Millions appalled as Trump nominates oil industry lackey, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, to head agency

Follow the money. For those who think our government is for sale, recent actions by our future President have done little to allay those fears.

The health and welfare of millions of Americans is about to take another hit with the news that President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Photo: Scott Pruitt, www.ok.gov website. Fair use

Pruitt is the Attorney General for Oklahoma and for several years, with the backing of hundreds of thousands of dollars from the oil industry, has fought to prevent new EPA regulations from being implemented, particularly those that address man-made climate change.

Pruitt is a climate change denier and seemingly does whatever the fossil fuel industry asks him to do. Correspondence protesting environmental regulations sent on his letterhead to government agencies and officials, under his signature, has reportedly been actually written by energy industry lobbyists. These include letters to EPA, the Department of the Interior, and President Obama, among others.

Coupled with the previous announcement that the notorious global warming skeptic Myron Ebell will be leading Trump's effort to revamp federal agencies that deal with environmental issues, this latest nomination has raised a firestorm of protest among environmentalists.

Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters said that having Pruitt lead the EPA is "...like the fox guarding the henhouse."

Said Earthjustice President Trip Van Noppen, "Every American should be appalled that ...Trump just picked someone who has made a career of being a vocal defender for polluters to head our Environmental Protection Agency."

Is Trump empire angling to make millions from climate change? Ivanka to meet with Al Gore today.

The eyebrows of many who follow the topic of climate change and global warming were raised today with the news that Ivanka Trump, the daughter of President-elect Donald Trump, will be meeting with former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore today.

Ms. Trump has previously indicated her interest in the subject, reportedly hoping to make it her signature issue. Although her father was not scheduled to attend the meeting, CNN has just reported that both he and his daughter met with Mr. Gore.

Photo: Ivanka Trump - Facebook profile picture, Fair Use

Many observers have noted the spider web of potential business conflicts of Donald Trump's many family businesses with his upcoming responsibilities as President. Some have said that the Trumps may try to use their new position of power to influence contract negotiations involving their private businesses.

Indeed, Ivanka previously sat in with the President-elect's meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last month. The meeting soon proved controversial when it became known that she was also in the process of trying to get a licensing deal with a Japanese retail firm, Sanei International. That firm's parent company is the Bank of Japan, which is owned by the Japanese government.

Given her father's previous descriptions of climate change as a hoax and a marketing tool, is Ivanka's interest in the subject one of environmental activism or one of a business person checking out all of the angles, using her new position as a close advisor to her President-elect father to "make a buck?"

Say goodbye to snow skiing in California - man made climate change to reduce Sierra snowpack by 50%

A new study led by UCLA climate researcher Alex Hall indicates that if we don't take climate change seriously and control greenhouse gas emissions, then we can expect a reduction in snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains by over 50%.

Dodge Ridge Ski resort in Pinecrest, CA

Photo By IanGad (DodgeRidge) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

Utilizing some new modeling techniques, the researchers were able to make predictions on a relatively narrow geographical area. The study, published in the American Meteorological Society's online journal, found that temperatures could rise by 7 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century causing the decline in snowpack.

Additionally, the loss of reflected heat due to the loss of snowpack will lead to additional warming, further exacerbating the situation.

Obviously, those who enjoy snow skiing and those who own and operate snow skiing facilities should be very, very concerned about this future situation.

Learn more here and at this link.

Trump picks "fanatical ideological clown" Myron Ebell to gut EPA, millions of lives may be at risk

President-elect Donald Trump has made one of his first moves to fulfill his many anti-environmental campaign promises. He has appointed Myron Ebell, one of the world's leading climate contrarians, to lead Trump's effort to redesign - some would say "dismantle" - the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and rebuild it in Trump's image.

Photo: Myron Ebell Facebook Page, Fair Use

Under Ebell's guidance, the new administration appears to be willing to throw in the trash existing and proposed EPA regulations that address not only climate change, but also those that protect the health and lives of millions of Americans.

This is all being done under the mistaken belief that environmental regulations are based on faulty science and do not benefit the public.

Ebell has been called a "fanatical ideologue" and a "nut" by David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council and a "clown" by others who, to say the least, do not think highly of his expertise (or lack of it) or his opinions.

He directs environmental and energy policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Much of the funding for that organization comes from the fossil fuel industry, in particular large coal producers such as the Murray Energy Corporation.

Ebell also chairs the Cooler Heads Coalition which refers to global warming as a hoax and a myth based on flawed scientific, economic, and risk analysis. Ebell is not a scientist but has referred to those who are experts in the field as third-, fourth-, and fifth-rate scientists.

Every single argument that Ebell has raised about climate change being a hoax or that there is no scientific consensus has been easily rebutted. For a comprehensive list of such nonsensical claims as his, try this link: Skeptical Science