These are hard and exhausting times. Impeachment issues and the president’s continual bombardment of lies and insults that call for correction are wearing us out, remaining front and center both in the media and our minds. As a result of our fatigue and alarm, and because media is abrogating its duty to report essential news outside of Trump’s tantrums, it’s not surprising that disastrous decisions by the president, and their consequences, have gone unnoticed. None of the actions and policy changes of the current administration is more urgently in need of increased awareness and resistance than those that relate to the environmental degradation and destruction posing serious threats to our health and safety. Among the most egregious decisions of the Trump administration is the recent “Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science” proposal promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency. This terribly dangerous idea would require scientists to disclose all their raw data, including confidential medical records, before the EPA would consider their academic studies as valid. Scientific and medical research would be severely limited, leading to Draconian public health regulations and environmental crises. EPA officials call the plan a step toward transparency, but it is clearly designed to limit important scientific information that should drive policy related to clean air and water, among other health-related environmental impacts. To view the full article visit the SentinelSource.com.
