Clips from 2005 talk radio appearances show that EPA administrator Scott Pruitt does not believe in Evolution and wants to amend the Constitution to ban abortion and ban marriage equality.

“There aren’t sufficient scientific facts to establish the theory of evolution, and it deals with the origins of man, which is more from a philosophical standpoint than a scientific standpoint,” Pruitt said on an Oklahoma radio program in 2005. https://t.co/20oZv5lOG8 pic.twitter.com/i8QpcYvfkQ

— POLITICO (@politico) March 2, 2018

Courtesy of Politico:

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt dismissed evolution as an unproven theory, lamented that “minority religions” were pushing Christianity out of “the public square” and advocated amending the Constitution to ban abortion, prohibit same-sex marriage and protect the Pledge of Allegiance and the Ten Commandments, according to a newly unearthed series of Oklahoma talk radio shows from 2005. 

Pruitt, who at the time was a state senator, also described the Second Amendment as divinely granted and condemned federal judges as a “judicial monarchy” that is “the most grievous threat that we have today." And he did not object when the program’s host described Islam as “not so much a religion as it is a terrorist organization in many instances.”

The views he states, in discussions peppered with references to inalienable rights and the faith of the nation's founders, are in line with those of millions of other conservative, devout Christians. But they also show stances that at times are at odds with the broader American mainstream, and in some cases with accepted scientific findings — an issue that has more recently come up with his skepticism about the science behind climate change. 

“There aren’t sufficient scientific facts to establish the theory of evolution (Actually there are.), and it deals with the origins of man, which is more from a philosophical standpoint than a scientific standpoint,” he said in one part of the series (That is actually untrue as well.), in which Pruitt and the program's hosts discussed issues related to the Constitution. 

Of course Republicans were quick to defend Pruitt and his primitive superstitious views.

Republicans in Congress defended Pruitt, saying his religious beliefs should factor into how he does his job. 

"All of us are people of faith and obviously influenced by our faith and the role it played in our life … and continue[s] to play in our life on a daily basis," said Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, which oversees EPA. "It’s a part of who we are."

Actually since protecting the environment is an entirely science based policy, a person's religious beliefs serve only to interfere in their ability to understand the data they see in order to help direct their decision making.

ANY potential cabinet member who espouses such arcane and outdated opinions should NEVER be put in charge of any agency which requires at least some understanding and respect for science.

Period.

Trump's White House releases report which states that human beings are responsible for all the recent global warming. Wait, that can't be right.

Courtesy of Think Progress: 

On Friday, the Trump administration released the congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment, the “authoritative assessment of the science of climate change, with a focus on the United States,” as the report states. 

What’s so stunning about the 600-page report, the work of scientists from 13 federal agencies, is that the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) oversaw the final review and clearance process of the report — and yet the report details just how dangerous the Trump administration’s policy of climate science denial is to Americans. 

The National Climate Assessment (NCA) projects a devastated America — widespread Dust-Bowlification, 18°F Arctic warming, sea levels rising a foot a decade — on our current path of unrestricted carbon pollution. The report makes clear just how grave a threat are Trump’s plans to abandon the Paris climate deal, undo Obama-era climate rules, and boost carbon pollution. 

Indeed, the report explicitly states that if governments don’t meet their Paris targets, and then go beyond them, catastrophic impacts would be inevitable. 

The report “indicates that a path of inaction will truly lead to disastrous climate change impacts,” as climatologist Michael Mann said in an email to ThinkProgress, confirming a point he made when the New York Times published the leaked final draft in August. “Sadly, the Trump presidency has steered the U.S. toward this path.”

“Based on extensive evidence… it is extremely likely that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century,” explains the NCA, the most comprehensive and detailed report ever done on climate change and its specific impact on America.

No wonder Trump wants to get rid of all the real scientists in the government agencies.

These guys are clearly relying on those liberal facts to make decisions, instead of the Trumpian talking points that everybody is supposed to have memorized. 

The Utility companies have known since the 60's that carbon dioxide emissions were destroying the environment, they just didn't care.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Just a few days ago, an exhaustive report by the Energy and Policy Institute revealed that public utilities have been aware of the dangers of carbon dioxide emissions and the use of coal as an energy fuel since the 1960s. 

According to the study, in the 1970s, members of the Electric Power Research Institute, a group financed by the utility industry, testified before Congress that their own investigations have led them to believe that “the fossil fuels combustion will be essentially unacceptable, an important justification for expanding (...) solar energy options.” And by 1988, the same institute stated that, “There is growing consensus in the scientific community that the greenhouse effect is real.” 

Frustratingly, regardless of its strong awareness of what today is humanity’s most pressing challenge, this same industry years later launched a national campaign to deny the climate crisis, and undermine any national and international efforts to fight it. Several of these companies joined forces with the fossil fuel industry in a successful push for the U.S. to renounce the Kyoto Protocol in 2001. 

And today, Southern Company, the country’s third largest utility, persists on denying CO2 emissions are the main culprit in the climate crisis. Moreover, an important sector of this industry funds front groups that oppose any CO2 limits on coal-burning plants.

This kind of goes hand in glove with those discovered emails from Exxon that proved the oil giant knew full well that their product was killing the planet and then spent millions to keep that information from the public.

This shit drives me crazy, and is a strong indication of why we so desperately need the EPA.

And currently Trump's administration is in the process of dismantling it.

The Trump effect is rapidly undermining science all over the country.

Remembering the way things used to be.

Courtesy of CBS News:

The science division of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) was unstaffed as of Friday as the three remaining employees departed this week, sources tell CBS News. 

All three employees were holdovers from the Obama administration. The departures from the division -- one of four subdivisions within the OSTP -- highlight the different commitment to scientific research under Presidents Obama and Trump. 

Under Mr. Obama, the science division was staffed with nine employees who led the charge on policy issues such as STEM education, biotechnology and crisis response. It's possible that the White House will handle these issues through staff in other divisions within the OSTP.

That actually may prove difficult since the entire OSTP is dramatically understaffed.

"All of the work that we have been doing is still being done," a White House official familiar with the matter told CBS News, adding that 35 staffers currently work across the OSTP. 

"Under the previous administration, OSTP had grown exponentially over what it had been before," the official said. "Before the Obama administration, it had usually held 50 to 60 or so policy experts, director-level people, for all of OSTP." 

The Obama administration staffed the OSTP with more than 100 employees.

35 down from 100, does not seem like a large enough staff to handle too many extra duties, and now with the science division completely vacated it does not bode well for the representation of science in the White House.

But wait, there's more.

The attack on climate science is ratcheting up.

Courtesy of Frontline: 

Twenty-five thousand science teachers opened their mailboxes this month and found a package from the Heartland Institute, a libertarian think tank that rejects the scientific consensus on climate change. 

It contained the organization’s book “Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming,” as well as a DVD rejecting the human role in climate change and arguing instead that rising temperatures have been caused primarily by natural phenomena. The material will be sent to an additional 25,000 teachers every two weeks until every public-school science teacher in the nation has a copy, Heartland president and CEO Joseph Bast said in an interview last week. If so, the campaign would reach more than 200,000 K-12 science teachers. 

Accompanying the materials is a cover letter from Lennie Jarratt, project manager of Heartland’s Center for Transforming Education. He asks teachers to “consider the possibility” that the science is not settled. “If that’s the case, then students would be better served by letting them know a vibrant debate is taking place among scientists,” he writes. The letter also points teachers to an online guide to using the DVD in their classrooms.

I would bet my house that this group is heavily funded by folks with ties to the fossil fuel industry.

That is one front on this war on science, convincing educators to question the facts.

This is yet another front.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Prominent scientists operating outside the scientific consensus on climate change urged Congress on Wednesday to fund “red teams” to investigate “natural” causes of global warming and challenge the findings of the United Nations’ climate science panel. 

The suggestion for a counter-investigative science force — or red team approach — was presented in prepared testimony by scientists known for questioning the influence of human activity on global warming. It comes at a time when President Trump and other members of the administration have expressed doubt about the accepted science of climate change, and are considering drastic cuts to federal funding for scientific research. 

A main mission of red teams would be to challenge the scientific consensus on climate change, including the work of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, whose reports are widely considered the authority on climate science.

So convince public school teachers to question science, while attempting to obfuscate the facts at their source.

And all of this while Donald Trump guts the EPA.

They are not even trying to cover up their agenda for destroying this planet are they?

I guess it is up to us to expose all of this as often as possible and to elect politicians who understand science and will work to preserve this planet for our children, and our children's children.

Remember, all we have to lose is the water that we drink, the air that we breathe, and the planet on which we make our homes.