
Trump Picks Top Climate Skeptic to Lead EPA Transition - subnaught
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-picks-top-climate-skeptic-to-lead-epa-transition/
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marricks
Anyone have anything to offer on what "checks and balances" would be put in
place against dismantling the little environmental progress we've made in the
past 8 years?

We seem pretty screwed. This guy seems as in the industry pocket as possible.

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ocschwar
State level actions.

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judahmeek
When many state legislatures are controlled by republicans? Good luck.

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ocschwar
Here in New England we already have an interstate compact on climate action,
so non-federal interstate cooperation is a pretty normal thing.

True meanwhile the red states will go apeshit, but we have to start somewhere.

And given that the Paris Conference will start discussing trade policy
regarding non-signatory nations, I think even Trump will have to sit up and
pay attention soon.

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IvyMike
The only good news is that I'm so dead inside I don't think it even matters.
"That's the thing, Will. Americans are optimistic by nature. And if we face
this problem head on, if we listen to our best scientists, and act decisively,
and passionately, I still don't see any way we can survive."
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CXRaTnKDXA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CXRaTnKDXA)

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carlisle_
Less than 24 hours and I've gone from being simply stressed out about work and
ready for the election to be over to general depression, feelings of
hopelessness for our future, and an overwhelming urge to curl up into a ball
for an indeterminate period of time.

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MrZongle2
Sounds like November 2008 for the average conservative.

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darpa_escapee
How many conservatives had their civil rights and equality consistently
dangled in front of them for votes by the party that just won the executive
and legislative elections?

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windlep
At this point, I just assume it will all go back to being as wacky as it was
under Bush (very wacky). He threw in plenty of people that refused to
acknowledge Climate Change too.

Now, its fascinating how much executive power Obama has used to push through
policies that neither the House nor Senate would agree to. And yes, Trump will
definitely roll them back.

I still don't understand why the Dem's didn't try and change this whole crappy
process when they briefly had it all. None of these positions should be so
easy to f-up with a new President. They should require actual knowledge and a
proper skill-set for the people in them.

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abandonliberty
Organizations select for power-hungry behavior. Changing these processes would
reduce the likelihood of them or their allies winning that power. An
individual who reduces the power of themselves or their allies will be
weaker/less desirable/less fit than either internal or external competition
that does the opposite. It is a race to psychopathy that intensifies with
competition.

It's the same for electoral reform or [insert your list seemingly
irrational/bad organizational behavior here].

Trump himself said it was broken - but it doesn't matter because he won.

Any frustrations we have are irrelevant unless we have power.

==============================

Details here from a prior post:

1\. Iron law of oligarchy (1911 - 1700 words on wikipedia): "all complex
organizations, regardless of how democratic they are when started, eventually
develop into oligarchies."

2\. Dictator's handbook (2011) - Or CGP Grey's summary: rules for rulers (2016
- 18 minutes): "Bad behavior" is emergent from power structures rather than
human weakness. From democracies to dictatorships, organizations select for
Machiavellian and psychopathic behaviors.

I can't recommend these enough. This life altering perspective takes <30
minutes to go over - plus potentially several days of despair. The problems
with the world are not user error. How can technology help?

1\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_oligarchy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_oligarchy)
2\.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs)

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xiphias
I think Bitcoin is right now the most powerful technology that can help... it
got me out of despair when I understood it more. It can't help the climate
short term, but at least restructure the power long term to people who
hopefully have a better scientific understanding.

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abandonliberty
Interesting. Could you expand on that thought? I'm curious how it would be
different from our current solutions. Taking the power away from national
reserves?

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bkjelden
Am I being optimistic in thinking that at some point the American public may
flip on climate change and denying it exists will become very unpopular?

Where I live we've set multiple temperature records in the last few weeks and
may break a record for latest first snowfall ever. Even if correlating the
weather outside with global climate conditions is a flawed metric, people have
to figure out what's going on at some point... right?

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scrollaway
It'll happen - it's bound to. Progress tends to happen that way, if you look
at any of the previously divisive issues.

The problem (and please don't misread this) is that when it's about eg. gay
marriage or drug enforcement, it's "only" some people's lives being ruined.
That's temporary and localized. When it's about climate change, it's about the
long term fate of the entire planet. There's no "rolling back the tape".

It's already too late now. And the US just elected somebody who is ready to
undo the past 8 years of its own progress on climate change.

The good news is, Greenland's pretty big and mostly uninhabited.

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drzaiusapelord
So much for the "outsider not beholden to politics" argument eh? This is the
GOP playbook of forcing anti-science partisans into important roles and
gutting environmental regulations to please industry.

Also so much for the Trump supporter excuses of "Oh, he didn't really mean
that, he just said that to get elected -- wink, wink, nudge, nudge," nonsense.
Clearly climate change skepticism has become a mainstream view in the US
government after nearly two decades of fighting these skeptics. Its incredible
how much progress was lost last night.

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helthanatos
Maybe it's because climate change is caused by something other than our cars.

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c0nducktr
Funny how many people in tech think because they're good with computers
they're somehow smarter than climate scientists.

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CamperBob2
No, it's just that no one understands the failings of computer models better
than we do.

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sparky_
Disgusting. Terrifying. It was a nice planet while it lasted.

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mabbo
And so it begins

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Broken_Hippo
This was my exact thoughts upon reading the article: So much so that I just
sent my spouse the same words.

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m3kw9
What infuriates me more is the people jumping to conclusion about their
futures

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piotrjurkiewicz
Good. Maybe this will help to shift the focus to real pollutants, which
actually harm human health, instead of CO2.

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ocschwar
CO2 harm to human health involves a more complex chain of causality than
merely breathing it in and being poisoned by it. But it is real nonetheless.

