usually start on private land and spread.
And 50 years from now? If you have your way, there won’t be any federally managed forests. Every acre will be privately owned as tree farms and timber plantations.
245
Resource extraction makes little money for the locals and creates tremendous income for the mine owners. How do I know this? The most impoverished areas in the nation are usually those that depend upon resource extraction. Mining, in particular, is heavily mechanized with gigantic machines that require few people to operate them. Even in coal's heyday, were West Virginia a and Kentucky ever paradises of wealth for the locals? No, not ever. The mine owners cleaned up and the miners just got dirty.
What Trump is doing is essentially giving away highly valuable and pristine areas to a few mining tycoons to fatten their bank accounts and in turn, get their political support. That's the bottom line here.
Trump will do anything, and I mean anything, to garner support from his base in order to get reelected. A second term is literally his get out of jail card. What happens to these national treasures means nothing to him. Trump, as always, only does what helps Trump. From the looks of this debacle, I'd say the salmon fishing industry hasn't given him anywhere near as munch money as the mining industry. That's probably because the salmon fishers are mostly small independent operators while the mines are controlled by a few billionaires. Taking care of billionaires is Trump's true idea of making America great.
1108
@Bruce Rozenblit - we also can reflect on the fact that most of the big mining companies are foreign-owned entities - like the one whose head just happened to lease a house in Washington DC to Trump's favorite child and her husband.
177
@Bruce Rozenblit What a perfect summary of this moral & ecological disaster of a president. Well done sir.
105
@Bruce Rozenblit
Corruption - in exchange for donations to his re-election campaign as well as payback for donations in 2016. There is no other explanation.
69
Thank you for writing not just an in depth but felt account of the devastation he has and continues to do to our environment. We must elect a pro environment administration who puts preserving nature as a top priority, as not just technological advancements but as forests and peatland are vital in addressing the climate crisis.
7
It's not just America's resources that Donald Trump wants to plunder and pillage; He's an ardent supporter of Bolsonaro, and Trump has had nothing but good things to say about him as the rain forests are burned to oblivion, only commenting about the wealth of resources that could be gained from it. He wants to buy Greenland and is angry at the Danish government for telling him that it's not for sale. Trump and Bolsonaro are the worst possible thing for the planet at the most critical time. We have passed the tipping point and all the evidence is telling us that.
18
In today's America, money "trumps" ecosystems. American greed supersedes the rights of man to preserve our planet to protect the air, the water, the soil and all life on this earth.
7
Talk to your typical Republican and they know nothing or very little of this. Their news sources cover none of this. Amazingly enough many of them say they are extremely concerned about the environment. Point this stuff out and their faces kind of go blank and they get the "stunned mullet look." Kind of like when you pointed out when Ryan was Speaker of the House and trying to destroy the social safety net. Of course, we as a culture are all about the money so there is plenty of blame to go around. Plus, as we get fatter and fatter, who cares about the outdoors anyway? And the water, wildlife and fish? Oh, they will be fine. Just like our kids.
8
America's resources are there to be exploited for the benefit of its citizens. It is wasteful and cruel to "preserve" these resources, when Americans can benefit now. It is selfish for the rich dilettante EB to suggest otherwise.
This isn’t being done by American companies. And it’s infantile to argue that the world belongs to just you, and you get to do what you want.
4
@No
Unfortunately, there are lots of people with your beliefs. Worse, these people will not be convinced that there is a problem with endless exploitation until we hit a global irreversible catastrophe and it is too late to do anything about it. So much for the brilliance of the human species.
4
Durango, Colorado, is a mountain town in the southwestern part of Colorado. It is beautiful there and offers a ride on a narrow gauge train high into the mountains ending at Silverton, an old mining town. A few years ago we went there and found that the waters in the Animas River had turned an ugly festering orange. People were advised not to use the river and not to drink the water. An old mining area had broken through and released metals into the stream. It looked toxic by any standards and despoiled the surrounding beauty of the area. It made me sick. This is the reality of what this Madman has done in Alaska.
14
The Democrats are supposed to be my friends but are guilty of betrayal. I never expected the Republicans to be on my side but how can you vote for a "friend" who continuously stabs you in the back and promises to continue doing so. Raised an American, an environmentalist, and a liberal, I will be forced to choose between Donald Trump and one of the Democrats. The Democrats stand for open borders, though they deny it. They are opposed to the deportation of any illegal immigrant in the country and desire a pathway to citizenship and family reunification as well as higher levels of legal immigration. The Democrats support unlimited growth in the government. Donald Trump is untrustworthy and not my friend. I still will be force to vote for Trump.
@Michael Green I am a liberal Democrat and I am not for open borders; I am for humane treatment of people seeking asylum, and a path for citizenship for those who came here as children. Our immigration system is a mess, but we should be prioritizing those who commit crimes here, not people who made a successful life here. If you vote for Trump you are voting for a corrupt, evil, amoral, unethical person who lies everyday. I will never vote for him, or anyone who supports him. He is despicable.
3
Democrats want a pathway to citizenship for undocumented people who were brought here as children. Democrats do not want to tear families apart. Democrats do not want toddlers separated from their poor desperate mothers and thrown in cages.
What is your objection?
2
The only pictures we ever see of Trump outdoors are those at golf courses or with a shovel at a groundbreaking ceremony. Did he ever take his kids to a national park? He seems unaware that the natural beauty of this country is part of its “greatness”. I have never observed a split between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to enjoying our great open spaces. There is, however, a split about allowing such spaces to survive for our grandchildren to enjoy.
5
For a man who has lived his whole life in luxury not being far from New York City & his perfectly groomed golf courses, this is his answer to more money.
How much money is going into the pockets of the Secretary of the Interior, EPA leader, & trump himself?
This land was set aside for the future of this country & its citizens & future citizens.
I have been to many of the National Parks & Monuments in the southwest & I mourn the loss of this land. Think of the pictures of oil rigs in Tulsa in the late 1890's & early 1900's. That is what our lands will look like or they will just be dug up & left irreparable.
2
What the editorial doesn't say is that Donald Trump has given every evidence of seeing environmentalists as his enemies. With that feeling, he's likely to approve things specifically to upset people who care about the environment, because he has a record of wanting to hurt people he dislikes. Of course he wants to do favors for various businesses and politicians, but he's always likely to be willing and even eager to go beyond their requests in order to make his "enemies" miserable.
5
I ask is there no end to Trump's depravity ? He has no respect for anyone especially those that he cannot use to further his aims. Now he is intent on destroying our natural heritage. The Tongass National Forest is not ours to used as a vehicle to drive corporate profits upward. It is not a resource to be raped by blind avarice. The Tongass is a national treasure and one that is entrusted to us to pass on to the next generation. If the Metropolitan is a repository of the best human cultural endeavors then the Tongass represents the same qualities within the natural world. What can be taken away by Trump's edict & his lackey Perdue obeying can never be restored. The Tongass is irreplaceable. One of the reasons that I vote Democratic is that I know that the Republican Party is without scruples . The Democratic Party can be quite pretentious at times but they never destroy our natural heritage. Theodore Roosevelt was a president who helped to foster an attitude that the government can & should be be stewards of the land. Once again Trump demonstrates his disregard for precedent The Republican party has sold its soul to the devil for tax breaks for the uber rich & federal court justices. The fight for the Tongass is a battle that we cannot lose. If we do lose not only will a magnificent natural treasure but gone but also another part of our nation's soul.
6
Until now, the west has been a line of defense against the corruption found in much of the world. But we've strayed into Brexit territory, elected Tump here and Bolsonaro in Brazil, and there is no end in sight to reign of Putin. And the usual cast of creepy and corrupt African and Middle Eastern rulers hasn't changed. It seems that people (men) with ambition, who seek power and who need oversized egos to survive in the cesspool of the election process, can rarely escape the short-sighted delusion of fixing problems with some combination of charm, aggression, lies and money. I've been optimistic in the past, but now that Trump and his cronies have gained the upper hand, I fear we will never again see the likes of Teddy Roosevelt, Lincoln or even LBJ.
3
Poor Donald! I am afraid he was deprived of any awe-inspiring and learning experiences in nature while growing up in NYC with all that money. but evidently not much love for people, living things, and the earth.
In sharp contrast, Teddy Roosevelt too was born into a wealthy family and grew up in NYC, but his loving family enjoyed getting out in nature. That appreciation translated into TR preserving our lands as national parks.
Teddy was a sickly child with dangerous bouts of asthma. Like Trump, Teddy too admired strong men, but unlike Trump, TR found his physical and mental strength by being in nature--collecting and identifying all kinds of specimens in nature as a child, hiking in the woods and on beaches, and then as a young man, going out west where he learned to herd cattle, work from dawn to dust in the rough, and enthusiastically enjoy the many benefits nature has to offer. Surviving nature's hardships also was part his the experience.
Alas, for us and our country, Trump only views nature as real-estate and something to wreck to make money for a few.
Wouldn't you love to see Donald Trump dumped out in the wilderness somewhere on our vast public lands that so many enjoy for their beauty, camping experiences, hiking, stress-reduction, & learning survival skills?
How long would he survive on his own in nature? And would he learn anything positive from the experience?
Real men love and protect nature. Weak, greedy, self-centered men destroy it.
7
Looks like the many criminal charges that should be brought against Trump when he finally leaves the White House should include arson.
The Earth is increasingly on fire as Trump opens public forested lands to logging, mining, and oil extraction while rolling back environmental regulations and giving tax breaks to those inflating the “hoax” of climate change and global warming.
Our house IS on fire.
5
Actually, it is quite simple, anything favored by President Obama = Bad. Anything else subject to whim...
3
One of the great tragedies in American history was the very questionable election of Trump in 2016.
He is not only the greatest threat to our national security but also to the environment and to the natural beauty of our country. He is the antithesis of a good leader and role model. He is truly a villain to almost all liberal and humane values. His ignorance and callousness are without bound. His administration represents a corrupt sell out of our treasures to the fossil fuel industry and to the ruling oligarchy.
He reveals the contemptible bankruptcy of a Republican Party interested in only power and tax relief for the corporate rich and deregulation to plunder our natural resources for money and greed.
7
Trump cares about one thing:
making money. The only outdoors he cares about is a manicured golf course. The environment? Natural beauty? These things do not register with trump.
2
Trump made no secret of his disdain for the environment, indifference to natural beauty, the fate of wildlife, or the effects of pollution, so its hard to feel sorry for those in states that voted for him now facing increasing pollution, spreading ugliness and even climate disruption - that may be a form of cosmic justice. And the same goes for the "Greens" and other "progressives" who may profess environmental concerns but foolishly threw their vote away in November 2016 by not helping Clinton when Trump could have been stopped. Thus they are also responsible for contributing to environmental destruction.
4
If this guy gets another term, there will be nothing left - environmental, economic or constitutional. November 3, 2020.
8
Trump: "We Will Have So Much Winning If I Get Elected That You May Get Bored With Winning"
If a time comes when there is a Nuremberg style court to try Eco-Criminals, Donald Trump will sit front and center with the accused. He has laughed at those who treasure the environment, ignored the preponderant science, and mocked our descendants with a determined cruelty hard to fathom. He not only makes a point of overturning the achievements of the Obama administration, he also spits at the bipartisan legacy of Teddy Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, and Jimmy Carter. Trump is indeed the most anti-environmental President in US History. Our children and grandchildren will all suffer because of him.
6
These policies are a tragedy for our Country.
Make America GREEN Again!
5
Trump’s aim to deregulate the exploitation of natural resources is so methodical that makes you wonder if it could be a Russian mandate. His hate for Obama certainly drives it but it makes no sense to let the country fall apart this way. Maybe his Russian handlers are basking on seeing this happen while they sit in vast natural resources as their puppet does his job.
1
Even if, somehow, you agree with everything else Trump does and says, to support this pillaging of the environment destroys any credibility Christians might have had. This is an unholy war against the planet.
2
Trump’s motives in all of this is to “hurt”. It makes him feel good, I suppose.
1
Trump is destroying the environment and an unprecedented 4th category 5 hurricane is barreling towards Florida and the US East coast.
Rome burns while Trump fiddles. I know why Trump does that, but why are his supporters (even those in Florida) so blind?
1
Republican denial of science goes back decades. The pattern is always the same. Lies and distortion, if profits are at stake.
They discredited scientists who reported the toxicities of DDT and other pesticides and argued for the teaching of “creation science” as opposed to evolution. Promoted by Reagan, who claimed (with no evidence) that evolution was “only a theory” while endorsing the pseudoscientific creationism, invented their own Reagan style science to support the Strategic Defense Initiative, that space scientists, engineers, the Union of Concerned Scientists, Congress’s Office of Technology Assessment and other scientists spoke out against the scientific basis for this “technology”, as it would not work, supported the claims of the tobacco industry that there was “too much doubt” about whether cigarettes cause lung cancer, etc. as tobacco giants worked to discredit the EPA’s repost on second hand smoke. In the late 1980’s, they slow-walked efforts to educate the public about safe sex practices to prevent the spread of AIDS not to offend the religious right.
Climate science has always been in the right’s cross hairs as it affects their bottom line. The CFC-ozone depletion would be very costly for industrial giants like Dupont. Mercury contaminated fish, lead contaminated water, sulfur dioxide contaminated air, AIDS virus contaminated blood supply, cancer causing chemicals in cigarettes, extreme storms devastating beaches, farmlands, infrastructure, etc.etc. PROFITS
3
These policies are a tragedy for our country.
Make America GREEN Again!
Thank you for this editorial but this is “news that’s fit to print” and should be on the front page every day...with a photo of the devastation.
3
The same policy: explore the natural resources! Forget environmental crisis.
In Alaska and in the Amazônia.
Does it really matter? Humans are the our world’s top predator. Our actions and disregard for this world will soon be the end of us here. Our solution will be to pickup and move to another world to despoil.
2
Last night I lay awake thinking about the Great American Experiment, our so-called democracy.
Yes we as a nation have had our shining moments.
But I would argue that our nation has been built on four fundamental crimes:
1. slavery
2. stealing Indian lands; attempting to exterminate Indians and, when that failed, attempting to exterminate their culture
3. exploitation of working people (the great capitalistic lie)
4. destruction of our environment.
2
When Trump was elected, an acquaintance, - an environmentalist lawyer from Washington DC - remarked, the U.S. have voted for committing environmental suicide.
3
Ecocide should be treated with the same gravity as genocide.
To plunder and destroy our finite natural resources without regard for the consequences—not just to the ecosystems but to ourselves—is a crime against all species that occupy this fragile planet of ours. Trump and his avaricious minions deserve to be brought up on charges by the World Court and extradited to The Hague for trial.
2
I know and yet wo Mother Earth there will be nothing for them to power and greed over.
How about articles of normal people like us who are in integrity with money consumption etc? We are the front line staff doing the hard work.
The bad thing about Trump is that he is revealing the deep, horrible, disgusting things that are perpetuated in Western Civilization. Also, that's the good thing about Trump.
America 1.0 time's up.
We are well overdue for a reboot.
See you in America 2.0.
1
It's difficult to rank Trump's ouevre in terms of sheer idiocy, but this may be the most damaging if Trump's "Accomplishments" . Much of the destruction he will cause will be impossible to erase or reverse, and time seems to be running out for humans running rampant over the earth. I cannot help but ask WHY? Of course the excuses about putting Americans to work, helping the economy, etc fail when you realize the profits belong to foreign interests and Trump himself. But even the sheer greed of Trump, Kushher and Associates doesn't explain a complete lack of respect for our beautiful country, and for sustainable life on a clean planet. The bottom line is deep, deep ignorance.
1
Trump and the GOP seem to believe that they don't breath the same air or drink the same waters as all creatures of the earth. Their extravagance and hubris, if left uncheck will destroy our future. It's as though our government has become a day trader, no one takes the long view. It's not only the rape of the environment, it's the pervasive, ubiquitous corruption that is staggering.
Luke 12:42 says, "And the Lord said, 'Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.'"
Evangelicals: what's in your Bible?
2
trump's goal to obliterate all reasonable and scientifically-valid environmental protections and his apparent belief there is no danger to the world climate are the most dangerous and lethal of his misguided actions. While his assault on the environment is strangely psychotic, we must have hope that the damages being wrought can be reversed when he and his cronies are removed from office.
The only thing that will make Trump sit up, and think about the environment, is if Hurricane Dorian flattens Mar O Lago. Hope springeth eternal.
1
I have tried very hard to understand just why people voted for this despicable person. I can't try anymore. I only feel utter contempt for each and every person who put Trump in office. How will we ever recover from this administrations assaults against EVERYTHING that makes this nation what it is?
2
Editors, you failed to mention the conservation efforts of the Rockefeller family in the creation of one of our greatest parks-Grand Teton National Park.
Imagine the damage the Fearless Destroyer of Environments could do with that park.
1
It is a crime to kill or destroy protected animals and plants. Trump’s assault on the Tongass National Forest, and the rest of the natural world, is an unprecedented mass killing.
1
The entire point of this kleptocracy is to steal as much as possible and make as much money as possible by any means, before the bottom drops out. You see fir trees, they see greenbacks, you lose.
What do you expect. Trump thinks that grass any deeper than the thickness of the soles on his golf shoes is wilderness.
1
Yes, and these rich opportunists will be long dead and buried, so they will get away with everything as always. Luckily, there are mass shootings on the daily, so I would say everyone's time is numbered, so I wouldn't get too giddy environment despoilers as you might have a tree hugger hug an AR-15 instead--why not, what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
The man in the White House is a master of devastation and destruction and a threat to our life on the planet. I used to say we elect leaders we deserve but I can only think of a handful of folks so reprehensible that they deserve such a twisted individual as their (so-called) "leader". For my daughter's future I commit every ounce of strength I possess to the hope that this administration's days are numbered.
1
A link below to another good article on the extraction industry - from Wyoming. There's a time and place for everything, and trying extraction in the wrong place isn't helpful. Attempting to prop up industries that are naturally going away isn't the best plan, either, if you try propping up something harmful. Better to focus on helping the workers and the areas affected in other ways and let the harmful side go away.
Here's a quote - overall article is worth a read:
"President Donald Trump promised to save the coal industry by rolling back environmental regulations. Despite these overtures on the campaign trail, coal-fired power’s decline has continued unabated since he came to office.
[...]
“It’s hard to point the finger at environmental regulations when you have an administration who is solely focused on rolling back regulations, but you’re still seeing double-digit retirement,” Larsen said."
https://trib.com/business/energy/months-of-upheaval-has-left-analysts-asking-what-s-next/article_ed1d1cb7-252a-52d3-bc5b-733909820d34.html
There's another article there (Casper Star-Tribune) about miners locked out of a mine there, losing their health insurance and not getting paid. One solution the company suggests is affected workers use the Obamacare marketplace for coverage.
2
to miners and loggers and drillers, what (t)Rump gives the next president will take away. dont get too excited about your new found ability to despoil the environment. any money you spend on opening up new federal land to ravage will be wasted when those lands are put back in a protected status.
2
Bedbugs are on his mind.
1
donate to environmental groups that sue for these crimes. we need to just keep suing and suing and lock them down until this monster is out of the white house.
3
This is truly unbearable.
We've got to stop this barbarian.
2
O beautiful for polluted skies, for amber waves of toxins
For purple mountain strip mines, above the dying plain.
Life has produced all sorts of strange creatures and if they succeed they will do well. Squirrels do well with their fondness for nuts. When a US president succeeds with the same proclivities in party full of nuts nature will decide on who survives.
1
What is on Trump's mind? Nothing. He is totally, thoughtlessly reactionary. The greatest drive is has, even more than pleasing Republicans, is to wipe Obama's accomplishments off the pages of history. He never got over being mocked by Obama at a National Correspondents Dinner.
2
He's the greenest president we ever had! Money is green, and he loves it almost as much as he loves himself.
Vote Blue in 2020. This view is urgent. Trump is wreaking havoc on our protected lands to help feed his donor class and trashing our open lands without regard for the results. This insanity must be quelled.
2
Same attitude to the environment as Russia; they're cutting down forests like their is no tomorrow. Synchronicity.
1
No single president should have the power to despoil America's national parks by executive decree. These parks are a national treasure, to be enjoyed today and handed down to
descendants.
An amendment to the Constitution should be proposed and passed, protecting these lands for all time.
2
@Sunny
Good idea. But nothing of the sort will ever happen as long as Mitch McConnell and Republicans control the Senate.
2
For those asking, “when do we take to the streets?” We take to the streets on September 21st, for the “We, the People March” in DC, but also in major cities and towns!
March with us, We, the People on September 21st! For our children, grandchildren, our planet and democracy!
1
@Mari
And if you can't make it to the March in DC -- then march to the polls on Election Day!
2
Money talks. This administration cares more about money than the environment. If they really cared for their country, they would do their best to look after it, and not pollute it. By the time future generations reap what this administration has sown, it might be too late.
The rest of the GOP are too wrapped up in believing that climate change is a hoax. Who will hold them accountable?
Autocrats, or politicians who see themselves as such, seem to be a serious threat to the environment. You only need to look at the US and Brazil.
1
This fight never ends and has been going on for decades. The destruction of public lands for private gain.
What is very discouraging is that the tourism industry in states like Utah never contradict their elected leaders who perpetuate the western myths of mining, livestock and logging on public lands as the keys to strong economy when they are most definitely not.
Tourism is sustainable if managed properly and produces much more income than exploiting our public lands for the benefit of a very few, many who don't even live in the country.
Time for these myths to be punctured and laid to rest forever. Let's protect, not destroy, our public lands around the entire country.
3
I wonder how many of the many progressives, environmentalist advocates, etc., who are rightfully outraged by Trump’s attacks on the environment, are putting their money where their mouths are when it comes to personal practices.
How many continue to book cruises and otherwise take planes, trains and automobiles that greatly expand their direct impact and carbon footprint so that they can vacation and recreate? And quite often to regions that are the most fragile and important in environmental terms (like Alaska, Antarctica, etc.)?
1
Me! I wanted my children to experience Alaska before it is ruined by vulture capitalism and all the glaciers are gone. We camped.
I do my part, hardly any red meat, no plastic bags, solar panels etc. but I think flight shaming is the surest way to shoot oneself in the foot as environmentalist.
3
@Dan88 It is a virtuous mistake to think we can solve the problems of human impact on the environment through personal rectitude. It's not that we shouldn't do it - recycle, drive low-impact vehicles, leave parts of the world alone - it's just that our individual acts of virtue are not getting it done, and do not absolve us from our political responsibility to make good policy for the good of the planet and the people who dwell upon it. The only path to effective human action against climate change and environmental degredation is through national and global policy through concerted political action. IMHO
3
@Anne This is the sanctimony of the progressives. You believe that you can "make up" for visiting Alaska and the impact you have with recycling. You would do even more if you would refrain from taking such vacations to pristine lands, convincing yourself it is in the name of exposing your children to experience before it is gone. I'm sure they would enjoy a camping trip to a local state park.
And tell me, how did you get your camping gear? Did it come in boxes? Did it get shipped by Amazon or REI in boxes?
@T Bucklin Why do you say it is a mistake? Why do you think that large-scale government action is the "only" way? You yourself are advocating individual actions that collectively can have a large-scale beneficial impact on the environment. The fact is, if I refrain from a flight to Alaska, or a cruise to Antarctica, I have made a significant contribution by not adding to the carbon put into the environment.
As another example, take paper. Was the government forcing people to buy from Amazon, which ships everything in boxes? If individuals and their decisions can start a trend in one direction, it can certainly start one in another in the name of the environmentalism they espouse.
2
Environmental issues would be front and center with a normal/science based administration. The Trump Administration is all about exploiting resources and that includes those on our public lands. The very things we don't need more of (ie. oil & gas) are the things they wish to extract and burn for more dirty energy. The very things we need to preserve to produce oxygen (ie. trees) are the very things they want to cut down. This planned desecration of public lands should be an affront to people from both political persuasions. These public spaces are places we need to pass on to the next generation, not destroy for profit.
4
We let Trump take the WH with barely a wimpier. The argument went that we did not have enough evidence that Russia caused Trump to be elected. That is , effect the outcome of the election. But we also did not have enough evidence that the election was not effected by Russian interference. When in doubt, don't let the office of the president be filled until we can be sure. It's called vetting. As noted in this article, Trump can care less about any issue of the presidency that requires work and thought. Trump wants to make money while in this office and when he leaves. Nothing is more important. So we can't expect him to care about anything that concerns most voters. Only his so called Base is to be catered to and even there it is mostly smoke and mirrors. So, we need him out as soon as possible but not is we simply get Pence the android as our new president.
2
It should be an ominous sign to all when the last concern of the leadership of the most powerful country in the world is the very fabric of life. This of course ineluctably implies the health and welfare of citizens is at risk. A morally responsible government would take note and take action. The question is: will the leadership of the United States move to avert environmental disaster, or will the electorate at least protect itself and remove and replace the leadership?
Until a majority of "locals" get behind environmental protections it's hard for the federal government to pass lasting environmental protections.
All the examples from this article are all obviously in "rural" parts of the county, where most (but not all) of the local population supports logging, drilling, etc. While environmental protections make long term sense for the "greater good", the reality is that until something drasticly changes to America's economic layout, the jobs that come with the extraction industry will be prioritized by locals over environmental protections.
Seems to me there's a need for environmental group PACS and $$ to start engaging these local communities....
2
It should be an ominous sign to all when the last concern of the leadership of the most powerful country in the world is the very fabric of life. This of course ineluctably implies the health and welfare of citizens is at risk. A morally responsible government would take note and take action. The question is: will the leadership of the United States move to avert environmental disaster, or will the electorate at least protect itself and remove and replace the leadership.
3
There is only one thing on Trump's "mind," ever, and that is: Trump -- and whether he is "winning" and evoking admiration at the level necessary to keep his psyche from imploding.
The sooner the media really understands this essential truth, and stops pretending otherwise, the better.
6
While the Trump Administration is leading the way in destroying the environment, Congress is also to blame. Given that there isn't a supermajority in both the House and Senate to address these concerns to protect the environment, the planet's health, our health and our safety, speaks volumes and none of it is good.
11
@Michael A Let's be clear, it's not Congress who isn't addressing these concerns, its Republicans in Congress who are not addressing these concerns. Democrats have passed plenty of good policy to address this. Mitch McConnell refuses to even let them come to a vote.
9
This is a global problem, not an American problem. Almost every comment on this article, and on every article in the NYT, mentions Trump in the first sentence, but this problem is far bigger than Trump. Administrations of both parties have failed to move the needle on this problem.
Global problems need radical global solutions. The Paris accord was not effective, clearly, if you care about results.
1
@Herr Andersson the Clean Energy Act of 2015 would have moved the needle...until Trump squashed it as an Obama initiative. This was NOT the fault of both parties as you suggest.
Also, whether or not the Paris accord would or will make a difference has no baseline other than things are going down hill at an ever accelerating rate. A super new accord with teeth is what is called for.
3
@Chris Don't expect solutions from U.S. politics. The U.S. Congress has already shown it cannot affect any issue of consequence. The world's carbon budget will be used up in 27 years. At that point, if *any* carbon is emitted into the atmosphere, the temperature increase will be more than 2C. It is already at 1.2C.
NYT readers can blame Trump all day, and WSJ readers can blame the liberals, but this is not affecting the trajectory. And no, the Clean Energy Act would not have moved the needle, any more than your mowing your lawn would have made your town more attractive to tourists.
1
@Herr Andersson
Let me be the first to remind you that the U.S. Congress is the only thing standing between the American People and a president woefully inept and unfit to do the job.
And if you think the Clean Energy Act and all the Environmental Protection legislations now being repealed by Donald Trump make no difference, I suggest you do a bit more scientific research on the subject.
Blaming others is only for those who don't have the facts.
1
Focusing on the short-term and jettisoning the long-term should become illegal. The politicians who engage in accommodating profiteering at the expense of the commons should be prosecuted. As civilization gets a little further along in the catastrophe of global warming fueled climate change, this will become a foregone conclusion too little, too late.
12
Why is it that the United Stated is the only country that has met the Paris Accord guidelines and other countries are way behind? Why shouldn't we take advantage of our natural resources as long as it doesn't destroy the landscape for miles around?
Horizontal drilling is a great innovation in mining and we should do more of it. Natural gas burns twice as clean as coal and has been a huge boon fir energy production. Why kill it?
3
@George Fisher You obviously don't enjoy eating Salmon, a huge part of the global food supply. We've already polluted the oceans to the extent that we can't eat more than small amounts of seafood weekly without risking the brain and health damage that comes from Mercury (generated predominantly by power plants). Mines do destroy the landscape for miles around, and they destroy other resources while extracting their target resources. So does fossil fuel production and use. And now that the harmful effects of natural gas are better understood--water pollution and the release of methane that hastens global warming--there's no reason to destroy other resources, and the planet, pursuing it. We should put our money behind renewable energy: solar, wind, hydropower, and geothermal power.
4
Being against mining in one of the most vulnerable places in Alaska is not the same as being against mining...
2
@George Fisher The USA is the biggest per capita polluter in the world.
I’m hoping that somewhere there’s a complete list of all of Trump’s “rollbacks”, so that in 2020 when we elect a Democratic President, House, and Senate, those rollbacks can swiftly and permanently be undone
31
Everyday we face another obscenity from this administration. Alarm over what's happening to the rule of law; the integrity of independent branches of government; the traditional values of honesty, compassion, and service to others; and respect for the environment come close to a primal scream on a daily basis.
This generation will never be able to exculpate itself for its complicity in the irrevocable damages DJT has engineered.
How in God's name can we live with ourselves if we re-elect him?
53
Mr. Trump and his enablers always seem to think short term. What’s in in it for me now? They need to understand the future economic impact of their bad decisions. How will this effect our food supplies? How will poor water / air quality effect future healthcare costs? Will anyone take cruises to Alaska if there’s nothing to see?
26
What they really think about is money. How much money can we make doing x. Plain and simple.
14
Why can’t Democrats promise to repeal any mining concessions made in Alaska and other vulnerable places at the first possible occasion?
It would make this investment worthless.
Can only nature protections be reversed...?
If so, why are those not as bulletproof as industrial permissions to operate?
14
@Anne Key words: "Why can't Democrats...?" There's a lot Democrats could be doing to frustrate this parasite in our White House, but they choose instead to just bark incessantly. Let me truncate your question to its core: "Why?"
Obviously, the EPA and all the rules, regulations and laws are open to interpretation by the Republican president and he can repeal or deregulate anything he wishes. Congress MUST strengthen these laws, and prohibit ANY president from changing the laws or regulations or protections to our fragile environment!
Trump has already dismantled the Clean Air and Water Act; he has opened up the gorgeous area of Bears Ears Monument in Utah to mining and oil! The list is long. Who benefits?! Mining and Big Oil!
I’m a grandmother of seven beautiful, healthy smart grandchildren I want them to have Clean Air to breathe, clean water, and a viable Earth in which to grow and thrive! We, grandparents must unite and require that our government do better to fight Climate Change!
We are in a Climate Emergency! VOTE!
32
This is generally an issue with ALL Republicans, not just Trumpians. Although there are some in the GOP with a soft spot for certain conservation issues, the entire party would rather pretend the environment doesn't exist or that God will simply take care of everything. Republicans cannot be relied on to make responsible policy for future generations on this planet.
41
@Mford
The solution is to vote them out...all of them.
2
I wouldn't exactly say it's the last thing on his mind. It's clearly one of his priorities to destroy what everyone else holds sacred.
37
@Robert Detman
I disagree. His one priority is to hear cheers from those who support him. The environment is simply one of the many tools he uses (immigration is another) to rile up the greedy, ignorant, and bigoted; some of them are eager to destroy what everyone else holds sacred, and they are his willing tools.
2
Steve Bannon promoted the strategy of "flooding the zone" so opponents get exhausted at the constant stress, lose credibility by constantly complaining or simply become immune to everything that is some form of wrongdoing. This seems like a continuation of that strategy.
These decisions are myopic and terrible, but the bigger problem is an elected official using policy as a political tool to functionally short-cicuit dissent. As the election nears, these efforts could become more drastic and harmful (especially if polling looks pro-Democrat) because all decisions are guided only by November 2020 and the myopic interests of a few.
Our complex world requires government driven by long-term thinking which includes adhering to norms and laws. We never get that from this administration. Reversing this destructive course is the fundamental issue of the next presidential election.
33
Trump never reads a book, knows no history, does not associate with regular people, rarely leaves the casinos and golf courses, and, in short, has no personal experience in or use for public lands. He does not understand in the least the concept of saving wild, scenic, natural places for thousands of unborn generations of people who would enjoy them.
Trump is 100% wedded to processing money, regardless of what is involved. Many of us know money is merely the means to possibly useful ends. For Trump, money is the end itself. He is the worst thing in modern times that has happened to America.
94
@Phillip, Trump is too simple a man to comprehend what he has not experienced. And I doubt if Trump has ever spent a night out in nature - or even a day.
11
@The Real Mr. Magoo
I am sure he does not go out of the air conditioning at Camp David. Going from helicopter to house is the extent of his exposure to real nature.
5
Trump is obsessed with with jealously of President Obama, whose popularity, grace, and intelligence are an affront to his fragile ego. Much of the reason he is reversing environmental regulations is to spite Obama. He's doing this in every area of the government, no matter the cost, both within the country and internationally; if Obama did it, Trump tries to undo it. Trump neither knows nor cares about preserving the environment, our alliances, our institutions or our democracy. It's a zero sum game to him; as he sees it, if he wins, Obama loses. Sadly, so do we all.
34
@Eileen
he even refused to support the G7 proposal to help fight the Amazon fires. Was he thinking they wanted to help his enemy Amazon or the rain forest that is burning to make more room for profit making farms & businesses? He needs to stop & think that farmers in the Amazon are supplying China with soybeans & other agricultural products that the US use to supply.
CLIMATE CHANGE and FAKE NEWS. The media seem determined to keep touting Trump’s “booming economy.” And it's not just FOX News. How is it possible anyone in the media can talk about any booming economy and be serious? The cost of cleaning up the mess that Trump's EPA is reaping will add enormously to an already disastrous financial reckoning called our national debt. How can an economy be booming when trillions that are not being spent, and not being accounted for, are left out of any economic budget equations. Any sane person, which seems to exclude the present administration and the GOP, knows we needed to start dealing with climate change as a priority yesterday, as did President Obama in spite of the GOP Congress blockading many of his efforts. Without accounting for the cost of climate change Congressional budgets might as well be written on toilet paper and used to wipe in the appropriate places. If you have, or care about children and what they will inherit, then do not keep denying the cost of climate change. Hollywood makes end of the world movies and people flock to them. I can assure you no one will be flocking to the flooded coastlines and the sinking cities around the world in the next 20 years. Grow up America and let's elect a president in 2020 who cares about saving the planet. And lets get rid of Moscow Mitch, and take back the Senate, or any desperate efforts to save the planet will be stymied by his and the GOP’s inbred environmental ignorance.
32
It's clear he doesn't spend much time thinking about his son or possible grandchildren of the future from the other kids.
7
The rich can buy passports, real estate to live anywhere ranging from the Caribbean to any of the E.U. 28 (via e.g. Malta).
They can do whatever they want.
Me and mine are going to prison and be stripped of our ill gotten wealth, and if we can't have it no one else will either.
Might just start a war or three.
Me me me me me me me.
12
As someone who has been active in environmental issues since the early 70s, I find DJT's actions beyond horrible. Such an unconscious man. Brain dead but still alive.
It hurts me deeply and personally, even though I live in NYC and do not go into "the wilderness" very often, to know that he would harm the earth deliberately for political and financial gain. That, and hunting for big game, are about as low as actions as you can go.
If most of the USA is really supportive of all of Trump's truly disgusting policies then we the people are in very bad shape as a group. It is surprising and shocking to know that so many people in this fine land don't care about vital things: the water, the air, the land, the animals, and all manner of civil interaction with our fellow humans.
The Baby Boomers were supposed to usher in "peace and love" after the Vietnam war. We were supposed to "let the sunshine in" and remember, "he ain't heavy, he's my brother." Instead we elected someone who will mark our generation as the one that killed the planet, stopped all progress towards a new world order where everyone and everything mattered, and lead us down a dark hole just for the sake of money and his enormous fragile ego.
It's heartbreaking.
20
The Oligarchy and its GOP sycophants have been exploiting the environment since the Reagan days. Trump, with his clueless mind, has no idea the damage that occurs with unrestricted heavy mining operations. The damage is long-term with the cleanup very costly.
The "free market" GOP has no problem with private companies making huge profits undertaking environmentally unsound mining and drilling practices because the they are perfectly fine with the public picking up the cleanup costs. Yay.
It seems a tipping point on the environment has passed. And all the exploiters will be dust when the major problems hit.
20
Just face it, the present POTUS is a disaster on so many fronts and his callous disregard for the environment is up there with them all. He detests anything that impinges on his desire for profit, and looking after the environment is costly but, hey, why should he worry when it will be left to others to clear up the mess or suffer the results of his non-actions? Like almost everything else he is way out of his depth and has no idea what he is doing.
7
When will every columnist and headline writer learn that it is meaningless to use the phrase "what is on Trump's mind"
The only thing that can be said to be "on his mind" at any given moment is to react to something heard or said by punching out a tweet indicating only spontaneous reaction. The tweet will include misspelled words, incoherent sentence efforts, and a complete absence of background.
All efforts to write rational analyses like this one are in vain.
There is no solution prior to 2020 voting time.
The immediate question before us is this: Will he be so successful in emulating the Polish model of destroying democracy that a valid election will not be possible in 2020.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
12
Let usnotTrump as the only one. We all worry about environment AFTER we are comfortable in our day to day life and family well being. I am a democrat and I do think environment is important but I am more concerned about my Social Security and Mediacare coverage and educationa nd employment ioppportunities of my grandchildren. I am more worried about my traffic safety and violence. Democats should attack Trump on DEFICITS, authoritarian behavior and cozying upto Putin and Ki and Saudi Prince and Brazil's president,, etc. Democats shouldfocus on Senate races to gain control otherwise Trump-McConnel and their Trumpets will pack the Supreme Court thatbwill make Scalia look like a liberal. Don't make electoral college an issue in this election. Smaller states will definitely voote Republican, win First and then fight about issues. Only winners write teh rukes, losers just complain and whine,.
1
Thanks for the recap, NYTimes. As one comment noted, these ongoing, behind the scenes administrative decisions go largely ignored in the day to day TV news media. What if, after covering the daily inane tweets of this president (or whomever actually writes them), the host said “and in other real news...” followed by pictures of the clear cuts, mining tailing leakages, etc- already in existence (Colorado’s mining wastes come to mind). Then maybe an email address for us to leave comments with the appropriate agency. Day after day, tweet after tweet.
The contrast between useless tweets and real problems, real actions- might, at least, get some light. Especially when the tweet is about immigration- as another comment noted, where’s the outrage over foreign- corporations??
15
I gave up on the government long time ago when it come to environment.
However,
I bring my own bags to shop.
Plant veggie during growing season.
Try to buy foods free of chemicals.
Do not water and fertilize my lawn.
Compost and recycle.
Wear the same cloths for several seasons.
Turn off light.
.......
We just don't buy the stuffs and use the services that they try to sell us. When there is no market then they won't make them and hence harm the environment.
Why wait?
10
@Joe, all that's nice, and I try to do most of those things as well, but it won't do one iota of good in the big picture if there is no clean air, clean water, healthy fish and plants, etc. Give up on the government all you want, but if you don't vote - and vote against those who would loot and pillage our environment - then your efforts are wasted.
6
Every time someone says he or she supports Trump because he's pro-life, point out what an immense lie that is, and tell them why.
16
@Beverly Very good! We need more on-liners that can filter through to trumpistas. Statements they might grasp.
The challenge for Democrats is to summarize complex problems and ideas in one-liners.
11
@Phillip
Agreed--thank you. How about this one: Why is it that so many "pro-lifers" are also anti-contraception? And how can this president, of all people, favor abstainence-only sex education in schools? It was said about Reagan's HEW Secy Ed Meece that his "right to life" stops at birth.
These days the right to life stops at future generations as well, and never to other species. We have reached the bizarre moment wherein the smarter we need to be, the stupider we are becoming--and Trump "loves the uneducated."
Think of all the chemicals Donald Trump uses on his precious golf courses. You think he cares about “natural” resources?
His idea of boundary waters is probably some sort of water wall to keep Mexicans out. He’s probably never heard of National Forests let alone any desire to make them safe and long lasting for future generations.
Preservation of wildlife? What? His sons have photo shots of murdering precious endangered species of animals in other lands - big smiles on their faces!
The United States has lost its way. Theodore Roosevelt has got to be rolling in his grave. Franklin Roosevelt, too. Giving fellow Americans areas to observe and live in its resources safely? Finding ways to make America great while giving people jobs to preserve its natural beauty?
That is all foreign to Donald J. Trump. But these Republicans who will not stand for us and our rights as citizens? They need to get voted out and they should never have our tax given retirement pensions, either. They’ve destroyed America the Beautiful. We can barely catch our breath to sing the song. Its meaning is dying as are the resources in Donald Trump’s hands.
8
Has individual #1 ever set foot on a hiking trail? Of course not. His golf cart won't fit. Taken a canoe down a river? Of course not. His golf cart would sink.
8
There is nothing on Trump's mind but how to put another buck in his pocket and it doesn't matter to him if he destroys the environment, economy or this government.
7
How many Americans will spend the money and time to visit Alaska in their lifetimes? I did so some years back and was enthralled until the bills came in, since our 49th and 50th states are number 1 for exorbitant costs. Many of us don't care about anyplace beside our same old boring 100 square miles of familiar territory. I work with people who remain in Foreclosure Park, Illinois, just because their birth 50 years ago in a hospital there sanctifies the place. Even their time in the Air Force National Guard and in a Federal law enforcement agency has not dispelled a fatal degree of provincialism and they proudly cling to parochial idiocies as if they were the pronoucements of heaven itself. Try getting one of these hayseeds to think about anything outside their miniscule patch of leveraged real estate, especially something important like our environment or our planet's changing climate...
6
It wasn't that long ago the infernos were raging in California because the wood wasn't harvested.
And, of course, think of all the CO2 the fires released into the atmosphere.
No one wants nature 'despoiled'. That's crazy talk from the insane.
3
The California fires were a result of wet winter followed by very dry summer, coupled with longer term drought and poor fire management policies (e.g. always putting out the smaller fires that would have cleared the underbrush over the decades) , etc. But the fires did not have anything to do with "wood [that] wasn't harvested." That was just one of Trump's lies.
3
Here's a guy whose only experience with hiking in the "wilds" is walking a well manicured golf course. As long as he as his destinations courses--clean and manicured---the rest of us, who enjoy hiking, enjoy the outdoors, enjoy mountains, forests, rivers---well, learn to walk around trucks and drilling equipment--Of all the tragedies of this administration--Trump's degradation of the environment is for me--the worse legacy of this very terrible administration.
6
The piece stated trump is “almost” pathologically dedicated to obliterating President Obama’s efforts to curb environmental destruction. No, trump’s behavior is the very definition of pathological. In so many ways, in so many forms. And every human under the age of 15 will suffer immeasurably due to the choices being made today by those who pull the strings. To quote; sad!
7
"Together they demonstrate again how Mr. Trump, when faced with a choice between commerce and conservation, reflexively sides with the former, even when the economic case for conservation is strong."
It breaks my heart to see these pristine places, full of wildlife, beauty, and integrated ecologies be put on the chopping block (often literally) to satisfy a president so opposed to science, conservation and environmental protections.
Once you strip an ecosystem, it can't come back quickly, if ever. America's love of the almighty dollar is almost personified in a man who values little else.
It's particularly disturbing to hear about the Tongass National Forest, with a rain forest that's still effective in mitigating the impact of climate change.
Mr. Trump is right on one score when he brags that he's done so much more than any other US president: problem is, most of what he's done on land use is horrible.
11
@ChristineMcM
Clearing underbrush and dead trees has zilch to do with harvesting (as you put ir) wood. I have to cut down a 60 year old tree because it seemed to be doing damage-- too close to the house... 200 year old or older trees are what is being clear cut for lumber for shipment to Japan. You might be able to plant and see grow a 60 - 80 year old tree in your onw lifetime or not. They are magnificent creatures.. PS N of the border trees grow more slowly-- climate... Trees in Toronto CA are toy trees to me.
1
Is it just me or does anyone else wonder what is a Donald Trump or a Jair Bolsonaro thinking when it comes to protecting the natural world for future generations? Approaching older middle age, my mind goes there a lot these days. What kind of world are future generations inheriting when we pass on? Trump and Bolsonaro are more than just short-sighted thinking only of themselves and their political constituents. Other forms of life are meaningless to them. There seems to be no other reality than themselves. Don't know about you but I find this thinking to be very disturbing. It is as if no other life on this planet exists outside their materialistic driven egos. Very disturbing indeed.
7
''He was, to boot, almost pathologically dedicated to obliterating anything President Obama had done to reduce global warming gases, preserve open space and help endangered species.'
Something is just weird with this guy, Trump, when it comes to his obsession with all things Obama. From his absurd 'birther' movement to overturning any and all legislation that the Obama administration enacted for the greater good of all Americans. I mean, I kind of get where Trump, with his crystal glass ego, is so infatuated with Obama. Obama is what Trump will never be, and he knows it. A capable, respected man who led our country out of a tough time and a statesman who was, and still is, respected and admired on the world stage. It's just got to be tearing him up.
7
@sheikyerbouti same goes for former Senator John McCain. Here is my take on Trump's obsession with Obama and McCain. Both are a hundred times the man Trump will ever be or hope to be especially McCain. That and McCain cast the deciding vote in abolishing Obamacare.
@Jean W. Griffith While I agree tha McCain was 100 times better than Agent Orange, he was a hawk who never met a war he didn't like, a shill for the aerospace industry, the gun lobby and anything but an environmentalist. He spent much of his career as an opponent of a woman's right to choose. He supported the present administration more than 80% of the time; he voted for tax cuts; and cast a vote (watching his slow motion thumbs down, it's my impression, motivated by spite and personal animus) against defunding of Obamacare, but opposed the original (compromise) legislation. How, in your mind, he was a better man than President Obama escapes me.
1
Trump simply couldn't care less about anything he can't quantify, broker and sell for personal financial gain. Let this be a lesson to anyone who thinks being rich makes people better - it doesn't. When you're born into wealth, as was the case for Trump and his prodigy, you have a disrupted, indifferent and out-of-touch view of the world and your responsibility to better it. To the point of thinking the world is here to serve you and not the other way around.
4
Trump's value system is that of 19th century capitalism: 1) kill or displace the native population and all competitors, and; 2) plunder the environment for profit. ALL his decisions lead us further down the slippery slope to disaster.
4
Trump once bragged that he could shoot a man on Fifth Ave and not lose a single voter. That is absolutely frightening out of a president's mouth. But he's done something far worse: His environmental wrecking ball is taking us all down--all our children, all our hopes for a livable future. With what we now know about climate change, if one is decidedly anti-environment, one is anti life-on-earth.
12
Laws can be overturned. Foreign alliances and treaties can be negotiated. The pristine lands of our country that lie in trust for all citizens cannot be rescued once they have been despoiled by development. Nor can the unleashing of nuclear destruction wrought by bombs.
No one person should hold either of these powers solely in his/her hands. The lesson of the Trump administration is that, even in the land of the free, truly evil people can be elected president.
7
As far as I am concerned, a person who hates the beauty of the natural world and loves the manicured and fake natural world of a golf course is a person who hates what is best about this country. I live in a county just to the west of one which has been handed over lock, stock, and barrel to the fracking industry. It is ugliness and pollution personified. Those who love its current state most are happy to get rich off it, but they would never live near a gas well installation themselves. That's for the peons.
5
Conservativism is a strange moniker for Republicans, as they don’t seem to want to conserve anything, except their own hold on money, power , and privilege.
12
I got the impression the environment was the first thing on his mind - how to destroy it in the name of money and disdain for Pres. Obama. I picture trump whooping it up in the Oval Office each time he plans another dig at science.
4
I must disagree with the notion that the environment
is the last thing on Trump's mind.
Frankly, I see via his actions and decisions that he is more determined than ever to do whatever it takes to get whatever he can when it comes to oil, gas, cars, etc. and dang the environment.
What doesn't even seem to be on his closed mind is the harm and irrevocable damage his decisions and EPA rollbacks will have and are having on the environment.
This guy's focus is on his polluting pals' greed for money and power. All these folks know and want is take, take, take.
I wouldn't doubt this guy thinks the notion of "preserving" resources is some kind of jam, jelly or marmalade one eats on crackers while in the woods camping or hiking.
3
The President's notion of enjoying nature is to be on golf course, complete with non native trees and grasses, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and companions who are not likely to catch him cheating on where his ball landed.
We could never have imagined a leader this crazy. What's happened to American voters? Let's blame our media, who normalize him, broadcast his every appearance, and refuse to call him on his lies. Advertisers have always been with us. Let's boycott the ones who support him and his media allies while there's still time to salvage what's left of our world.
2
Republicans seldom put environmental concerns ahead of commercial development, and Trump is the worst of the lot. If Trump is around another 4 years, he and his right-wing counterpart, Brazil's Bolsonaro, may together do more to destroy our ecosystem than all previous leaders combined. The only answer is to elect Democrats, most of whom have a genuine interest in preserving the environment for future generations.
4
The Tongass like the Amazon is nature's way of cleaning the air of toxic carbon that is the cause of global warming. It is America's largest most effective natural defense, and now to say that climate change is not caused by man, in this case one man, is put to the lie. While this is also a place of national beauty teeming with wildlife life, lakes and mountains that is a source of income to Alaska through tourism and the salmon industry is secondary to the real wall America and the world needs to protect the environment so that future generations will survive to see and enjoy it.
1
Hostility to environmental concerns has been a bedrock principle of the GOP since 1980, and the coming of Reagan, James Watt, and Anne Burford.
3
Probably one of worst Trump giveaways is the proposed allowing of gold mining in the pebble creek area, which will endanger a major source of wild caught salmon, considering the far superior health benefits compared to that of the Far East Asian country aquaculture product grown in toilet water (I am NOT referring to the overpriced diluted perfume department store cosmetic boutiques) should the wild species go by way of the passenger pigeons!
1
Today, September 1 2019 (80th grim anniversary of the start of World War II in Germany and Europe), we are more concerned with the Mother of all Hurricanes -- Dorian Cat 4 -- about to hit the southeast coast of Florida and the United States than with Trump's desecration of our natural resources. Miners, loggers, drillers, wait up! This land is OUR land, not yours.
American people were mowed down last night in a West Texas drive-by shooting. A 30 year old white man ran amok, stole a USPS van and drove down a highway between two cities, randomly shooting at people and cars. We await more information and more random shootings in our sickening gun culture.
Our country is being held hostage by the far-right's demagoguery and their disbelief in climate change. America's natural resources are being squandered by the Republicans and their believers. Climate-warming is a trumpian "hoax". We Americans on Florida's peninsula are hunkering down, awaiting the hurricane, and praying for heart's ease for all of us in our corner of the U.S.
3
Maybe after Hurricane Dorian flattens Mar-a-Lago in a couple of days, he'll learn a little respect. Probably not.
2
@withfeathers, if the hurricane hits Mar-a-Loco, how much you wanna bet it'll get a lot better (and much faster) federal response than the people in Puerto Rico ever got!
1
Oh my, I must disagree with the notion that the environment is the last thing on Trump's mind. Frankly, I see via his actions and decisions that he is more determined than ever to do whatever it takes to get whatever he can when it comes to oil, gas, cars, etc. and dang the environment.
What isn't even on his closed mind is the harm and irrevocable damage his decisions and EPA rollbacks will have and are having on the environment.
This president's focus is on his polluting pals greed. All these folks know and want is take, take, take.
I wouldn't doubt this guy thinks the notion of "preserving" resources is some kind of jam, jelly or marmalade one eats on crackers while in the woods camping or hiking.
3
Trump is at war on all that is good:democracy, alliances, prosperity, human decency. Of course he will declare war on the planet.
3
The only real thing on Trump's mind is now to grow his Swiss Bank account deposits as Industry pays him to do what it wants.
Trump is a Republican's Republican.
He will do whatever he is paid to do. Assuming the deposit in the Swiss bank is appropriately large.
3
This article is sure to get more empathy from independent voters than perpetrating falsehoods such as the Russian Collusion Hoax, the dangers of Trump having the keys to the nuclear codes and predictions of Hillary’s landslide victory.
2
@Scott K The only reason the Trump campaign did not collude with the Russian was their blatant and complete incompetence. Junior, Kushner and Manafort met with Russians with the hope of gaining valuable dirt against HRC. Agent Orange, himself, said publically 'Russia are you listening? If you can find the 30,000 missing e-mails please release them' and 'I love Wikileaks'. It was no hoax. A 3 million person popular majority was not an electoral victory only because of the distortions of the popular will caused by the structure of the electoral college. And if one isn't frightened of an unintelligent near-psychotic narcissist having the nuclear codes, you must have something stronger than what's in my cupboard.
1
Really folks, can any sane, caring, and respectful Americans hoping to pass on to their descendants the majesty of our outdoors, tolerate another 4 years of this increasing pillaging of one of our greatest assets? Vote Democratic in 2020 for every single candidate on your ballot. This must be stopped.
1
Of all of this administrations outrages, the defiling of our environment outrages me the most. It's as though they are doing it purposely to anger liberals but their voters are being harmed too. I can't think of one thing that Trump has done to make every citizen's life better.
1
This was bound to happen. What were Americans thinking when they put a an avaricious and failed real-estate developer into the White House?
Of course it would only be a matter of time before he reverted back to his old practices of grabbing public lands and claiming them for his own profit while eviscerating every environmental protection legislation in the process.
Is it any wonder that he wants to accelerate global warming by releasing more fossil fuels into the atmosphere when the northern reaches of Alaska and the Arctic are beckoning?
Get out and see your country now, Americans.
While you still can.
2
In the Trump universe, there is only one way to proceed: Dig, drill, mine and pollute, no matter what the damage to our natural heritage is. The Trump thinks only golf of golf courses when it comes to "wildlife habitat." I would be astounded if he has ever even heard mention of the names "Frank Church" and "Lee Metcalf."
More good news for the rich, tear down, any and all obstruction to give more money to the rich, at the expense of the environment, tax free. Elizabeth Warren Where are you!
1
Yet they keep cheering and voting for him, go figure.
1
According to the headline, Trump has a mind. I disagree heartily. He also lacks a soul.
1
The NYT, like most urbanites and commenters here, is genuinely confused about the status, purpose, and ecology of public lands. If this were a real debate, I'd begin by asking each critic from where they obtain their wood, power, petroleum, clothing, and food. That would silence a lot of the whining immediately. Then I'd ask them to explain the ecology of places where fire and disruption are intrinsic forces in the ecosystems of western North America. That would stopper probably all but a handful of the rest. Then I would ask them how rural counties in the West, places that are often overwhelmingly dominated by untamable federal lands, are able to pay for schools, roads, and other social services without this supposed environmental rapine economy. No one has a good answer for that. The NYT would do well to shut up and learn something about the rural American West--its ecology, economy, and political economy--before baring itself once again as nothing more than another ignorant urban environmentalist voice. A good place to start is with these federal transfer payment maps at Stanford University's Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis. They're an entry point into how little so many Americans know about the political economy of federal lands, and how complicated this subject is. I genuinely despise Donald Trump, but this subject is about a lot more than him. https://followthemoney.stanford.edu
2
I have to disagree that the environment is the last thing on Trump's mind. On the contrary, how to trash it to increase corporate profits is one of his top priorities. And his base loves it.
1
What part of finite do the extractors not understand? Parks are not places for pillage. Decimation of the environment is not in anyone's interest. Short term plunder and greed are a scourge - in the biblical sense.
2
In many texts sacred to many religions, we are called to be good stewards for the earth. I’m not being snarky, but I sincerely wonder what the Evangelical Christians who support Trump (King Cyrus) have to say about the ecological vandalism the the US President is unleashing upon such vital and beautiful parts of your country.
Is it because we are in the “end times” and we don’t need to protect the earth because there is no earthly tomorrow?
1
“The Times also reported that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner had rented a house in Washington belonging to Andrónico Luksic, the billionaire whose family controls the company. This may not have hurt the conglomerate’s cause.“
It sounds like Luksic knows how to play Trump through Ivanka and Jared. Whatever this guy is offering Trump and his family it doesn’t warrant polluting an important wilderness area of this country.
3
Just like the toxic business model of Big health-insurance and Big Pharma companies where the greed of casual inhumanity is built in and the common good of the citizen and nation is ignored, Trump and the GOP want to stop protecting the environment and let energy companies do whatever they wish. By spending lots of money on lobbying and campaign contributions, benefactors from the fossil fuel industry are well rewarded by the GOP/Trump.
Trump/GOP will allow the cutting down/ burning down of everything in the environment for profit opportunity. Ruining rivers, streams, lakes, runaway leaking ocean oil wells, Keystone pipeline and shale oil extraction, fracking every back yard in the USA, drilling in the Arctic, Amazon ,the relentless, profiteering pillage and plunder juggernaught goes on. This latest 'plunder' is yet another sickening example of USA priorities which result in a massive and highly destructive transfer of resources from the commons, 99%citizens, to a tiny number of greedy 1% investors/oligarchs. We must stop this.
2
Thanks for this editorial, but as a whistle blower fired under the Nixon Administration for revealing Clean Air Act violations of auto emissions, I must respectfully disagree.
Yes, Trump policies are terrible for the people and the planet but please see the history I witnessed and documented over the past half century at
https://www.legalreader.com/50-years-of-legal-climate-change/
Documents in chronological order are at
https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/1970s-polution-control-efforts/
2
Trump can pretend his anti-environmental policies are to make more profit. But that isn't true. His attacks on the environment are mostly because of his extreme jealousy of Obama's success and popularity. By this time even Trump must know that he will go down in history as not just the worst president in history but the worst thing that ever happened to our nation. The republican party could have stopped him but were instructed to let him run wild by their donors (owners). They will pay the price next year when they feel the anger of America.
The planet is not getting any larger. Areas like the ones mentioned in this article are unique in ways not found elsewhere. To allow mining or timber sales in these areas is criminal. It is not even that Trump might profit from their exploitation, but his utter contempt for anything Obama.
Trump is off the rails. His sanity needs to seriously questioned. He is doing things no rational person would ever conceive of doing. For the sake of our country and the planet, he needs to go.
Trump is the embodiment of all that is sociopathic in capitalism: its selfish short-term greed, its mendacious hucksterism, its eagerness to foist costs on others (externalization), its constant need for more, and its inability to see value outside of financial gain -- for instance, in nature's sacredness and beauty. Trump's sociopathiic nature suits him well to lead capitalism's "War on Nature," but as long as we live under an economic system that requires continual GDP growth of 2 or 3 percent lest it go into recession, the war will continue when he's gone.
Today we stand at the crossroads: either rapid transition to an ecological form of socialism or regression into barbarism. Business as usual is leading to climate catastrophe and the planet's sixth mass extinction event.
1
in Wisconsin, WhenScott Koch Walker was governor the first bill he signed was to let an open pit mine open. It was revealed that the mining company gave a $700,000 campaign contribution to the Republicans. I suspect Trump is raking in dark money from the companies that will benefit from ruining the environment. Trump does not care. He will be gone before all the consequences of his trashing of our environment, our democracy, and our few morals are obvious even to the hardcore Trump supporters. They will suffer the most because Global Climate Change is affecting the Red states and they have no plan to deal with it. I remember that high school quote, If you fail to plan,you plan to fail. Trump plans for all of us to fail.
3
"On June 20, Mr. Trump flew to a “Make America Great Again” rally in Duluth to announce that a new day had dawned, that America’s “rich natural resources,” which the Obama administration had “put under lock and key, ” would be set free — including the mineral deposits next to Boundary Waters."
So how does making America great equate with destroying America's precious natural resources?
All week, during these last days of summer, Donald Trump has been on a tear, bound and determined to thumb his nose at his predecessor, climate scientists, hikers, fishing industries, and those who believe rain forests are a critical part of the battle against global warming.
It's hard to keep up with it all, his changes, rollbacks and reversals are happening so fast.
Many, such as the loosening of methane gas spillage regulations, aren't even supported by the very industries they allegedly help.
It almost seems as if the president gets as much pleasure attacking the environment as he does dismantling our immigration laws.
5
As a younger person growing up in NYC from the 60's through the 90's I had a subtle yet chronic fear and distrust of developers. Now I know why.
They care nothing for what is in place before they bulldoze it, and in fact resent whatever exists as an obstruction to their desires. They care nothing for the consequences of their destructive acts. Their one and only concern is immediate profit for themselves.
No one with this mindset should ever be granted the public trust. It is a set up for rampant abuse, which is what we have been seeing from day one of this administration.
My hope is the destroyer-in-chief becomes extinct well before the other creatures he threatens. More cheeseburgers to the Oval Office please.
2
The Trumps will be remembered as cruel to humans, cruel to the world.
1
I've gotten to the point where I can't even read these articles about the rape of these unspoiled areas anymore. For those of us who feel a connection with the environment and realize the need to preserve untouched areas for future generations, it's frustrating and saddening. It may sound stupid but reading about things like this bring me to tears. Will there ever be a time again where human arrogance and greed will not win out over respect for the flora and fauna we share this earth with? The people who want to run roughshod over the environment always use the ploy of "jobs". Well you can't eat money and there won't be any jobs when it's all gone...
1
I've gotten to the point where I can't even read these articles about the rape of these unspoiled areas anymore. For those of us who feel a connection with the environment and realize the need to preserve untouched areas for future generations, it's frustrating and saddening. It may sound stupid but reading about things like this bring me to tears. Will there ever be a time again where human arrogance and greed will not win out over respect for the flora and fauna we share this earth with? The people who want to run roughshod over the environment always use the ploy of "jobs". Well you can't eat money and there won't be any jobs when it's all gone...
2
If environment were the last thing on Trump's mind that means he is indifferent to the environment. I don't think he is indifferent, instead he is actively hostile to the environment and proactively destroying it. That is the depth of his evil.
1
At the G7 conference last week Trump told journalists that he “he has second thoughts about everything.”
The president is notorious for his volatility and erratic policy shifts, but one of the things he has never had any “second thoughts” about is the sacrificing of the natural environment (air, land and water) on the altar of corporate greed. On this he has never had any second thoughts and clearly never will.
“Almost pathologically dedicated to obliterating anything President Obama had done to reduce global warming?” The word “almost” should be removed from the sentence and applies to Republicans in general, nearly all of whom have turned a blind eye to the catastrophe that lies ahead. We must vote them from office to have a shred of hope for leaving the planet our children inherit in even marginal shape to inhabit, much less enjoy.
"The Tongass is the spawning ground for about 40 percent of the wild salmon that populate the West Coast." This statement needs some proof. In the 70s Mr. Carter's administration negotiated a fishing treaty with Canada. Alaska fishermen could no longer take fish spawned in Canadian rivers. This effectively killed the Southeast Alaska salmon fishing fleet. If 40% of West Coast salmon are spawned in the Tongass, seems like there should be a salmon fishing fleet operating in southeast Alaska. But they aren't there. Copper River and Bristol Bay are the major North Pacific wild salmon fishing areas - both hundreds of miles west of the Tongass.
Second problem with this article. The picture at the top shows a clearcut that is supposed to be on Prince of Wales Island. But there hasn't been any public-land logging on Prince of Wales for decades. If that cut is on Prince of Wales Island, it is a private-land cut on Kavilco indian land near Kasaan. The indian village of Kasaan sold their timber to the chinese.
The US Forest Service is contemplating a plan to cut about 230 million board feet in the Tongass over a 15-year period - roughly 15 million board feet per year. Between the late 1950s and mid-1980s there was public land logging in the Tongass. There were two companies, one in Sitka and one in Ketchikan. The Ketchikan operation cut about 120 million board feet per year mostly from Prince of Wales area. 15 million board feet a year is not much.
3
@Richard
Thanks for presenting FACTS and perspective.
1
Our public lands, our wilderness, and the environment must be protected from this kleptocracy. Congress, do your job.
2
Remember when Ivanka was going to rein him in and help him do the right things for her, her children, and her grandchildren, not to mention humanity? His disregard for us, and his own offspring, is, well, unsurprising.
1
I couldn't read all of this op ed...it makes me so sad to see such magnificent beauty destroyed for greed, short-term gain, and in the case of the "president" spite for all the things President Obama did...
Trump's attacks on people (money, health, housing, voting rights, civil rights, and telling the truth) might be fair game for people can defend themselves, if they want to. But, attacks on Mother Earth are tantamount to molestation, torture, and abuse she can't defend herself but she will take it out on the innocent. Or, we are not so innocent; for to let Trump continue to attack our only home is to betray ourselves in support of his policies. There are no innocent victims for we are all participating in the decision to allow Trump to abort the life of the earth.
2
How is it that GW Bush efforts to roll back Clinton era restrictions on Tongass are blocked in the courts, but now trump waltzes in and gets away with threateningly them? I missed something.
1
A small correction to the title of the article:
"Trump to Mining Companies, Logging Companies, and Drilling Companies: This Land Is Your Land"
The actual miners, loggers, and drilling crews are just working guys looking for jobs -- and they will not reap near the "benefits" that their corporate employers will.
1
Change the name, EPA - Environmental Protection Agency to EDA - Environmental Destruction Agency
2
Ultimately, (destroying) the environment and (not mitigating) climate change will be Trump's legacy.
Future generations will rue what will have been lost due to one man's insatiable greed. And they will forever curse the handful of sleazy extractive industries who profit off destroying "the commons" and the amoral billionaires who enable Trump and his greedy gang of Trumplicans.
What a sorry legacy, what a sorry state of affairs.
1
Perhaps Trump and all his billionaire “friends” thinks that the money they are making from despoiling the environment will somehow protect their children from breathing polluted air, drinking dirty water and living in a world where natural disasters are the normal.
1
'Crimes against the environment' are also crimes against humanity.
The trump administration - and the individuals involved - should be held to account for the damage being wrought upon our world by the greed and myopia of the polluters and despoilers trump is enabling. We are borrowing the environment from the generations that follow us, and trump's wastrel policies are insuring we leave our progeny a badly damaged world in which life for every living creature will be more perilous, difficult, or impossible. Through our collective inaction, we are giving our consent. It must stop.
1
Trump is simply a useful pawn of corporate interests who want to destroy the environment for profit and gain.
Since Trump hold essentially no ethics or conscience with regard to the rest of the planet.. he is easily malleable to the big money interests who want to essentially strip harvest and mine the planet.
1
Three things which Donald Trump likes very much are keeping rich political donors happy, getting free stuff for himself and his family as often as possible, and destroying any evidence of accomplishments by Barack Obama.
Donald Trump has exhibited willful ignorance on many subjects, so we should not be surprised at the apparent Trump hatred for the environment and his disdain for the unanimous verdict of honest scientists that the incursions of mankind have caused climate change.
These thoughts, bad as they may be, are far less on Trump’s mind than his nagging envy of the popularity of Barack Obama.
"It's not clear why Trump is doing this."
I think it's pretty clear that one of the main motivators for Trump doing anything is the pure joy he gets out of antagonizing those who his decisions will affect negatively. Messing with people is what gets him out of bed in the morning.
His primary target is Obama supporters, but any perceived liberal will do, particularly environmentlists, climate scientists, preservationists and assorted planet-saving busy bodies of all stripes.
Trump's an unabashed bully, and, like all bullies - from those on the grade school playground to those on the international political stage - he feeds off the fear of his victims. But we can't afford to allow fear to call the shots with so much at stake. Let's ditch the fear of this man-child, Trump, and turn it into resolve to return to sanity on the environment and the future of our planet.
What Trump needs is massive pushback for his repugnant, climate-killing behavior. Let's give it to him in 2020.
1
Why isn’t soybean acreage included?
If it doesn't benefit our "fearless leader" and line his pockets, he couldn't care less. Imagine to be so ignorant that he says climate change is a hoax. He probably doesn't understand how the Brazilian Rain Forest affects all of us. He may not care about his children/ grandchildren's future, but the rest of us care about ours. He threw the Constitution under the bus before he even tried to understand its principles. As far as he's concerned it doesn't exist or matter for him. This land is not his to do with as he pleases, which is seize and destroy. We must save ourselves from him. VOTE
Plunder. Trump, the GOP, and the rapacious corporations are the new barbarians. Environmental death brings down civilizations.
1
And we have yet another reason to hasten the end of this administration and those who would rape the world for private riches.
During WWII, Britain was in terrible straights with Germany doing its best to choke the life out of it. Most of the trees then in Scotland were felled for needed fuel and timber, included even weapons (see: the fabled Mosquito bomber). The forests have been replanted but the regular rows of trees belie their start in life 70 years ago.
The "riches" on and in our lands will remain there if we really need them in a far distant future. Leave them alone for that distant time when we might have better and safer means of exploiting them.
Trump is not working for the future of America’s children - he and complicit republicans are draining us dry.
1
The only Trump agenda is to reverse everything Obama achieved. If only Obama had been hostile to the environment. Then Trump would be inundating the country with new regulations protecting the environment. Trump is a man/child of unyielding principles.
There are no words that will convey how much I loath this man.
1
"The Environment Is The Last Thing On Trump's Mind."
You coulda fooled me.
I thought it was common decency.
1
Why would Trump want to preserve nature? There's dirt there, and animals, and it might even rain! If you went there, walking might be involved.
To Trump and his ilk, a forest is just wood, a lake is just water, and an animal is just a hamburger, or something to shoot for sport.
Name one time, just one time, the real estate speculator turned president sat in the world of wilderness silence of forest, swamp mountain slope above the tree line. It is impossible to imagine for there would be no one to hear his big mouth and a rainstorm might fluff his coiffure out of shape.
The man doesn't know or care what wilderness is nor what the precious sources of oxygen and clean water are. He is ante-diluvian in his thinking, so of course he caters those who would wreck the land and leave little to their great-grandchildren.
He has gotta get the heave-ho.
Deals for corporations, campaign contributions for The Donald.
“There are people who eat the Earth and eat all the people on it...” Lillian Hellman. A perfect description of the Trumps.
Trump has little use for forests. The time he's wasted looking for his golf ball, after an errant drive, could be spent spending more time with his children.
And yet ... he gets support from millions of humans willing to overlook this .... merely because "he isn't afraid to tweet his mind".
1
If we can’t vote out climate denying and environmentally destructive politicians, then it’s time to target and punish those humans who hold back progress. We lose 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird, and mammal species to extinction per day. July 2019 was the hottest on record for the Arctic. With climate change comes more severe storms and weather, and it has been proven time and time again that humans are responsible. It’s time to only help the poor and those who support climate progress, and leave behind those who deny and destruct. Do not send storm relief aid to families who support Trump and other politicians who have rolled back greenhouse gas regulations, air quality, and have damaged the endangered species act and our public lands. Toss them a roll of paper towels in the face of Dorian and other disasters like Trump once did to citizens in Puerto Rico at most. When there are children, our only future, striking for climate around the world, it’s time to let nature do her job and punish the adults who are harming us all with selfishness, greed, and ignorance. It’s time to let nature serve climate justice.
5
It has become clear that a real estate developer in not the person we need to be in the White House. All our public land, registers on the cash register of, Mr. Trumps, brain. He says there is money beneath his feet and that registers as nothing else does. Everything calculated down to the penny of corruption and self-dealing. What to do – he has no shame and his cronies facilitate the mania? Standing up and making an action together so we can make a difference! Living simpler might be attractive in the long run and focusing on our health and wellness is a good substitute for the yo-yo boost we get from shopping!
183
@Culler
A hard-working, informed, inspiring president who morally reflects “the better angels of our nature” could go a long way in motivating the American people to unified, positive action.
We currently face difficult, long-term challenges. It is hard to imagine a more inappropriate approach to these trials than the greed, corruption and deceit put forth by the Trump administration.
22
@Culler It should have been clear by 2015.
10
@Culler Money, and also, the obsession to dismantle everything that Obama did. It wasn't uncommon during American slavery that a slaveholder would flog an enslaved man or woman who displayed intelligence, especially if that man or woman showed themselves smarter than their master. It was a primitive way of showing White supremacy; the parasite in our White House is merely updating that practice at the nation's expense.
24
In dollars and cents, how much does the average American stand to gain from Trump's decisions, as opposed to all of the related industries and their shareholders? I think if you asked all of us, your digital subscribers, for a donation to support efforts to raise the same level of awareness in others, especially children and youth, we would. In the meantime, of course, we'll continue to attend choir practice. But, as you've highlighted in this excellent piece, we have to find more permanent and effective ways to neutralize the industry's lobby and deep pockets.
9
Another Trump era change that no one is paying attention to: the Pittman Robertson (PR) Act was up for renewal and the conservative gun lobby made "improvements". PR funds come from a tax on guns and ammunition designated for wildlife management activities. The act was created back when gun owners were mostly hunters who would help pay for conservation and benefit from healthy wildlife populations. Since 2008 gun sales went thought the roof and so did PR funds. The funds are designated for habitat improvement, conservation, hunter education and population monitoring etc.
The gun lobby changed PR to allow up to 100% of the funds dedicated currently to HE and add up to 10% of the PR funds dedicated to WM and pressure fish and wildlife agencies to build and maintain shooting ranges free to the public.
Not only does this potentially eliminate hunter education in states, it also begins the eroding of wildlife management. It drags the fish and wildlife agencies into mission creep. The intent of those funds was to benefit wildlife. New hunters were trained to be safe and ethical in the field. A range or two for training hunters was eligible, but not 100% of the education funds. How will the public feel when they learn that state POLITICALLY appointed directors are opting to dismantle the very programs that made hunting a safe activity for the last 50 years and diminish the funding needed for wildlife management across the country? This change is already law.
7
Thank you for bringing this to our attention! HEY New York Times! This is something to check out!
Congress needs to pass a law: Every mining, logging, and building project done in open spaces or pristine lands needs to have an environmental impact study done prior to any such projects. The EPA needs to have a non-interested party complete the study, before Congress approves the project.
No one person or Cabinet Head should have the power to make a decision regarding public lands.
9
The law you suggest IS already LAW! Thing is Trump doesn’t care and with the “executive powers act” (which needs to be repealed) he can dismantle ANY and ALL protections!
1
Wilderness areas are supposed to be free of motorized vehicles and other human activities, but there is a big push right now (along with mining and cattle grazing) to allow more trails, more recreational vehicles, larger groups of people, helicopters, snow mobiles, bikers, etc. There are a few groups out there fighting back that could use help. Wilderness Watch is one.
16
Thank you for this comment, Mike. Wilderness areas are becoming ruined by all manner of recreational activities too. People need to respect the land and the natural environment and leave it alone.
5
Trump and his administration demonstrate the weakness of our government when through executive action, and no deliberation by elected representatives a single individual can upend the progress and vision of a country without real checks and balances. Our courant system of checks and balances is not working.
13
This is yet another in a series of staggering missteps with regard to the climate. But we should make no mistake in thinking this is DJT acting in isolation. It is part of a long-term strategy set in motion in the 1970s after Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency (through an executive order, I might add). That agency has done some wonderful things but they have very powerful corporate and political enemies. It has led to corporations moving operations to countries with more lenient environmental laws combined and significantly lower labor costs. And it has brought us to where we are today with the same cast of characters influencing DJT, his inner circle, and elected officials (I do not hear any of them speaking out publicly). If allowed to stand, this will definitely have an adverse impact on our 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Sadly, I'm speaking in a bit of an echo chamber here yet I hope fellow citizens recognize this for the threat it is.
5
I cannot fathom why pundits of all persuasions persist in crediting Trump with a successful economy when climate change and environmental deterioration, infrastructure decay, grossly unequal distribution of wealth and income, runaway federal debt and deficits, deregulation which allows harmful even death-dealing products to be offered in the marketplace to be excluded from our list of economic problems.
23
Mining companies have a long history of declaring bankruptcy, walking away from toxic sites, and leaving their poisonous legacy for future governments to clean up. The mine owners extract a boatload of money and the public is left holding the bag. A few hundred jobs is not worth the long term cost. Tailings pond leak or fail frequently and the land and waters they pollute remain toxic for generations. Mining is far too frequently catastrophic to fish, wildlife and human health.
Toxic tailings ponds are an apt metaphor for the legacy of the Trump administration.
18
I think it would better inform readers to deal less with Trump and his administration involvement in conveying our society's national resources to private parties, and to focus on who they are. This article does mention some of the bad actors, but all should be mentioned in more detail and more frequently.
When we see who's getting the gift of public resources, we'll better know how much wealth transfer occurs and the natural resrouces are transferred to large corporations or partnerships. The privileged and economically most favorable access access to public lands is a huge crime. The public is the victim.
The century old Tea Pot Dome scandal may still be the standard by which graft and corruption of public natural resource theft is measured. Interior Secretary Albert Fall became a millionaire by peddling political influence on the deal. Mammoth Oil made another fortune for Harry Sinclair (Sinclair Oil founder). Two of the three people were convicted of criminal activity but the sentences were just months, well worth the millions earned. We're watching new standards being established today.
Trump says not paying taxes is a sport. I wish the Time's reporting would show clearly that the plundercrats' taking national lands for resource extraction is the serious business of graft, corruption and theft.
13
@Roy
I agree with all that is said here but I point Roy to the lead article in today's Times on how the "Opportunity Zone" $'s will be shared. Clearly on the side of developers who will reap the benefit of not having to pay capital gains taxes. The Times tries it's best but has been denigrated by Trump and his followers for daring to uncover what is really happening. May they continue forever...
7
There were two things that worried me the most about a Trump administration, first was nuclear war and the second and second the roll back of environmental protections.
I have been to Alaska to fish and hike and plan to continue to do so.
However in the past two (?) years salmon fishing on the Kenai River has been banned because of a lack of salmon. I'm not sure how the small family run inns and fishing camps are surviving without people coming to fish. I canceled my plans to return this year and instead spent my fishing vacation money in Iceland.
Trump supporters that I know still crave easing the environmental regulations this article speaks of. The irony of course is that they no interest in traveling to Alaska, hiking, fishing or even in the timber or mining industry. All they know is that the government is bad and the individual is good. (They even refuse to recycle plastic and paper because it's a government regulation).
Our only hope left is that the courts will step in and end this, and with Trump appointing Federal judges at this pace that hope is almost gone too.
My suggestion to you all is to turnoff your computers and go to Minn. and Alaska now before the most America's pristine lands are gone forever.
11
@JB Aren't there fishing sites in and around NJ you can enjoy? You are aware that the carbon footprint left from recreational travel from NJ to Alaska (or Minnesota) is contributing gratuitously to the very destruction of the pristine lands you are lamenting the loss of, no?
I'm a woman who lives in the Maine woods. Like most of America's forests, it has been clear cut several times. My mote of Maine has trees more than a hundred years old, but a forest takes about 600 years to fully reboot. I do my best to help it, logging like a forester, who cuts like a wolf. I drop the sickly trees, thus lending more light and water to the genetically endowed. I have also planted dozens of missing trees, the indigenous trees that didn't survive successive clear cutting.
I am the anti-Trump, a woman happiest in the woods, a woman who loves nature rather than the chemical fake-nature of a golf course.
22
Trump is sort of a solipsist. I don’t know if he can truly acknowledge the existence of anything outside of himself. The idea of being just one individual in in an “environment” of myriad connected entities would be antithetical to his sense of reality. And that reality jibes well with the conservative’s notion that we are all individuals existing in a vacuum whose only relationship to one another— and the world for that matter— is competition in a free market economy.
14
If the residents of Greenland ever needed more reasons to turn down the GOP's offer to buy their island and have foreign companies strip-mine it bare...
These mining companies, none of which are US companies, will extract all they can, leave the damage for others to clean up, and walk away from pension obligations because their playbook is to privatize the gains and socialize the losses.
23
Donald Trump has spent his self-centered , money worshipping life in air conditioned indoor spaces or the artificial green of manicured, pesticide sprayed golf courses.
He has no relationship with the outdoors and has shown no appreciation or reverence for living things in general.
That he sees the natural environment as something to be exploited, and ultimately degraded should come as no surprise.
38
A friend sent photos from a stunning glacial lake in the Northwest where she’d gone backcountry camping. But she had to carry in drinking water because the lake was toxic due to decades-old mining waste pollution. Have we learned nothing?
20
The Trump administration environmental policy is very clear:
Drill and burn. Burn and drill and bring back harmful pesticides and chemicals that have been banned for decades. More coal, fewer wind "mills" (turbines actually).
I'm expecting the lead lobby to make a comeback.
16
In fairness to the auto and energy sectors, many have pushed back on Trump roll backs. He's not rubber stamping industry request, he's actually undoing laws that protect the environment that most of corporate America now wants.
5
@Pat Not many and not much. A couple auto makers regarding fuel efficientcy standards and just a few gas companies regarding the release of methane.
2
To stand idly by while Trump and the corporations do these things is to be culpable in the destruction of the planet. When do we take to the streets?
24
September 21st, “We, the People March” in DC, but also in many of our major cities. Be there! March with us!
3
It has been suggested that environmental destruction should be treated as the crime that it is. Mankind has a history of exploiting and despoiling oceans, wildernesses and all life therein, in the mistaken belief that these vast, previously untouched frontiers contain resources that are endlessly abundant or self-renewing. We now understand, through science and observation, that they do not.
Theft is a crime. What Trump and his corporate cronies are up to, is stealing as much of the earth's treasures as they can, before the rest of us figure out what's going on.
Young people are just beginning to understand that their future is in grave jeopardy. Recognition of irreparable harm has led to legislation to protect the environment, but Trump is stacking the courts intent upon undermining environmental protections.
Society is slow to recognize the extent of the crimes being committed by our corrupt power structures, and people like our president, who has famously stated that he doesn't worry about the future because he won't be here to see it.
18
@Reed Erskine It is NOT just younger Americans who are concerned about Trump's destructive actions. Most of this countries most important laws and policies protecting our country's environment were spearheaded by people who are now in their 50's - 70's. Many, many people have devoted their lives, actions and money to protecting our environment and natural resources. I remind everyone that 60% of voters DID NOT VOTE for Trump in the 2016 Presidential Election. He gained access to the Oval Office by scamming the system... with help from Vladimir Putin. Trump is Putin's puppet.
3
I would like to better understand how mining companies pay for the right to exploit public lands. Do they buy the rights outright or do they typically lease them? Do they indemnify competing industries for losses and is there a process in place to ensure that they have adequate capital to support those indemnities? My sense is that if the government determined the true fair value of mining, logging and drilling rights and set the price accordingly, few of these projects would be economically viable. Would this represent government interference in the free market? To the contrary, it would embrace a core tenet of capitalism.
12
In a systematic drive to allow plunder of vast natural resources and destruction of the global commons the Trump administration is rolling back environmental regulations is a crime against humanity and affront to the Nature- yje sins that never go unpunished.
12
The Trump Administration has absolutely no respect to the environment. This was predicted since they are lobbied by the fossil fuel industries.
Now we know that the Amazon forests are burned by the Trump backing Steve Schwarzman from Blackstone. The Republicans are absolutely doing their best to decimate our planet and it's inhabitants.
16
Isn't it ironic that the lands and resources that are now being targeted for exploitation by commercial industries are still there, in all their richness, because they were protected for so long?
46
These are my lands too and I want them preserved.
2
What Trump has done to the environment, protected species, forests, water supplies, etc, makes me feel so ill, I can barely stand to read about it. And what will happen if he wins another term? It could happen. I can't bear it.
84
@jeanne maiden
"What Trump has done to the environment, protected species, forests, water supplies, etc,"
Please list what he has done.
@tim k
The list is in the article.
8
@tim k
Just read the article. It's a list.
3
Pres. Donald Trump's legacy from years to come will be a man of destruction, what will he leave behind for our children and children's. The only thing Pres. Donald Trump thinks of his money will be call the toxic president and dangerous. President Donald Trump doesn't really care what American people want is guided by blind ambition and self gravitation.
As he destroys environment of the beautiful state of Alaska all other president holdup the values of the environmentalists. Not to drill, not mine and log industries . If you seen on the Discovery Channel gold miners, how they strip mine thousands of acres destroying the beautiful landscape for handful of gold and was not stop by the states lands, the overseers a protecting the land. The loggers was destroyed thousands of trees, if you ever see their destruction and the forest go there. And the drillers they will mark on the environment . With Pres. Donald Trump big pockets enjoy your money but the children of America will see your destruction of lands of the great Alaska wilderness.
13
When the President of the United States tells us the country's wealth is in the ground and then does everything in his power to speed extraction of those resources, we, who know better, must stop his rapaciousness, filing comments on the National Register, donating to organizations suing the administration, calling our legislators, and most importantly, voting this treacherous government out of office.
The dystopian literature of blighted landscapes with human beings huddling in bunkers to avoid polluted air and water is no longer merely a warning. It's a picture of a future run by the climate deniers who are currently running the country.
33
Isn’t it obvious.....why should Trump worry about the environment, when he can gain from it’s exploitation now..and probably will not be around in a decade or two to suffer all of the fallout from the wrecked environment and economy.
Everything Trump has addressed has been from a personal, selfish perspective. Why expect it to change now. He has suffered no consequences to date. Hopefully the consequences will show at the next election. Here is hoping the electorate understand DSJ. And here is hoping that the other party does not take the swing in power too far and also become pariahs. A balance of action and thoughtful patience might be a more reasonable approach.
11
One thing not stressed, none of these companies are domestic. Furthermore, when they leave, they leave. The spillover effects (aka externalities) stay. The jobs they create die when they leave. This is a really critical time to just say no. If Chile or China or other countries want to destroy themselves we can buy the stuff from them. Shortages? Use that much ballyhooed American knowhow and entrepreneurship to find alternatives, which is what we should have continued to do in the late 70's. Imagine the difference had we told the oil industry to shove it in 79 and developed alternative fuels then. Learn from the past. I realize the dolts running the country can't/won't learn, find some that will.
50
@paul That is the most important point in all these comments: none of theses companies are domestic. How does giving foreign companies access to our most spectacular lands make America great again?
19
@Paul
"If Chile or China or other countries want to destroy themselves we can buy the stuff from them".
So it's really all about resources being extracted elsewhere, for our dollars. Cynical much ?
much gratitude and appreciation for this excellent history summary. THIS is why I subscribe to your paper and why it is vital to the national discussions.
40
The evolution of humans is the worst thing that happened for the planet Earth. Overpopulation and greed seem on track to destroying the beautiful nature that was given to us. Four more years of Trump will surely wreak more havoc on the environment than has already happened. It seems like the only way to fight this is to give donations to those who are trying their best to protect it. However, the really big money comes from the protected corporations and money talks.
15
@Kathleen
Profoundly depressing because it's true. And let's not forget the small but ever-present specter of nuclear war. We humans are a blight.
2
There an old forester adage, "a healthy forest is no accident". Judging from the "clear cut" photo accompanying the article perhaps the NY Editorial Board should consider the wisdom embodied in their words before assaulting president Trumps environmentalist bona fides. There appear to be plenty of unhealthy trees in the background. Taken together, they hardly present the idyllic vision of pristine forests under assault the authors intended to impart. More importantly, if one looks closely at the clear cut area in the foreground there are new, healthy trees evident and if the authors bothered to include a follow up photo there no doubt would be more.
Conservation and resource utilization is not a mutually exclusive proposition.There are plenty of examples of sound resource management that prove it. Of course the Editorial Board would have to venture outside the sanctity of their Board Room to witness them.
2
@tim k
Got it, the environment was unhealthy until humans started to mange it.
Who says those trees in the background are not healthy? The lack of foliage on the lower parts of the trees are a resolute of shade from the forest canopy. This is not a Christmas tree farm..
15
@tim k, in the national forest upslope from where I live, the unhealthy aspect of the forest (dead lodgepole pines) is a result of the "management" of our air and atmosphere -- as a dumping ground for greenhouse gases.
6
@tim k: Yes, Forest management is a professional endeavor. Perhaps you trust the Trump Administration and Washington lobbyists to act in a professional manner. You, of course, can trust who you want. But when millions or billions are on the line, I choose to trust the NY Times over the the money men.
ALL of the 2020 Democratic candidates should get together and denounce these policies. Let corporations know that if they want to desecrate these lands it will not be tolerated under a Democratic president. So if they want to waste money, and set up operations, fine. Once the Dems take over in 2020 (and they will), an executive order on day one will terminate any business taking place on these lands. No business, even the greediest out there, will waste big money if they know this will occur.
16
There is absolutely no doubt that preserving and conserving the natural habitat of all of these environments are crucial for long lasting sustainability, but we are STILL having the wrong conversation.
What we REALLY need is to be talking about is ... water.
All of the projects listed will drastically alter the landscape, and far more than likely, will pollute the water in a myriad of ways. We can lose millions of square kilometers of lush green forests, but we cannot lose the same amount of water. - otherwise, we obviously cannot sustain life in the form of replanting trees, or what is required for humans to live.
All sorts of bad decisions are being made at the municipal and state level, which are NOT getting anywhere near the press that they deserve. If they did, then people would be far more concerned, than being oblivious to it all. The only time they do notice is when their taps run dry, or have some colored ooze that comes out of them, or when a city completely collapses. - and we have to bring in bottled water by the millions of bottles.
The greatest threat is STILL the exemption to drilling in the federal clean water act, which was initiated by the Bush/Cheney administration.
There is still a massive amount of water that is being polluted and drained from out of the major aquifers that are under the nation. There is no real way to measure how much water is being affected.
The taps will suddenly run dry and that will be that.
28
@FunkyIrishman
And continued pollution from surface water run off and septic systems. Infrastructure should move to water treatment asap because with population growing and densifying, septic in suburbs merely puts it out of sight folks.
1
Donald Trump seems to know the price of everything, but the value of nothing. Preserving areas of our planet’s original beauty and keeping the water clean are priceless.
61
While the anti-mining/anti-logging sentiment in this article is heartfelt, it is also to no small degree poorly informed.
In this day, unfortunately, multiple NGO's exist for the sole purpose of stopping mining anywhere and everywhere, period. The merits of a project, and its true potential environmental impact, are not considered. Instead, everything if fought everywhere. Over the past 50 years mining companies have evolved into corporations that are extremely respectful and considerate of the land and the communities where they work, and now mostly operate under international norms that are stringent and open to constant inspection.
Houses are built of lumber, cars and phones and planes and mountain bikes and bridges and buildings of metals. The day that people want to give up their cars, appliances, smart phones, electrical wirings/figures in houses, etc., etc., we can all go back to living in caves and eating proper vegan foods.
Until then, mines and logging are necessary to the modern way of life as we know it. It is good to preserve/conserve large areas, as the U.S. has led the way in doing. It is not good to attack any and all mining projects simply because mine is a 4-letter word. The U.S. can't afford to have everyone working in the service industries. Real jobs are needed as well.
3
@dmckj "It is good to preserve/conserve large areas, as the U.S. has led the way in doing." Make that, as the U.S. used to lead the way in doing.
9
@dmckj, an excellent piece!
As usual, as that leaked meeting transcript shows, you have an editiorial policy of biasing words to make discussion harder (as in "1984", the book).
Trump has absolutely nothing against our natural resources.
He merely wants to use some of them, not 0% of them as the Left wants, to enhance prosperity.
I've actually spent two weeks on the North Slope in regions like that picture you have ... and its so vast, and the oil containing regions so unattractive (except to caribou) that oil drilling is very appropriate.
Similar to mining.
@dmckj _"NGO's exist for the sole purpose of stopping mining anywhere and everywhere, period."
If that is true it is even more so that:
NGOs (Corporations and their lobbyists, with the power to pay to influence policy exist for the sole purposes of mining and stripping resources anywhere and everywhere.
The results of their efforts is where the opposition comes from despite your rosy depiction of altruistic mining companies.
RE: "He merely wants to use some of them,"
Really? Which ones does he believe should not be exploited? There is no natural resource he opposed exploiting - unless it adversely affects his property. Such a Mar-A-Largo. While he may not to use absolutely all resources he seemingly pointedly selects to use the ones that will be the most controversial or most damaging.
Not all industry is evil. And we need resources for our modern lives however exploiting what we have by permanently destroying it is the exact opposite of conservative.
6
All theses actions by the Trump Administration will not make America great again but will ruin it for generations to come if not for eternity. Why should this land that belongs to all of us be allowed to be plundered by the few for its resources when conservation allows for so much more? Of course the answer is in who lobbies Washington and buys elections. The Amazon is being stripped of its resources but so is our beautiful nation right before our eyes.
16
You see whats going on in Australia and the Greens, they are taking over the economy. Supposedly a "massive" study was done saying the Great Barrier Reef will be never more. I find it hard to believe limiting the amount of cattle is being raised will affect anything. The study itself is also hard to believe with the worst case front and center as the only possibility. I snowed in Australia recently. It was believed climate change caused it.
What side to pick? If Greenpeace had its way there would be no mining or lumber industries. NPR called it a trillion dollar mine. They concluded like here the mine shouldn't built because no matter the remote possibility there couldn't be a 100% guarantee. Forest can be replanted.
I can't blame them some people are susceptible but when so called scientist say 60% of the worlds species will become extinct it sounds more like propaganda not provable science.
If I were to bet people wanting to eat wild Salmon will crash its population before any mine will. Wild Salmon is healthier.
1
There are so many things incorrect about your comment it’s hard to know where to begin. Let’s start with cattle. The problem isn’t the cows themselves, but their emissions. Famously, cattle produce amazing amounts of methane-a greenhouse gas contributing to global warming, which is affecting he Great Barrier Reef. But that not the only problem. They also produce copious amounts of manure. The manure is carried into your streams and rivers and ultimately the ocean providing a rich environment for algae and bacteria which harm all of the flora and fauna in the GBR. So yes, limiting cattle farming can help the GBR.
Second, you can’t just clear cut old growth forest and then plant more trees and everything is ok. When you clear cut you also kill or drive out everything else that was living there. Sure you can plant trees an eventually it will be a forest again, but it will be a different forest, different trees, and vast majorities of the plants and animals will never return. That doesn’t even include damage to the surrounding streams and lakes.
Finally, why are we giving a foreign company leases to extract valuable strategic minerals while trashing a protected area? When their shoddy ponds release toxic chemicals into the headwaters what recourse do we have? We won’t even own the copper to pay for remediation.
There you go, I got you started. Maybe next time you learn a little about the issues before dismissing it all as propaganda.
I'm just attempting to deal with the problem without thinking in absolutes. For instance, most farming has an impact on the environment. How do you ban farming without having greater concerns? Do you think they are working to ban cattle in Australia?
In the '90s the big brains were debating whether or not to feed and provide medical attention to the starving people of the world. The fact was the more you feed them the more children they have making things worse. Do you let them starve? Some people said yes. We can end poverty too but it won't be simple or environmentally sound as Green peace want's.
Study Greenpeace and its philosophy. It's more than frightening. It doesn't care about people.
@JoeG
Not wishing to be rude, JoeG, but I Iive in Australia and I know that we are experiencing climate change. Worst of all, we are experiencing the effects of large mining and agricultural corporations being gifted our water. Australia has precious little water to begin with, being the driest inhabited continent on earth.
It is because there are people who find the science confronting that we don't discuss ways to deal with issues like biodiversity loss, the death of the GBReef and the loss of water from our major river system. Loggers, miners or big ag don't want to lose money. There are ways to log, to mine or to grow crops that would be far more environmentally sustainable, but they are more expensive than just cutting it down, ripping it up or sucking the rivers dry.
As for cattle, well, it is inefficient to raise cattle among trees, so trees must go - as in the Amazon. The soil, combined with urine and manure, runs into the rivers and sea, where it settles on and smothers the reef, accompanied be hundreds of other agricultural contaminants.
Yes, it snowed in parts of Australia just a few weeks ago, weirdly and briefly. But large parts of Australia have been in drought for one to seven years. Australia, already hot and dry, is getting hotter and drier.
By the way, the Greens are a very small party in Australia. We are currently being 'led' by a conservative, right-wing government with about as much interest in caring for the environment as Trump.
How could we have come to this dire situation in our country that we cherish?
The President is actively reversing the gains made during the years of Obama's presidency towards the protection of our priceless and irreplaceable natural habitats.
Trump has already swept away or watered down countless regulations or laws and the extra damage that is being inflicted every day as a result is massive.
We must question how this came about because it must not be allowed to happen again. No nation on earth can afford to go backwards in this era. We need to be surging forwards every day, straining to see how we can constantly mitigate the disastrous effects of our 'civilisation' on the Earth that we can live without.
Otherwise we must face the truth. We are headed towards extinction.
8
This caused the stock of Northern Dynasty Minerals, the mining company, to soar. The project still faces headwinds in Congress, and needs a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. But for the moment it has the presidential endorsement it needed.
Trump often seems to be making these shocking announcements solely to temporarily juice some stock or another. After all, what company would ever invest the fortune required to open a mine only to see the next administration shut it down?
12
Regarding the Boundary Waters:
"....the mining company says the project would provide badly needed jobs in a depressed area."
In the dust bowl era, people moved on to find opportunities elsewhere. Not every place on Earth needs to be economically vibrant to be of great value. If the people living in the Boundary Waters area are seeking greater incomes, they can move just as people have always done in the past. Indeed, I suspect that virtually all of our ancestors did so by coming to this country.
Please, leave these natural treasures alone and don't affix dollar signs to them.
33
@Tom Q; easier said then done. Acquaintances who reside in the area have been dependent on mining for generations. Many live in a residence passed down from their grandparents. The significant other to the minor and/or their children often work in much lower paying positions facilitating tourism. They have lifelong friends and extended family throughout the area. A reference to a ‘Grapes of Wrath’ move is far too simplistic and nearly impossible. Miners from Ely to Hoyt Lakes often have a; canoe, 12’ fishing boat and mountain bikes in their backyard. They love the wilderness and want to see it protected as much as you do. BTW, they live there year round, not just a one week vacation from suburban Minneapolis.
1
@Reggie
I guess it depends on perspective. I grew up there and got out because of lack of opportunities. I took the canoe with me.
4
Let's be clear this is not just Trump. None of these changes would be happening without the full support of the GOP who are always anxious to please the next corporate lobbyist.
There is a mindset among these people that if they are making money from something then it must be good.
They will spoil the last stream, kill the last creature in a forest, pull the last species of fish from the ocean and fowl even the air they and their children breathe, all for a profit.
They are beyond reason. Until and unless we change the political consciousness and the political consequences about what they do, they will destroy all of nature.
The story behind this story is a list of the names of the politicians who are receiving their money and doing their bidding. We simply have to vote them out of office. That's all they will ever understand.
49
It's so frustrating that laws to protect public lands can so easily be overturned - what is the point of passing laws, if the next administration is going to break them? We need to enforce environmental, animal welfare and child protection laws, or this country will have no future.
35
@Stephanie Wood
Pretty simple. Procedures count. When President Obama used Executive Orders to do so much, it can be undone with a simple signature. Why do you think the Iran Deal never actually existed? It was never ratified by Congress because not all Democrats agreed.
3
Trump's plan for the USA was only to make the rich richer -- every which way possible. Tax cuts galore, opportunity zones (to bad that one is down), now FREE land.. So let's have a land rush and let everyone go out and stake their 10 acres. Actually the permafrost is more important than the trees for preventing global warming...
The essay omits the information as to whether the roadless wilderness act was an executive order or a law...and omits the names of the Alaskan politicians who sided with George W Bush in trying to knock out regulations.
This insane bowing down to the super rich has got to stop... and Joe Biden will not do it. The ACA was a gift to both insurance and drug companies. Gotta vote Warren and she has to come down on what is best called oligarchical capitalism, vulture/predatory capitalism. One needs a term that will allow the general public to think Russia (Res) whenever they hear it!
9
Imagine what the political landscape might look like were plans to place mines and cuts next door to board member and major investors' homes - first, second, or vacation - being drawn up.
Inviting people to destroy their children's future by holding out promises of expanded job markets that likely would not lead to improvements in employees' long term, generational, health or financial security is cynical.
5
Here is the issue as I see it, the true cost of the extraction industry, on private or public land, is not reflected on the companies P&L. The public at large bears the cost of pollution and environmental degradation while the extraction companies reap the profit. My solution is not prohibitive regulation but rather proper cost accounting, which is a sound business principle. With the environmental cost captured in realtime and both applied to the immediate impact and escrowed for the inevitable remediation real margins would be realized and reported to the shareholders. Cost models could be developed to assess the impact and then applied to the business plan to determine if it truly would be a profitable exercise for the company to pursue. I think that paying in realtime the full cost of most of these initiatives would result in the majority being mothballed.
Remember it was the accountants that got Capone.
7
The photo of a section of clear cut timber at the head of the article is what one sees for miles in the state of Washington and Oregon. Cut and run and leave the mess behind for others to deal with. Their argument for this destruction is economic. It cost to much to harvest just the mature trees.
Clear cutting should be outlawed.
28
@USMC1954
Modes-scale clear-cutting (while unattractive) is, in the long run, better for a forest than selective cutting because it allows a forest to naturally regenerate from 'the start', allowing the heartiest trees to establish and grow in a Darwinian sense. Selectively cutting old forests and propagate the spread to tree-killing pests/diseases. This is why occasional forest fires are, in fact, the best thing to sustain healthy forests.
3
@dmckj Fires are not the same as clear cutting, not by a long shot. And natural fires? How often is good? Magical lightning just when the forest is overgrown, or more realistically, when the brush takes over after clear cutting and a few dry years in a row? What we're opposed to is unsustainable forestry practices, not done to balance the profit to the health of the future of the forest, but to maximize profit, to the detriment of the future forest.
7
@USMC1954 Better to take it up with Amazon, they need cardboard...
1
In the face of mounting, hostile acts that inflict further damage on our environment and planet, corporations who truly wish to be answerable more than to shareholders alone have the opportunity to act in the interests of environment by making good choices regardless of federal regulations. Corporations can step up to do right. They can step around Trump's policies to carry on toward lasting preservation goals and more sustainable job creation, holding themselves accountable.
This was an area that Trump would have been able to affect massively in a positive way, But it's not in him, and, as we know he doesn't really care about it.
2020. If no other issue seems important to you, this is the one to vote on, Trump must be elimated,
12
Nobody's more likely to resent environmental regulation than real estate developers, for whom ecology, archaeology, sociology, geology and biology are sources of reasons NOT to do what they think would make a great business opportunity. "Deregulation" to them means getting rid of restraints in the law. Probably would go after the building codes if they were federal.
12
@William Fritz, and as a result we get Tragedy of the Commons, writ large.
2
@William Fritz They're robbers, working to ensure there's less cops.
1
It is not Trump, but the Conservative goal. Turn everything into money. Old forests, clean air, people's lives, all worth more in money than their original state. It is what Conservatism has been for 50 years. And the people of the USA continue to vote for this.
27
No one seems to connect the dots between population (including immigration) and the environment. More people=more pressure on the natural world, meaning wild habitat and species, as well as on human infrastructure. More people means more housing, more development, more water, more buildings, more taxes—it goes on and on. Many people on hiking trails in back country threaten wild species, such as elk in Colorado. More humans=less wild nature is the equation. So while it is true Trump is dismantling environmental protections rather than putting them in place, he IS trying to reduce illegal immigration. There are even fewer protections in place for the natural world in the countries illegal immigrants are coming from. These are the two major issues—immigration and the environment—that are sadly neglected by our politicians. Dems want open borders (yes, they do in effect—decriminalizing illegal entry is de facto open borders), and Repubs are not for protecting the environment and are out to lunch on this issue. With this scenario, the natural world is caught in the middle between the two parties and is losing its few protections. Very sad.
6
@aldebaran
As you say, the biggest threat to the environment is our out of control population growth, 7.5 billion and ever increasing, but let us not equate Repubs with Dems on this issue. Every environmental organization I know supports the Dems and condemns the Repubs, and with good reason. Democratic leadership has continually passed measures at protecting our environment, whereas Republican leadership has stressed removing regulations, let industry and business do whatever it wants, let it poison our rivers, build buildings that collapse, introduce drugs that are ten times more detrimental than beneficial; the list goes on and on.
10
@aldebaran
Only comment I have read that identifies the true culprit.
As much as the GOP is the party of cowards, so are environmental organizations who refuse to discuss/consider population issues (they surrendered on this one decades ago).
The world has too many people, and being anti-mining and logging does ZERO to solve the issue.
1
Come to Montclair. Illegal immigration isn't the problem here - it's too many families having too many babies, too much busing, too many SUVs, too many big, centrally air conditioned houses, too many highrises, too many restaurants, too much garbage, too much traffic because there's no place to park. I don't drive and don't have kids, but I pay and pay to subsidize these people every day.
America is blessed with abundant resources. Forests are a huge asset there. We have already made this world miserable by way of our modern living. It has immensely increased global warming. Further steps to cause unacceptable damage to the environment in order to help vested interests only amounts to digging our pits further to our peril.
8
Trump is just a developer, first, last, and foremost. Land to him, whether in Manhattan, Scotland, Greenland, or somewhere in the great wilderness west of the Hudson river is there merely for the taking. It has no intrinsic value, only the value of what can be made from it. Land, especially free land, is what goes under your buildings and must be beaten into submission so the buildings can be built. Same for any neighbors. For Trump's friends land, especially free public land, is the source of free materials that they can claim profit for selling.
15
@Marie. Trump is inhumane...first, last and foremost.
Just as the U.S. public is beginning to see the real truths about climate change and what slowing it down is going to mean, Trump steps up his campaign against nature. He can win only short term victories if we the public start the long, difficult actions needed. Call it the Green Revolution or whatever but it has to be a revolution in the way we citizens live. And it means living with nature not dominating it.
8
When Mr. Trump refers to "rich natural resources," he doesn't mean it the way we mean it. He is referring to those millionaires and billionaires whose self-interests are aligned with his self-interests, which revolve exclusively around money and exploitation.
He thinks about the environment the same way he thinks about women--i.e., the way a predator thinks. Both are there for the taking. There really is no difference.
32
There is no small irony in Trump's beautifully maintained vegetations at Mar-a-Lago and his other properties. No mining or drilling on those.
13
@L Martin I suspectthey are maintained with cancer causing chemicals that are affecting his undocumented workers the most.
Excellent.
As a reminder, the worst EPA-created environmental disaster occurred under Obama. I’m referring to the Colorado River turning yellow in 2015. Another reminder: The CA forest fires were caused by CA not allowing private industry to clear dead trees and brush. CA politicians caused these devastating fires.
We have way too much federal lands. 330 million people live on only 6% on America’s land mass. We can well afford to free up land for timber, natural gas, minerals etc.
As long as private industry can be good stewards of the environment, this should be welcome news.
4
@Cjmesq0
"as long as private industry can be good stewards of the environment" Really ?
That is the most ridiculous qualifying statement Ive heard in a long time.
Welcome news to whom ? A small group of wealthy investors?
2
@Cjmesq0 "As long as private industry can be good stewards of the environment, this should be welcome news."
Nonsense. Private industry has no interest in being stewards of the environment and never has been. Just look around you.
The nonsense about CA you mention has also been debunked a long time ago.
2
@Cjmesq0
You are wrong on nearly every count. And the point is not what "we can afford", it is what the Earth can withstand, and right now it cannot withstand losing one more tree without it being replaced by 10. 20% of our oxygen comes from the Amazon rainforest; without it we will be in trouble and you want to cut down more trees? We should be planting billions of trees, not felling them.
2
As I look out at the beauty of the mountains in front of me and the lake below, I find myself deeply disturbed. Most distressing for me as an American is the thought that in my own country even at high levels of government, the threat is not being taken seriously. Congress remains in gridlock. Opposition leaders fight every environmental initiative.
We need immediate and substantial funding for new technologies that could help avert the long term impact of global warming. No political way to get us there. We need an increase in the gasoline and diesel tax in order to induce more efficient autos, buses and trucks. No political way to get us there. We need to build an infrastructure that supports more efficient means of transportation. No political way to get us there. We need “cap-and-trade” or some other economic incentive to redirect coal burning plants into a more environmentally sound production of electricity. No political way to get us there. We need a tax code to establish end prices for all we consume that reflects eco-toxic “negative externalities.” No political way to get us there. We need to recognize that population growth cannot continue at its present rate. No political way to get us there.
How can it be that so many Americans are so determined to be on the wrong side of an issue that will cause so much future pain and suffering to so many including their own grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren?
24
". . . his idea of nature framed largely by his golf courses. He was, to boot, almost pathologically dedicated to obliterating anything President Obama had done to reduce global warming gases, preserve open space and help endangered species."
I think the above statement, as deeply sad as it is, pretty much sums up Trump and his environmental mindset rather eloquently.
34
@Marge Keller: Lover of Horses: When I read that paragraph, I shuddered too. It's the perfect distillation of what Donald Trump is about, above all: hatred; and not only of this splendid, magnificent predecessor. It's his hatred of all living things other than himself. This is not hyperbole; just consider: he has no love for science or literature or the natural wonders of the Earth, nor of its many peoples, places and cultures; their belief systems.
He is a narrow, hemmed-in person whose day begins and ends with himself. He loves no one, and that perhaps includes himself. None of three wives nor any of his children--especially those that we know about--come in for any special reverence. It's just all about himself.
So when endangered species are death-warranted by a simple-minded puppet of oil and gas oligarchs and fueled by the mindless hate of white identity voters whose only thought, it seems, is for something that never was and never should have been, well, we have blown up our only home.
President Obama, as I have written elsewhere before, knew of the very serious--almost sacred--charge of his office. He knew of his power and measured it out for the greatest number and the greatest good. That is, or at least should be, in my estimation, how a president should approach the office. But with Donald Trump, it's as though he sat down to a pie and, instead of cutting it into eighths, just simply buried his face in it.
Because he didn't know any better.
3
@Marge Keller
His entire Presidency is pathologically motivated. My head spins with the damage he is inflicting, on all fronts. The environmental destruction is closest to my heart; but the deliberate smashing of ties to allies internationally, and pig headed manipulation of trade are also going to leave us with damage. This is one situation where the devil we know is almost as bad as he can get.
3
I would guess that businesses have the good sense to at least wait 18 months before investing their money in destroying the environment. Things can change a lot in 18 months.
15
Your headline should be, "Trump to the Owners of Mining, Logging, and Drilling Companies." They're the ones who mainly profit from his policies, Trump's wealthy friends who donate to his campaign.
The actual miners, loggers, and drillers are only props for his rallies.
16
Once again, this is a giveaway of public funds to the affluent.
Once the public lands are leased, a new administration will have two choices. First (unlikely) it will decide to allow the leases to continue, destroying the environment.
More likely, it will seek to rescind the leases. And those holding them will go to court and the current Supreme Court will hold that they are entitled to recover the entire amount of profit that they might have obtained from the leases, which would be billions, not just the amount they paid for the leases, which would probably be in the millions.
The art of the steal.
39
Three issues arise from the Trump giveaway. First, the people of America own those lands and if anything is taken from those lands, market rates should be paid to the people of America. Alas, just like the grazing permits out west, for example, the rates for public land resources are well below the market rate one would pay a private owner. Second, it appears that conservatives don't care what they leave for their children and grandchildren and begs the question, what will they tell them? Third, the tragedy of the commons. It is all about greed, pure and simple.
23
Democratic candidates should point this out to the voters. How is destroying the environment helping you, the voter? The Democratic candidate should ask Trump at one of the debates: "When was the last time, Mr. Trump you and you family took a walk in the woods?". I bet he never has.
38
Why should a Democratic candidate waste their breath asking the President "when did you take a walk in the woods?" The President simply doesn't care, and neither do his supporters. It won't change a single vote, nor will it embarrass him or his voting bloc.
1
@Walking Man Problem is most of the Democratic candidates are bought off by the same people, the entire system is corrupt.
1
@Walking Man Does looking for a wayward tee shot count as a walk in the woods?
1
What DJT doesn't understand is what really made our country great. It has always been the creative mind and the ability for it to flourish. His wanting to seek safe harbor in what has long been known as unsustainable and damaging, is a sign of his weakness, fear, and lack of brilliance.
18
Thank You, New York Times, for your continued support of the environment and climate change. This article especially is excellent and is a reminder of the status …
51
WOW I personally traveled by canoe and camped in the BWCA and it is beyond me what exploitable resources are in that beautiful place. Rest assured some of the donald's greedy friends have found something they can exploit.
24
Preserving our national parks and resources should be front and center for the Democratic presidential hopefuls. I believe this is an issue that most people support and they Trump in action. His Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should be called the Environmental Destruction Agency (EDA). I don't understand why he's getting away with this.
61
Trump, and the wealthy investors who back him, is eager to get every little bit of America's resources out of the ground, out of the forests, and the fortune made, into their pockets. They now control the last, great chunks of protected national forest lands, and can do what they wish as long as we let them. The Tongass forest, the Boundary waters, all of Bristol Bay will soon be devoid of their natural wealth sold off to world markets. Some short term local jobs will be made. But a few very wealthy men will become very much more rich; fatter and happier! Perhaps a new J.P.Morgan will be created! I guess that's a good trade off in Mr. Trump's mind.
17
Just one point, responsible logging is not destructive to wildlife. Probably the worst wildlife habitat is old growth forest, especially evergreens, because all browse plants are shaded out. Conversely, one of the best is a regenerating clear cut.
4
@Southern Man
That is grossly exaggerated.
A clear cut opens areas to massive invasions by invasive species, which can actually interfere with regeneration of native plants and trees. You're Southern so I presume you are familiar with kudzu? It's up north as well now. It's just one example of a species which can quickly outgrow and overrun native trees, shrubs and grasses.
Clear cutting also means leaving huge areas with no cover, criss crossed by the tracks of huge machinery, and is subject to massive erosion before there is sufficient growth to protect the soils. If there are streams, they are clogged with sediment.
Creating clearings in some forests does provide more food for wildlife: Native Americans in the East used to do it to attract deer to hunt. But it was done in limited spots that were surrounded by more trees.
There is such a thing as responsible logging but it is NOT clear cutting.
23
@cheryl The poster wrote “responsible logging.” Where did the poster talk about clearcutting? What was said about overgrowth is true. In the lands around me, trees are left to grow however—all kinds of fallen trees left to rot and massive amounts of shade make for an impoverished habitat. Native Americans set controlled fires to clear out the underbrush. This helped the game and helped them move through the forests. Our forests are a mess. So many pine trees that fell during Hurricane Sandy are still rotting on the ground. Our forests are not healthy for many species, except maybe pine beetles and other tree destroyers.
@aldebaran
Last sentence is regenerative clear cutting... Geeze how in the world did wildlife survive before forest management came into vogue? Source of info for Native Americans setting controlled fires -- do not believe this was technologically possible. Certainly , the person writing about over population is correct.
1
Nature is getting its own back. Look at the state of American health. People are dying from the American way of life. Growth belongs to natural living things and not to the economy.
17
@Jo Ann: Look, healthy people drive a healthy economy. Don't disentangle these facts. Good health is good for the economy. Environmental protection and such technologies as wind and solar power are all positive economic drivers and it is high time this case be made to the public. It is not an either-or case where "you can have your health" OR "you can have a job." In other words don't let unfettered capitalism win the economic argument when environmental protection can make a stronger case. Quit the do-gooder crying which just alienates everybody and make the argument that environmental protection is better for the economy, and better for you and me, than selling our souls and our future to the get-rich- quick scams promoted by ammoral capitalists and the businesses they run.
7
@Chip Steiner
I’m not a crying do-good et but I believe that environmental protection is not a priority in the USA and that uncontrolled capitalism is winning. It’s easy for you to say it’s the others, the immoral ones, but these business people are the most powerful and little is being done to stop them. I have 5 boxes in my home for 5 different wastes, lights are turned off, I use a basket for shopping, no plastic, and plugs are unplugged when not in use and solid walls keep heat and cold balanced. I’m not a rich person by the way, and me, my children and ten grandchildren are well aware of the planet’a suffering. Each of us needs to help and I don’t feel Americans are pulling their weight.
7
10 grandchildren? How is that saving the planet? My mother had 2 grandchildren, both adopted.
1
The nutritional health benefits of the wild salmon of the pebble creek is far, far superior to Far East Asian aquaculture salmon products raised in contaminated toilet water (I am NOT referring to the vastly overpriced diluted toilet perfume products sold at department store cosmetic boutiques)! The possible extinction of the wild salmon, going by way of the passenger pigeon would be most tragic, indeed.
23
@Louis A. Carliner When one dines on a healthy diet of "hamberders" and has quite possibly never visited the wilds of this country (Prince Jared and Ivanka's sojourns to Aspen-Eagle or Vail don't count), the loss of healthy salmon is meaningless to Trump.
15
This article is spot on and the comments are brilliant. They give me hope.
18
Thank you for this excellent article. Trump's assault on the environment should be prominently chronicled in the Times on a daily basis. He will continue his rampage right up until his longed-for departure in 2021.
113
@JCam
If only cable and network news TV would report daily on the Trump's administration destructive practices and policies. Not just environmental rollbacks and paybacks to donors but the myriad others that get little exposure compared to his lies and tweets.
4
The pursuit of destruction, blame, greed, and exploitation is a downward spiral that hurts us all, victims and perpetrators alike.
Sadly, those with no soul or vision beyond taking advantage and faking it for profit are headed for the dead zone, not only publicly but personally. They may not be aware of the ultimate sadness and emptiness of not caring about anything outside their narrowed vision, but each day they become a little less of what is best in humans.
The earth itself is sending more and more noticeable signals that ruining things leads to ruin at an escalating pace.
Destruction for short-term profit without wisdom or perspective is evil. In the end there will be nothing.
Pollution of every kind, not just the climate and warming, but toxic waste and poor health, follow on this narrow greed and exploitation. There are now many more job and economic opportunities in preservation than in destruction, if people would only stop hating long enough to take a hardheaded, honest look.
64
The world is sliding into a pervasive environmental crisis. But the US government under Trump has become the last great bastion of denialism.
One thing we are witnessing is that the politics of denial are absolute and escalate in tandem with the severity of the problem. The more the threats increase, the more arbitrary and defiant the dogma of denial becomes. The imperatives of the Great Lie afford no room for doubt. As denial becomes ever more irrational, so too its demands for unwavering fealty. Facts become meaningless. Only ideological certainty matters.
On a practical level, the Trump administration's present policy directives are merely setting the stage for actions to be completed in his second term. Getting new federal regulations adopted is a tedious process. Trump's initiatives will be opposed every step of the way, including myriad appeals and lawsuits. The legal conflicts will not be resolved before the November 2020 election. So if Trump loses, most of these draconian directives will be reversed by the incoming new administration.
Just one more reason to vote in 2020. Tell your friends.
96
It's safe to say that there is nothing on Trump's mind but Trump. And the modern GOP approach to the environment is, "If there are no trees left when you die, then you're the winner!"
54
@Chicago Guy
When you are left with less, you have less need for monitoring and regulating. The vicious cycle of caring less.
1
The Amazon rainforests give us 20% of the air we breathe. If huge nations like China, Russia and the USA cut down forests like there is no tomorrow, how are the future generations going to survive if there is no oxygen to breathe. There needs to be a long term plan for the survival of the planet and the people in it.
49
Thanks to the NYTimes and the Washington Post for bringing the reckless behavior of the Trump Administration in regards to the lands which belong the the people of the United States.
I don't personally believe that the Executive has the power to convert these public lands to private development unless the case can be made that it is in the interest of the American people. Clearly, a check of these initiatives should be exercised by the Congress and it also should be examined that the development did not occur because of an exchange of money and favors for the Administration by the lobbying private interest, that has truncated the due process required before the U.S. Government can use public lands that would have significant negative impacts on our food supply and have a non-competitive economic impact on existing private interests in the case of logging and the supply of minerals in the case of mineral interests in boundary waters and habitat unless it is within the national security interests of the United States.
Finally, this editorial should trigger a serious debate between the Democratic Nominees and the Trump Administration's reckless behavior that should turn out American's in November 2020.
59
"Mr. Trump, when faced with a choice between commerce and conservation, reflexively sides with the former, even when the economic case for conservation is strong."
I am reminded of an old Doonesbury series of comic strips in which an intrepid reporter in a pith helmet went "In Search of Reagan's Brain". Sadly, our 'stable genius' appears to have a brain which, if it exists, is even smaller.
We can grow new forests on previously forested land. We can buy foreign oil cheaper than it costs from the Alaskan north slope. If he imagines this is cost effective good business, no wonder his casinos lost money.
39
I missed in this article a connection to the fires in Brazil, which have caused a worldwide uproar. It is not only Brazil the one which has a problem with its environment and natural resources. Quite a few people said that we should punish Brazil for its disregard for the environment. They did not realize that their disciplinary actions should start at home.
27
Reply to Philip Pino.
@Phillip Stephen Pino
Updating: it's no longer Climate Change. It's Climate Crisis.
And two years from now it will change again ... to Climate Catastrophe.
51
Definitely, there is a different style and policy between the Trump and Democratic governments.Elections have endless consequences.It is not that President George Bush was very different from President Trump with regard to the environment.There might be a degree of difference.The tone and language are different.
Whether it is Brazil or USA,it is difficult to stop the exploitation of minerals,etc. But the market and science have been able to stop mindless exploitation of nature in some instances.
Just a little while back, the world was in thrall to Middle East oil. Now oil is available everywhere and low prices have acted as a hindrance in exploiting new fields.I sense a lot of hope in development of solar energy.If science can bring down costs, then oil business will decline.Sustainable energy might become more available.
One thing that intrigues me is why the salmon industry,the tourism&travel industry,employing millions of people are silent when Tsongass forests in Alaska are opened up.If the economic interests of these sectors will be negatively impacted, they should have protested loudly.But they are relatively silent .
Yes, coal seems to have got a new life.But I feel, it is a temporary phase.Just as technology kept improving”chips”,the same science could also nullify all the greed of humanity.
Business seems to be unabashed in its quest for resources. People really have to resist it patiently&consistently.That is a big antidote to any governments recklessness.
12
@Dr.Pentapati Pullarao The recent agreement between India and Australia not withstanding, Ccoal has not achieved new life, at least in the United States. Worldwide, its exploitation is in decline.
Now, you write, "oil is available everywhere". Again, not quite. Oil is being replaced by natural gas, but natural gas extraction by fracking is polluting groundwater, streams and rivers. (I have just self-edited the previous sentence, where I had typed out groundwater, our streams... They aren't ours and never have been our, despite our willing and compliant destructive exploitation of planetary resources.)
Solar and wind power, tidal power generation and geothermal energy exploitation may all have unforeseen negative consequences, but clearly are less polluting and lesser environmental threats than the currently dominant technologies.
4
@Dr.Pentapati Pullarao I will address only one of the issues of this article: The proposed mine in the headwaters of Bristol Bay, Alaska. You questioned why the salmon fishing industry and the tourist industry haven't commented on this; they have, to the tune of thousands of written testimonies urging protection for the region and its pristine streams and lakes. The effect on the Trump administration has been zero. Any way they can help their financial supporters, the billionaires, hedgefund managers, and Wall Street in general, make even more money, that always is the first priority. Why? As the article says, these supporters will do all they can to get the greedheads and grifters reelected so the money can keep pouring into their bank accounts. The only way to stop this is to vote the greedy thugs out of office in 2020. They pay no attention to what the public really wants or needs.
3
Thank you for continuing to chronicle the relentless assault against nature by everyone lined up behind the Mad King. He and his cadre of clowns continue to remind us that they have no capacity to see the connections between resilient, biodiverse nature and stable societies and economies. They also clearly have no capacity to see beyond next month. They are shredding any chance for a healthy future abundant with opportunities, and they will give away all of it for the promise of a few future votes. They will also not read, or give any credence to the content of this article. But, the rest of us must. And, we must continue to do so each day over the next year, and then compile our surging anger into a tidal wave of votes that demand a commitment to a very different future.
33
The author and activist Astra Taylor says that one way to stop this is that these places can be granted rights much the same way the Citizen's United case granted corporations rights. When the oligarchic eco-criminals come along to e.g., change the Roadless Rule, they can't since it would violate the bioregion's rights. It is a very clever idea. Humans need to stand in solidarity with nature not against it.
34
@JS: brilliant to raise the issue of the natural world having rights of its own. Courts and governments in some countries have determined that mountains, rivers, and other precious wild spaces—which indigenous peoples rely on for subsistence or their sacred or cultural heritage—do possess rights to legal personhood.
To name a few I'm aware of, New Zealand has granted legal rights to Mount Taranaki, the Whanganui river, and the Te Uruwera forest. Ecuador incorporates legal rights for nature in its constitution and Bolivia also recognizes nature's legal rights. Australia is considering legal rights for a river. Bangladesh recognizes legal rights for all its rivers. Courts in India have recognized legal personhood for a river in one state, and nationwide for dolphins (and should do the same for elephants, who are horribly abused in captivity and under-protected in the wild.)
US courts should follow, and we as inhabitants of the earth reliant on the existence and health of our ecosystems for our own existence, should learn and adopt similar rulings and government agreements, and respect nature as indigenous peoples do. If nature dies, we die.
US courts should also recognize the legal rights of certain nonhuman species (as India did for dolphins, and a judge in Argentina did for a chimp named Cecilia which freed her from a zoo to a sanctuary.) The superb Nonhuman Rights Project is pursuing legal rights for chimps, elephants, and dolphins in the US. May nature gain them, too.
10
@Lori Sirianni Thank you for accounting for the legal trend of Rights of Nature with these examples. As corporate and wealthy interests continue to gut and destroy what sustains life on our shared home (clean water, mature forests, healthy soil, in addition to countless species of living beings, to name a few), we MUST align our laws with the TRUTH that healthy air, land, water and respect for life is imperative for the health of our planet, all living things and human beings as one part of that equation.
Human denial of this fact causes immeasurable suffering for many other-than-human beings as well as harm to air, water and land (upon which we depend for our lives). Now, it is becoming more and more apparent how much even humans are suffering and will continue to do so more because of our anthropocentric blindness to the bigger picture: we are all a part of the living Earth - and the harm we cause (amplified by technology and economic systems based on endless growth, extraction and consumption) threaten our shared future.
YES to respecting life. YES to legal rights of nature. Our lives depend on it. It is possible. I hope that politicians muster up the courage and political will to make it a reality before it’s too late.
5
@JS
good idea ...
but the real enemies are not the ones you can see, they are the ones who hide in plain sight..
the ones who say nothing about explosive human population growth ... which figure into all the exploitative plans from the Amazon to Alaska, to your backyard
1
The guy who believes that trade wars are easy to win, that the tariffs are payed for by the Chinese, that fossil fuels are good for the environment, and lately that his Queens-born father was born in Germany, are all signs that he is utterly clueless, to say the least. At that he must take most policy advice from his department heads and White House insiders, a cadre of misfits in their appointed positions, but closely tied to the interest of those they are supposed to oversee. The main culprits are Bernhardt (Interior), Perdue (Agriculture) and Wheeler (EPA), who have worked or represented the interest of former employers in the oil, mining industries, as well as being sympathetic to other natural commodities like timber or to those desiring access to public lands for commercial exploitations. They are the driving forces behind a clueless Trumps, whose only criteria for baking them are: 1. they must benefit his supporters, 2. preferably undo an Obama policy, and 3. irk the Democrats and their many tree huggers, and distracts them from investigating him.
26
@Rudy Ludeke It's only a quibble, but his father was born in the Bronx. DJT is Queens through and through.
2
When is exploitation of our natural resources for profits to companies many of them foreign the same as 'setting them free' in Trump's words. This is just another example of double speak fueled by the desire to win elections rather than preserve and protect our nation.
Once our natural heritage a national treasure for our children, is despoiled it will never return and those same children will be left with nothing but an ash heap, despoiled waters and global warming that will make our planet unlivable. Some one please tell me why those in our rural areas who have the most to lose seem to tolerate this with their vote? The corporations who have the most to gain do not care as long as they make a profit.
25
@just Robert
wrong wording ... it is not simply about your children's right to a natural heritage; it is about the right of other living things besides humans to thrive on the planet ; it is about a reverence for all life and all gods creatures both great and small
2
The discussion of the Twin Metals copper mine, with all of its potential problems, left out one key piece: Democratic candidate for President, Senator Amy Klobuchar. Senator Klobuchar coming from a mining family background; her father was a miner. What is her position on this proposed mine?
10
@Damian McColl; any statewide office holder in MN (US Senator, Governor, etc.) knows how important it is to appease voters in Minnesota’s 8th District where mining has been a vibrant economic engine for decades. To be publicly against mining would be a tipping point to losing elected office, regardless of political party.
Reading this editorial suggests that that the President is basically math illiterate. Individuals who learn calculus develop a sense of incrementalism. People who study functions can project out what happens over time. We don't see an exhibition of the application of mathematical insight coming from the President. Instead you get the kind of reasoning about issues that suggests deficiencies in using well-known mathematical methods. The leadership problem may well be a long-time emotional hatred of math with roots in childhood.
15
It's abundantly clear that Trump and his regime are guilty of crimes against nature and humanity. The only court that can bring him to justice is the court of voters in 2020.
41
The environment is very definitely on Trump's mind. That is why he has created the environmental pollution agency.
18
The U.S., with 330 million people living the the most wasteful lifestyle on earth are the problem. Trump is certainly making things worse, but our 5% of humanity using 25% of its resources for a growth at all costs, throw away economy is the fundamental issue that isn't being addressed by anyone on the national scene. Saving some of our natural environment is a lost cause unless we change how we live. Trump is speeding up the process but our lifestyle and numbers are completely incompatible with long term sustainability and in the end will destroy the processes we and the planet need to survive. When someone, anyone, suggests we reduce our numbers and begin immediately moving to a lower impact, sustainable economy and that we help all other countries do the same thing, we may make some headway. But none of this is PC from the left or right, so we'll do a lot of arm waving and nothing will really change. The reality is that no one who suggests what we should be doing has any chance of getting elected to a local school board much less a national office.. The American people don't want to make the sacrifice or pay for what needs to be done. As the majority of them aren't doing well it's hard to blame them.
29
@Al
Thank you for this viewpoint. We must take a good look in the mirror at our lifestyles; while most of these commenters ardently protest against any resource extraction, they will not admit dependence on such resources in the first place. None of us would be posting here without access to rare earth metals, highly technical manufacturing processes, and electricity (just for starters, not even addressing where that morning coffee came from . . .)
One commenter upstream in this thread suggested that 'if China or Chile want to destroy their environments for resources, let them and we'll buy from them'. That attitude reeks of exceptionalism and
is repugnant to me. But I'm guessing the bottom line for most commenters here is basically NIMBY (in this case, not in my country).
2
@irene
To me, one of the most glaring blind spots is how we get to ignore what is done to the rest of the planet in our name. Example. The Chinese are finding and securing resources, mostly in third world countries, where they don't have to place nice, to make the junk we use and discard without a second thought. We can then preserve some strip of land here and be sanctimonious when others despoil the land.
2
Two of the three projects discussed in this editorial belong to foreign-owned companies. Shouldn't it bother people (especially our America First president) that the revenue from these projects will go to other countries? And that America will be left to clean up the mess? If he's such a businessman, why can't he see that the Pebble Mine risks are huge? And as H Smith commented a few minutes ago, the Boundary Waters area is much larger than the BWCAW, again with significant risks. Fishing and tourism provide economic benefits!!
46
I think it should not matter who owns what in this discussion. The topic is potential destuction of priceless pristine natural habitats. Which should be preserved, not destroyed.
13
@HPE
One big problem is there are little to no pristine lands left anywhere. They may be undeveloped but that is entirely different. Global warming reaches pretty much everywhere, even if the bulldozers haven't gotten there yet. Then there is what goes on in our name. The Chinese are scouring the planet to get resources to supply us with the vast quantities of junk we buy, then throw away. So while we may not cut down our forests, somebody's trees are going down somewhere and that is making it all worse. We can no longer look at a piece of ground in isolation as "saved". It's all tied together and being destroyed together.
2
@Carol D
Indeed we are courting disaster and the me first con man is counting his rubles. When disaster comes calling it wont matter because Trump will be responsible for this mess that he has no idea how to clean up.
Where is no drama Obama who cared about the environment he has left the stage and now we have a draft dodger in charge who could care less about anything but himself
1
It seems to be true that people never seem to know the value of what they have, until they have lost it. Then they mourn the thing they lost, but they can do nothing about it. We are doing that exact thing now. We have no idea of the tremendous intrinsic value of our wild lands, and how they enrich our world and our lives. But we will begin to have an idea of their great value when we have lost them.
For that matter, we have no real idea of the tremendous value of a healthy planet that sustains life, but we will suddenly have a real good sense of this value when we are forced to struggle to stay alive on a spoiled and depleated planet. The earth then will show us its real but lost value clearly and mere money will become worthless.
26
What are the Boundary Waters? There is confusion here. Many think it’s the designated region: the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness - the BWCAW. But this lake country is not limited to a designated area.
The Boundary Water REGION is much larger area than the BWCAW. At least 4 times larger. It includes Voyager’s National Park, most of Superior National Forest, the Quetico Provincial Park in Canada, and Lake of the Woods, one of the the largest lakes in the world, in Minnesota and Ontario.
The REGION is called the Boundary Waters because it was a vast wilderness when the US/ Canada borders were determined. Thus the international boundary went thru it.
So when a mine gets located near the BWCAW, it’s within the Boundary Water REGION. It’s the same ecosystem. With the same characteristics.
The BWCAW deserves national park protection because that is a strong form of protection. That would give the northern Midwest FIVE national parks plus one in Canada, and its vast provincial parks system.
The existing parks: Voyagers, Isle Royal, Apostle Islands, Pictured Rocks, (both sea shore), Grand Portage National monument, and Pukaskwa in Canada. This region has outstanding natural value.
22
The crust of the earth, in general has enough hazardous elements in it like arsenic and mercury that emerge when mining occurs in high enough volumes. They are inevitable by-products of extraction of valuable ores. The Trump administration is going in a very direction on all this and in time the impacts will be bad if it gets its way.
13
maybe a change of strategy is in order. This whole Greta Thurnberg thing makes me less inclined to believe in the dires of climate change. Even if she is right in her solutions, she is right for the wrong reasons, and using someone who is right for the wrong reasons to try to convince people of the validity of your position is far from convincing. At most, she is going off of what other people have told her, what she has read, and to believe so strongly in something purely based off of the majority opinion or consensus of other people is intellectually bankrupt. She is a child who has not come to her conclusions purely on the basis of secondary sources.
I think environmentalists are probably correct in the correlations they see, but to use a child as a platform to make ad hominem attacks on others makes me question the rigors of those who I would otherwise be inclined to listen to. I do not blame the child for her advocacy, but I do not think it is a good look for any of those involved.
1
@nickgregor -
So tell us, what were your feelings about climate change before August 2018 when Greta first hit the news? You know, all the many many years we've been warned before she first popped up complaining about something the adults around her had known was a problem long before she was born.
Regarding supposed ad hominem attacks, do you mean when she tells adults that we're not doing our job?
Of course, she's suffered ad hominem attacks herself. From some of the supposed grown-ups.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greta_Thunberg#Ad_hominem_criticism
Thunberg is 16, and apparently a lot less gullible than the Trumpists who have somehow contracted the very peculiar notion that their “right,” to buy mountains of worthless junk is unlimited.
1
@nickgregor It is incredible to realize how far Americans are completely ignorant.
But they have a sort of training to pretend that they know. They were raised in the marketing spirit of everything.
1
The window of opportunity to effectively mitigate Climate Change is rapidly disappearing.
The remaining 2020 Democratic Candidates will try to cut & paste portions of Governor Jay Inslee’s comprehensive & actionable Climate Change Mitigation Plan.
We must go with the real deal.
The winning Democratic Party 2020 Ticket: Warren (save the economy) + Inslee (save the planet)! W+IN 2020!
22
Trump’s goal is to be re-elected to save himself from jail and make money. Absolutely nothing about the country is of interest to him, except where he can gain personal advantage.
Tonight’s yet another Texas mass shooting will go unheeded since he needs the NRA. He’s also genuflecting to Putin to ensure consecution of the Moscow Trump Tower, even if that means NATO’s destruction and/ or the EU’s destruction through Brexit. Passing bad trade tariffs to guarantee his re-election- though observers see this as a mistake that hurts his base financially. Does he really care?
In this context, the environment doesn't even rate a thought.
44
Believe it best to open oil and gas exploration off the all coastlines of Florida. Why not? Some of our national parks may have valuable commercial possibilities. Grand Canyon yes of course and Yellowstone. Go Donald.
@texsun Thanks for the funny response! (I THINK it was meant to be funny.) Except the Donald would think what a great idea this is. Maybe put an elevated interstate highway through the Grand Canyon and make himself the licensee for all the motels and service stations thereon. His buddies in nearby Las Vegas would also be very happy!
For a president, who is free to give away America's secrets, and yet, angry when people talk about his family's own secrets - this trump, only sees this country, this land, as something to be abused. Both he and I know that historians will look back at his term as the worse decline in American history - he is no Abraham Lincoln, George Washington or a Barack Obama. As long as he can sell America's resources for a few pennies to help his re-election then it points out that trump has no soul or consciousness for America's future. What is greatness when you are wearing a gas mask?
33
The number one cause of environmental degradation and biodiversity loss is animal agriculture. Animal flesh, dairy, egg. The Trump administration is friendlier to these industries than to any other. They receive gigantic subsidies (corn and soy are subsidized because they are the major inputs to factory farms), and get away with vast pollution.
They also torture innocent, defenseless beings. Fortunately these products are all unnecessary, so we can boycott them.
16
We are all complicit.
We know what we need to do: put solar on our roofs, heat and cool with geothermal, plant deciduous trees to cool our homes in the summer, invest in renewables, divest in oil and gas and coal, walk, bike, use public transit, stop using pesticides and herbicides in our lawns, rip up our lawns and plant natives instead with food for the pollinators, call our local, state and national representatives to preserve wilderness and support the Green New Deal. March for the Climate on September 20th. Stop over-consuming everything. Simplify, simplify, simplify.
It's so easy to blame Trump for all the slights to the natural world. But what are we, personally, doing to restore the wild, to speak up for other species of the animal and plant kindoms?
32
@the quiet one
Well said.
For starters we should consider our diets.
10
@the quiet one
More mass transit. Hard to bike an 120 mile commute.
6
@the quiet one
You Affluent American types can virtue-signal all you want. I'm simply trying to survive and while my frugality makes for a good environmental citizen, I don't own anything and do my best. This is an international problem that won't be solved by liberals recycling their candy wrappers.
You could say Trump has declared war on the environment. It is really an all out war that includes speeding up climate change, increased release of toxic into the environment, and destroying natural areas such as forests. Unregulated capitalism will do this and Trump is mainly acting act rolling back regulations. And amazingly millions of Americans seem okay with this war on the environment and actually support Trump, who could be considered to be a human wrecking ball.
52
One has to wonder - I hope it is not true - that Trump's motivations are purely transactional. That is, Trump's scions could very well be taking equity positions in various companies that stand to benefit from his seemingly random assaults on the environment. We already know that Trump and his spawn are obsessed with money above everything. The opportunities to profit from the power of the office of the President are numerous and enormous. We may be witnessing nothing more than the blatant monetization of the Presidency.
28
There's a show called "Yukon Gold" from a few years ago which I've been watching. I'm not immune to gold fever myself, but to see how a crew of a only few guys with heavy equipment can completely ravage an entire landscape, just for a few ounces of gold, is stomach turning. The returns per ton of rock and soil moved are almost infinitesimal, which is why the enterprise only pays if done on a massive scale. When someone says "gold mine", don't imagine some old prospector with a donkey, pickax, and shovel in a shaky tunnel, imagine whole mountains leveled, and not remediated afterwards.
36
I remember thinking the same things myself. The massive diversions of water, the destruction of land scape worlds away from a panning operation. In the late 1800s hydraulic mining led to such changes in topography in the central valley it was stopped. @stan continople
16
This assault on the environment is rooted in a long-standing Republican bias to favor commercial interests over conservation safeguards. The present administration is acceding to the demands of those commercial interests because they are a prime source of funding for Republican candidates, including the president. Inspired by the success of the Koch brothers' bankrolling Republican candidates in order to pollute the environment with impunity, other well-funded companies are poised to corrupt our politics and environment to achieve still greater wealth, the only source of green that appeals to them.
42
@William
Not true have you forgotten Teddy Roosevelt was a R.
There seems to be no limit to trumps pettiness with all things Obama. After almost 3-years in office trump continues to blame President Obama for everything he sees as wrong with the country.
But it is trump and his enablers that are destroying the environment and playing fast and loose with the economy.
It is trump that is trying to reduce America's natural wonders, upend equal rights legislation, discount scientific warnings on Climate Change, discount his own intelligence agencies findings on Russian interference in the 2016 election, turn a blind eye to the rise of White Supremacy, and traumatize children at the southern border.
All of this with little regard for the consequence. People, the election can not come soon enough. I hope we have a country and a planet by then.
44
I hope that the unspeakable damage to these (and other) pristine lands essential to the wellbeing of the planet will be prevented. However, just as solar and wind energy and electric autos are part of the solution to fossil fuel extraction, part of the solution to metals extraction is either cleaner and repairable approaches to mining certain essential ores— or better yet different materials for our cell phones, bicycles, plumbing systems, etc. No one would be mining copper or gold or molybdenum unless there was a market for it.
10
In Canada we sing it this way,
"This land is your land, this land is my land
From Bonavista to the Vancouver Islands
From the Arctic Circle to the Great Lake waters,
This land was made for you and me."
What always struck me, when we proudly sang that song, was how it never seemed to include the First Nations People from whom we stole this land. After it was ours, we considered its vast riches plunder, and our due.
Our economy, especially here in Alberta which has, with few and short lived spells, voted for Conservative parties who base their economies almost exclusively on resource extraction. Taking from the ground means jobs, caring for the environment and people means fewer jobs and higher taxes.
This is the ethos and the mantra of free enterprise, now writ large in the apoplectic version from the man you have sitting in the White House. It's a very big reason Trump's popularity among Republicans out side his base, remains so huge.
The rise of what is euphemistically called 'populism' in the world is anything but. This about the health of corporate profit not the health of people or the places they live in. How easily we have become duped by the mantra, working for the coal mine is great because you have a job and you can buy stuff. You don't have a life and increasingly you don't have a future, but so what? Populism is in.
If it doesn't work out, you can always blame brown people, even those who were here first.
24
It is indeed. The question is - where is the environment on the minds of the leading Democratic presidential candidates? I don't hear them talking about it much.
17
@Robert
Check their campaign websites.
2
Two questions; Have you ever seen Donald Trump at any National Park or Monument? Have you ever seen a photograph of him involved in any physical activity other then Golf? My hope is that after the end of this nightmare a law is passed that takes golf courses, including his, compensates the owners at market value, and experiments with the re-creation of pre-Colombian environments. It would be a great aspect of the Trump legacy if he had indirectly led to the end of a sport that has been more destructive of the environment then any other.
19
In some European countries, there is a forest service that closely supervises logging. They provide the knowledge to do it right. They also provide the power of authority to require that it be done right.
We could do that. The forests would benefit. The loggers would benefit in the long run. They would be good jobs, too.
18
(Intended Audience: The wives and daughters of the carbon barons & the carbon-sponsored politicians)
I truly fear for the future safety of the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the owners, board members and executives of the oil, natural gas, coal and pipeline companies and their sponsored political “leaders.”
As living conditions on our planet become unbearable due to the severe, relentless impacts of Climate Change, generations of devastated citizens around the world will ask: “Who is most directly responsible for this existential catastrophe?”
When these citizens look around, they will find many of the culpable carbon barons and carbon-sponsored politicians have already passed on to whatever afterlife awaits them. But the direct descendants of the carbon barons and the carbon-sponsored politicians will still be here. And there will be no escape – not even behind their gated communities – from the wrath of billions of incensed citizens on every continent.
For the carbon barons, it all comes down to one essential choice to be made RIGHT NOW: harvest their carbon assets and sacrifice their descendants – or – strand their carbon assets and save their descendants?
For the carbon-sponsored politicians, it also comes down to one essential choice to be made RIGHT NOW: continue to dither on Climate Change legislation and sacrifice their descendants – or – pass sweeping and meaningful Climate Change mitigation legislation and save their descendants?
32
Well, by his spoliation, he’s making his only major campaign promise a lie; he’s “ruining America again.”
It breaks my heart that this president—and all his infinite variety of pain—wish to decimate natural resources and vistas found nowhere else in the world. Worse is his determination to destroy the wildlife that we know so much about but see so seldom: the birds and animals we read about here. What of them?
Future generations will wonder what we were about when all the proof they will have about once was will be in books or films—or the faded reminiscences of octogenarians. The magnificent vistas; the primeval forests; the pure rivers and streams; breathtaking meadows and the flora that adorn them. Are not these precious beauties more valuable than money?
After all, no animal willfully soils its own habitat. Just mankind—having little reverence for anyone or anything else—save profit. And, as this editorial makes clear, the Trump administration, in its zeal to efface everything that President Obama brought about, the disregard for our changing climate will hasten the day when thee few of us remaining will weep for what we wantonly destroyed with our casual indifference and political ignorance—that we bequeathed to an ignoramus the treasures of our—and our posterity’s—future.
What a ruin is Donald Trump. Aren’t we, as a nation, worse than he is? He was the dynamite; we lit the match by electing him. Why should we be surprised at the coming mushroom cloud?
128
@Red Sox, ‘04, ‘07, ‘13, ‘18
Hey Red - another painfully stark, honest and candid comment. It hurts to read your words but at the same time, your words need to be read and heard.
12
Mr Trump has stated that he's not particularly concerned about the impact of his environmental
assaults because he and his party of despoilers will be gone before their effect is felt. He must not care about his grandchildren or their children who certainly will suffer the consequences of his greed and irrational need (or is it irrational in the context of his premise that all things should serve him) to destroy the world for profit.
9
30
Make America Great Again, eh? Rubbish. Consider that the mining companies in both the Boundary Waters and the Bristol Bay Area are both foreign owned (Chilean and Canadian respectively) so the bulk of the profits will end up outside of the USA. Yes, there will be jobs in the short term but then what? Mining companies have a terrible reputation for cutting and running when it comes to rehabilitation of mine sites and this reputation gets even worse when their head offices are located offshore. Also, given the recent spree of deregulation controls have been stripped away leaving only the Mining Act of 1872 as protection so the burden of any cleanup after a spill like disaster will fall on the taxpayer rather than the corporations. There seems to be an attitude with developers to regard any acreage that has not been exploited to the maximum extent as “waste ground” but in fact that is what we are left with by the time they get finished.
57
Our family's vacations have been spent in National Parks.
Over the years we have seen sad changes. Half the trees in Rocky Mountain National Park are dying from pine beetle infestations - due to warmer winters. The small furry Pika will likely be going extinct. Glaciers in Glacier National Park are retreating and disappearing. These changes are occurring because of events OUTSIDE the parks.
Setting aside places to preserve them does not work when everything around them is changing.
Ironically, past events within our parks teach their own lessons. Logging operations in Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park felled countless ancient redwoods but were never profitable.
The air quality in these parks was NEVER good when we were there. The brown line in the sky made it clear how bad the air quality in California's Central Valley was.
The last time we were in Yosemite was just as the North Rim fire was burning. That fire followed earlier ones to the south east. The 395 corridor was full of smoke for months - you couldn't even see the tops of buildings in Reno when driving through.
Rivers throughout the West run lower and lower with Lake Mead going lower every year.
I am glad my children have seen as much as they have but fear those sights will no longer be around when they have their own children.
34
Someday, at the helipad, I want a reporter to ask Trump what his favorite national park is. "There are so many, many great ones. I hear so many, many great things. I have done more for the national parks that any president in history. Everyone is saying that. Jellystone is a good one. There are many others."
246
And let's not forget his would-be favorite:
"The FAKE NEWS says I wanna kill the bison in the parks, big beautiful parks, but I am the least anti-bison guy you'll ever meet, believe me. I love European bison, really love American bison. M. Bison, my favorite bison of all—and by the way...really huge in Las Vegas and Thailand."
12
@runaway You nailed it.
5
At the top of my list of the many sins Trump has committed since taking office, and by far the most egregious, is his relentless war on our environment. If it is even possible, it will take hundreds of years to reverse the damage done by this self serving president. And to what end? An increase in the bottom line of the already obscenely profitable corporations and the cronies he is beholding to?
101
@bea Durand Trump would not call it war. He would call it corporate profits. And corporate leaders appear to lack the courage and conscience sufficient to call him out. What a tragic and cowardly time.
1
Bristol Bay is home to the world's largest salmon run.
Bristol Bay is the most valuable Sockeye Salmon fishery in the world — generating $1.5 billion in annual profits.
All five Eastern Pacific salmon species spawn in the bay's freshwater tributaries.
The Kvichak River in Bristol Bay has the single largest red salmon run in the world. The Kvichak drains from Lake Iliamna, which is downstream of the proposed Trump-Grand Old Pollution mine.
Along with herring and other fisheries, salmon accounts for nearly 75% of local jobs.
A recent study of 25 modern large hard rock metal mines compared water quality outcomes with proposed environmental impact statement predictions from the permitting stage.
76% (19 mines) of the 25 mines violated water quality standards in releases to either surface or groundwater.
When the 15 mines with high-acid drainage, high-contaminant leaching potential (i.e. like the proposed Pebble Mine) and proximity to ground water are considered separately, this violation percentage increases to 93%.
In other words, most mines trash the surrounding waterways with the their unstable tailing ponds and mining pollution.
Alaska is also an earthquake zone; when one breaks one of the mine pollution 'tailing ponds' in half, all the pollution will spill into nature.
Pebble Mine is awful idea supported by a polluting political party and a Polluter-In-Chief who seem to hold nature, wildlife and humans in contempt.
November 3 2020
620
@Socrates
I lived in Fairbanks Alaska for 24 years. I'm well aware of the danger of earthquakes. Pebble Mine will be extremely dangerous. The possibility of the salmon industry being destroyed is very high. So many jobs would be lost. Wild salmon? You will get farmed salmon instead.
I grew up in California ... earthquakes. Retired to the Big Island of Hawaii ... earthquakes.
56
@Socrates
Thank you for the information that you have so kindly provided to us. Everyone who reads your comment is that much wiser and therefore that much more motivated to act against this senseless outrage.
40
@Socrates,
Thanks again for doing the research on this big problem in Alaska, if tRump gets his way, the catastrophic effects will remain for decades. As you always mention...
Vote 2020
32
Transactional Trump treats everything the same way. He's never grown past immediate gratification.
The true cost of this rapacious waste will be borne by future generations.
We need a huge turnout of people who care about our country in 2020.
125
To those who say ‘this will create good jobs that put food on the table,’ I say ‘balderdash.’ In the Boundary Waters region, for example, more jobs will be lost than gained. Many in this area currently thrive serving the thousands who come to enjoy the wilderness that the proposed Chilean mining operation will destroy. The likely outcome will be a net loss of jobs. Furthermore, for those paying attention, modern mining operations are largely performed using heavy machinery, not big strong guys with picks and shovels. If you factor in the long-term cost of the high incidence of serious occupational injuries in the mining industry — which is largely paid with our tax dollars, not by the industry — and this whole endeavor adds up to welfare for the rich.
And for all those thumping their chests and bellowing ‘America First,’ this is a sell-out of America’s irreplaceable natural resources to a consortium of South American billionaires whose other similar projects are poster children for environmental destruction. We may as well be a poor third world nation, selling off our natural resources to survive. Really? That’s ‘making America great’?
304
@chambolle
"...South American billionaires..."? You don't see 45 telling them to go back where they came from and fix - or loot - their own country!
Mourning and grief have been my constant companions since our last presidential election. For the vanishing future of our grandchildren, for the defilement and destruction of our land, water, and air and all the life it supports.
12
@chambolle I totally agree with what you and so many others here have said. The question is how do we get that message to those who do not read the New York Times, to those who believe his nonsense, to those who are his base? How do we reach them?
7
Later in September, I will take my 69th canoe trip into the Boundary Waters. A third have been solo. In 300 nights there, I have visited that many lakes, found solitude, learned a lot about myself and a lot about nature, and helped create and pay for four scholarships for students at Vermilion Community College in Ely, who are considering a career in the wilderness.
VCC calls itself the Boundary Waters College, not the Minnesota School of Mines.
I have had the best of it in my life. I'm in may 70s, and there aren't many years left for me to be under pack and paddle. I just want other men and women to have the same experience I have had, and never have to hear, "You should have seen what this place was like."
Want to do something? Support the Friends of the Boundary Waters.
Everything is "safe" until some day it isn't. Then it is called an "Act of God," or "we had no way of knowing" and the company has long since been sold or gone bankrupt.
128
@Mike S.
Was lucky enough to canoe a large area of the Boundary Waters as a young Eagle scout. I consider it the formative experience of my life. 100 miles from even a dirt road then, more than 50 years ago. I'm sure it is different, now. Far enough. Throw the bums out. Let my grandson see it.
4
Given the leftist leanings of most Times readers complemented by the reflexive derision towards Trump and his policies, this will surely be met with substantial blowback.
But, loggers and miners put food on the table. These are good and steady jobs, which don’t require a college degree.
I will take those jobs regardless of these environmental consequences.
2
It is unfortunate when environmental concerns are attached with a partisan label. There is only one planet earth and that must be shared by all humanity, flora and fauna. It was Richard Nixon who signed the Endangered Species Act. History does not attach a leftist label to his administration. George H.W. Bush’s legacy is associated with the most aggressive environmental protection with The Clean Air Act of 1990. This Administration manipulates the news cycle with deceptive verbiage and photo opportunities.
108
@Caesar
So what happens when the market changes or the resources are depleted? What happens to those "steady" jobs?
27
@Mark Logging and mining provide minimal earnings for those that do the work while leaving irreparable damage behind. None of the logging in Kings Canyon was ever profitable. The only ones that made money on the mines in Virginia City were the stock brokers in San Francisco and a few lucky owners who bought and sold at the right time. The lunar landscapes left behind in coal country after mining is finished are affront to the planet.
The fortunes made by people like the Koch Brothers in eliminating regulations could have done far more good if shared with their workers in higher wages and better safety conditions.
And FYI - logging and mining are far from 'good and steady' jobs. Most last for a limited time - taking what they can only for as long as it is profitable - before shutting down and moving on.
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Trump’s idea of the great outdoors is a well-manicured golf course. If he would spend some time in our beautiful national parks, maybe he’d feel differently about drilling.
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@Pigenfrafyn
I can't imagine Trump in a national park, even less marveling at the beauty. Appreciating natural beauty is a form of empathy, of which he has none. His only thought would be "how can I make money out of this?".
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Unless it's accessible by golf cart or helicopter Drumpf isn't able to visit wilderness areas. Must be those debilitating bone spurs.
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@Pigenfrafyn
The man clearly has no aesthetic sensibilities whatsoever beyond a preference for anything festooned with gaudy gold leaf scrollwork.
And while he possibly appreciates a well-manicured golf course, that doesn't preclude him driving his golf cart across the putting green.
So...wishful thinking. Most likely any interest in a national park would extend only as far as its potential for real estate development (so, in that regard, the more beautiful the better)
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Logging needs to stop clear-cutting as the only method of harvesting trees; it is too destructive to the other species inhabiting the area. Selective cutting of individual trees, lifted out by blimp, would minimize the damage done.
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@catlover
Exactly.
There are viable harvesting methods, with selective cutting and reforestation planting as you go.
Do the money interests who want the resources care though? Not in the least. So the federal government is the last check against greedy pillaging of natural resources.. and it is failing badly under Trump and his greedy corporate cabinet staff and subordinates.
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@catlover -- "Logging needs to stop clear-cutting"
That depends on the species of trees.
Some species of trees will not recover from clear cutting. They will not start well except in shade.
Some species require clear cutting, to get the most intense direct sunlight on the ground.
Some even require fires to burn over the seeds, and those are valuable species like long leaf yellow pine.
Some stands of trees will degenerate badly if the best trees are but, and the rest left to fill the space with poorly growing trees.
What we need is skilled and careful forestry, as a required consideration of logging operations. There is no one size fits all answer. However, there are specific answers, and they need to be applied by people who care about regrowth of the forest stands.
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@Mark Thomason
Some old growth forests are "ecological islands" which is one reason that they should not be harvested, clear cut or otherwise.
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In my old age, when I can enjoy my grand kids playing in my back yard, I will think back and place the blame for having to wear masks so you can breath and filter the water so I can drink it, squarely on the shoulders of trump.
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Your optimism is touching. Here's hoping you really will have grandkids and a back yard.
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Don't underestimate a desperate and cornered president wary of an economic downturn and staking everything on a bid for a second term in office.
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Mining companies have never, ever been held accountable for the destruction created along their extraction path. If the real costs of the products were built in we would all be paying more for everything we buy but in theory clean up could be done in real time instead of being left in horrible state for Superfund (which is out of money) clean-up or permanent poisoning of the land and water. What a wasteful, irresponsible species we are.
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@E Campbell
It is OK with you that minerals are mined in Brazil, Asia and Africa with no environmental controls and then processed with no environmental controls. The adults and children who suffer and are poisoned providing cobalt, rare earth metals and all other components of your cell phone and wind turbines are poor people who should never have been allowed to reproduce anyway.
The children dying young of silicosis mining silica and manufacturing solar panels are mostly Asian. White Democrats who perceive themselves to be the educated elite do not want any of those Asian children immigrating to the US. They might displace some of their children from seats in the Ivy League.
Ya wanna talk about conflict gold, required in your electronic devices?
If you want renewable energy, somebody has to produce the materials required and manufacture the goods.
In the interests of the world, doesn't it make more sense to mine, process and manufacture in America, with state, local and federal governments regulating. And they regulate not only the environment but also the financial state of the companies and fine them for violations, which serves as an efficient motivation to get companies to use the best available technology and processes to avoid financial ruin.
Go ahead and cite BP as a bad actor. They violated industry norms and lost way more than half of their stockholder value for a single well.
Superfund sites all predate the 1970's. Many are government sites.
@ebmem
I should let E Campbell answer for her/himself, but I’d guess that s/he - and most others who hold those views, like myself - do NOT believe that it’s OK that mining and logging companies destroy environments and exploit and harm local workers of any age around the world.
Of course it would be better if American logging and mining could be conducted under regulations that would prevent environmental and human injury. As other commenters have shown, this has not been achieved, and will of course never be under this administration. Nor would that result somehow stop resource exploitation in other countries. Your argument fails.
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It’s a trifle difficult for Superfund sites to “predate the 1970s,” given that the legislation involved in naming them was passed in 1980. And except where nuclear waste is involved, they aren’t actually “government sites,” though it is I suppose clever to pretend so.
As for the Trumpist pieties about environmental damage overseas, oh please.
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The principle issue which will allow resolution of the described concerns isn’t environmental, it’s legal. Actually constitutional.
More precise definition, specification and clarification with regard to EXECUTIVE ORDERS are long overdue.
In frustration, President Obama used executive orders in an attempt to circumvent a congress which he viewed as obstructionist.
Our current president appears to think that executive orders grant him imperial power. He is behaving like the First American Dictator. However, it was not the intention of the authors of the constitution to set the stage for presidents to turn into dictators.
Every day I read headlines beginning, “Trump Orders...”, “Trump Decides...”, “Trump Directs...”
This is very disturbing.
The president, and ALL future presidents, must be barred from assuming this kind of unilateral authority.
The question of clearly defining the use of executive orders must be addressed before normalcy can return to the functioning of our federal government.
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@Tom W
In the democratic republic of America, individuals, businesses, foreigners and foreign governments lobby Congress to advance their policy preferences. The legislators weighs the competing interests, the bribes they are receiving, the leanings of their voters and come to a compromise or consensus. The president either signs the law or has his veto overridden, or the bill never becomes law.
Reach a political compromise or the status quo continues.
Americans became interested during the late 1960's about the poor sate of the environment. We had choking smog, rivers that caught fire, etc. that energized the public.
Congress under every president from Nixon through George W Bush plus Trump has passed environmental laws. All of those presidents signed the legislation. The exception is Obama. Congress did not pass a single new environmental law from 2009 -2016, even in 2009-10 when Democrats had 58, 59 or 60 Senators.
Obama, unable to negotiate or compromise even with Democrats, appointed himself emperor. He wasn't acting out of frustration, he was acting out his self image as dictator.
Even Republicans, independents and libertarians who liked some of his regulations were shocked at his disregard for the rule of law.
Authority loving Democrats appreciated having a dictator imposing their agenda without any of that messy debate. When Obama imposed massive new regulations, not one Democrat ever asked himself, "By what authority is Obama acting?"
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@Tom W
"The president, and ALL future presidents, must be barred from assuming this kind of unilateral authority." Yes, that would go a long way to protecting democracy in America, and the environment as well - since most of the country, and most importantly, the younger generation, are desperate to save both.
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@Tom W
In the recent past campaigns, folks running for office, lead with “ I, I, I, did this or I will do this or that”. Maybe they should start with WE. My favorite is “ I passed legislation”. I can not pass legislation, only we.
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"Mr. Trump, when faced with a choice between commerce and conservation, reflexively sides with the former'
More like "when faced with the choice between breaking stuff and making stuff our enfant terrible potus opts for breaking anything he can get his hands on".
Especially when long term destruction may create a bump in the economy that enhances his chances for reelection.
Beyond that, he seems to be in an unholy alliance with the petro-industry to allow them to reap whatever rewards they possibly can until the ocean waters reach the knees of the Statue of Liberty and the GOP has to finally turn away and pretend their Big Lie never happened.
Funny thing is, it may only take a few years for Americans to forget- just as soon was we've all relocated to higher ground.
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You have to wonder what the mining and forest cutting industries are planning, knowing full well that within a short period of time Democrats will be in power. then what?
As an aside, in north Georgia there's a town named Copperhill, and for good reason. Just outside the town center are the remnants of a copper extraction facility, abandoned many years ago with all the problems remaining. Tailings piles, dirty water runoff, and just one big eyesore. The town never can recover.
Then in the same area is the Cohutta Wilderness, thousands of acres, all protected. But it didn't used to be that way, in the early 20th century it was clear cut. And it took close to 100 years to recover.
We should learn from our past mistakes, but unfortunately some Administrations just don't care. For them it's all about profits.
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Wow, cherrylog- I was going to post about Copperhill. Last time I went through there it looked like lunar surface.
By the way, I lived in Gilmer county as a child.
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@cherrylog754
So it's not actually the Cohutta Wilderness it's the Cohutta Artificial Regrowth.
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It seems the current administration is intent on reversing existing environmental protection measures gratuitously, just because it can and because it abhors the "kind of" people who support those measures. It's politics based on emotion, perceptions of personality and, of course, disregard for science. Likes it's leader, DT, it acts like a bully, throwing its considerable weight around with a smug smile on its face. The good news is that it will not have the time to implement many of its policies (barring a 2nd mandate) and the next administration (Democrats) will reverse these decisions, with massive public support. In fact, the next administration will probably enjoy a long honeymoon period just undoing what Trump et al have wrought.
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@Denis Pelletier "...and the next administration (Democrats) will reverse these decisions, with massive public support. In fact, the next administration will probably enjoy a long honeymoon period just undoing what Trump et al have wrought."
I certainly hope so. Even if they're not all Democrats, but people who can get behind preserving the Earth BECAUSE they understand the science and BECAUSE THEY CAN.
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@Denis Pelletier - The old saying, "Environmental victories are temporary while environmental losses are permanent." is true. A significant amount of the damage these (R)egressives are doing will never be reversed.
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@Denis Pelletier I think you are mistaken to say that Mr. Trump acts to destroy the environment just because he can. I think he is aware that the planet will continue after he passes on. Since the only thing in the universe that matters to him is himself, the very idea that there would be a world that survives his time on it is disturbing to him. What we should be concerned about is that 42% of Americans are fine with living in his world, and I intended that in the possessive sense.
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