So, I got into a twitter back and forth about the EPA earlier. To be clear, I am not supporting the destruction of the EPA, then doing nothing, rather, destroy what’s in place and build what we truly need. I cite one example, Alaska, for this premise. You see, it’s not just cold, but cold to the point of freezing to death in a matter of hours, in the winter there. What this means is that liquid or gas fuels freeze and become useless at those temperatures, leaving you with solid fuels. Coal is incredibly expensive for homes, as you’d use bags of the stuff in a night, so most people there burn wood, seeing as, you know, you just cut down trees, which Alaska has several of. Well, the EPA decided burning wood was ruining the air, and told Alaska residents to stop. Naturally, these folks chose staying alive over dying, and next the EPA fined them. Yes, the EPA fined Alaskan citizens for daring to choose to not die of hypothermia.
Well, this brings up the point of my conversation, the Paris Agreement and Kyoto Accords. Both of these target the US harshly, and in some cases, only. Tokyo and Bejing for example, have such bad air, that people have to wear a mask to go outside, but the U.S. was targeted with harsher restrictions. If you look at this list you’ll see another amazing thing, the U.S. isn’t on the list! When Macedonia makes the list but the U.S. doesn’t, that tells me we aren’t the horrible monster polluter the world is screaming that we are. Yes, pollution is bad, and yes, it should be addressed, but in a way that doesn’t look at a country’s GDP and target them over worse polluters, not in a way that tells people they fuel they have is bad and they’ll be fined, but ignores that fuel is the only option other than death.
We’ve been told for eight years that the U.S. is the most horrible country ever, that we’re racists for not blindly praising Obama, that we’re sexists for not praising the bitter diatribes of “feminists” calling for men to be killed, or we’re “homophobic” for suggesting that at a basic, biological level, homosexuality isn’t normal, simply because two men or two women cannot, on their own, create a child. I hold a degree in history, have heavily studied political science, and am certified to teach high school Social Studies (Government, Economics, History, Geography, etc) so I feel I know a thing or two about politics and such. In this instance, I argue that a government office, charged with protecting the environment, for the good of the people in the country that pays them, to tell citizens that they will be fined for using the only fuel that works, so they you know, don’t die over night, should be demolished and replaced. Much like the joke in Day After Tomorrow, when loading up books to burn to stay warm “Hey guys, there’s a whole section on tax law we can burn,” indicating a disdain for the IRS, any government agency that does not put the lives of U.S. citizens at the forefront of their thoughts when acting, should not be in place.
Yes, I want clean air and water, as I enjoy living and not having to stay inside, but I also want a government to be responsible and intelligent in how this is achieved. De Blasio saying that he’ll do all he can to ensure NYC stays compliant with the Paris Agreements is a political play, his way of saying “While Trump destroys the environment, I’m amazing and wonderful since I’m doing what he isn’t.” This is the crux of the matter, growing up and actually thinking, rather than just playing it up for the media. The Mayor of NYC should care more than my small town TX mayor about pollution, because it’s worse there, but if the Paris Agreement is the perfect fix, why is it that the list above isn’t the order in which countries are told to act? If the Kyoto Accords were so amazing, why did it focus so much on how much money the U.S. would end up paying out? It all comes back to attitudes and egos, no politician so far, who has presented any solution for air/water quality has done so for any reason other than to look good on the world stage. Now, with Trump in office, the world has decided his policy of America First is evil, because he’s actually putting America first, and not their countries. He’s calling on them to do the same thing though, to pay their NATO agreed amounts, which will help defend them, and to make their own countries better, he’s just not going to continue the policy of apologizing for America. His move on the EPA is the first step, but trust me, he’s not going to remove the EPA, then just say “Good luck staying alive now America,” there will be something that comes after, he’s just not saying what it will be, which is driving the media mad, because they can’t complain endlessly about his plans, but hey, lets keep focusing on non-existent collusion with Russia (there is absolutely no evidence of anything,) let’s ignore the DNC very likely having a man killed, and lets harp on minor things, rather than doing what Obama’s spokespeople said for 8 years “the election is over, it’s time we come together and work together for a better future.”