As an ecologist, I have an intense interest in geopolitics.
It is beyond my comprehension that so few people can draw the connection between political decisions and their direct and indirect impacts on the environment.
The key to this conclusion came from Hennie Aucamp, when he attended a creative literature workshop at Columbia University in the early 1980s. With the welcome, the course leader said the following: “Connections, connections, connections – the more you read, the more connections you can make”. The more you read, the more words you acquire, and words are the key to accurate and formulated thinking.
Wittgenstein was right here when he asked: “How can you think without words?” Without words, which give you ownership of concepts, you fall into cliché – “You know what I mean?”
“No, I do not know, tell me exactly what you mean.”
Trump does not read.
Let’s clear Trump’s murky table of his absurd general statements and forget about his overt misogyny, his messy treatment of refugees on the Mexican border, his distrust of proven and published science, his humiliation of the disabled, his mockery of speech impediments, his dissemination of false information, (my thanks here to Elsabé Brits’ complete list of transgressions), and finally, his zeal for faith. Here I have quoted only a few of his transgressions.
But let’s now focus on the environment.
His greatest, and almost first, atrocity was to withdraw America, as one of the earth’s greatest polluters, from the Paris Climate Agreement.
A few days ago it was accomplished.
From the outset, it was clear that this reckless decision had its origins in his consuming hatred of Barack Obama. What Trump knows about science fits neatly into a thimble, and one only has to look at his degrading treatment of Dr. Fauci, to realize that his thinking in this regard is alchemical.
Another Obama product was the “Clean Power Plan”, which Trump, ex cathedra, swept off the table. Trump digs coal? Yes, indeed. After this he gave the rock-breaking faction in America almost free rein t.o.v. methane burning, leakage control and inspection equipment regulations.
And if that is not enough…
In 2017, Trump summarily wiped off the Obama plan to build sea level rise into construction measures.
Worse, shortly thereafter, he gave fossil fuel reconnaissance firms permission to use so-called “seismic air gun blasts” in underwater searches. The scientific evidence is overwhelming that it is causing horrific damage to marine life.
This video is from 2015:
Still he was not finished.
In 2018, he thwarted the “Sage grouse” conservation plan by granting drilling rigs to oil seekers, at the heart of these focused conservation areas.
America has always been a pioneer when it comes to establishing and protecting their “Public Lands”. The glory of their national parks is known and admired worldwide. No, says Trump, we must seek oil in these sacred areas, and worse, we can exploit the standing wood.
Maybe that’s enough to start with, because there are many more atrocities in the office of this monstrous man.
I want to end with a quote from my precious book The complete encyclopaedia of insulting behavior:
Mr Trump, why don’t you stay just a little bit longer, so that we can forget you, exactly the way you are.
