The Trump/Pence Regime: Indicted for Waging War on Truth, Science, and the Environment

People need facts, evidence, and science, not institutionalized lying, enforced ignorance and incapacity to think critically to solve urgent challenges confronting humanity and existential threats to the environment.

UPDATED June, 2018
The following is one of seven parts of an indictment of the Trump/Pence regime, presenting the evidence and making the case that this is an illegitimate, fascist regime that poses an existential threat to humanity and the planet. In the words of the Call to Action from Refuse Fascism:

This Nightmare Must End:
The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!

In the Name of Humanity,
We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America

 

Indicted for Waging War on Truth, Science, and the Environment

What they have done:

  • Trump withdrew from the Paris international agreement on greenhouse gas emissions, he repeatedly called climate change a “hoax,” and half his cabinet are climate change deniers. Source Source 2 Source 3
  • Thirty-three environmental regulations have been overturned, 24 rollbacks are in progress, and 10 more rollbacks were undertaken but in limbo. Source
  • The regime released a list of 860 environmental rules it’s reviewing or withdrawing— including drinking water standards for radon and lead levels, water quality standards on Indian reservations, ozone and methane emission limits, and air-quality standards for hazardous chemicals. Just ten of those standards save more than 10,000 lives and prevent 300,000 cases of illness and injury each year. Source
  • As of June 1, 2018, Trump has publicly told 3,251 false or misleading claims, averaging six and a half every day since coming into office. Source
  • When confronted with demonstrable lies about the size of Trump’s inaugural crowd, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to Trump, rebranded lies as “alternative facts.” Source
  • The EPA and Depts of Energy, Agriculture and Health and Human Services all removed the term “climate change” from their websites. The EPA issued “talking points” to its workers instructing them on how to downplay climate change. Source 1 Source 2
  • The Center for Disease Control was “advised” to avoid using the words “vulnerable,” “diversity,” and entitlement,” in a Health and Human Services document. The words “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based,” and “science-based” were also discouraged. Source
  • Trump is the first president since 1941 not to name a science adviser. There are no longer chief scientists at either the Dept of State or the Dept of Agriculture. Trump dismantled advisory committees that traditionally provide scientific input on health and the environment from experts. Source 1 Source 2
  • Pence refuses to acknowledge evolution, one of the most foundational and proven facts of science. Source
  • Trump approved the Dakota Access and Keystone XL oil pipelines, which will increase fossil fuel emissions, accelerate global warming, and violate the rights and lives of Native people. Source
  • Trump reduced the size of two national monuments in Utah by some two million acres, the largest rollback of federal land protection in the nation’s history, opening them to mining and drilling and endangering rare species of mammals, birds, reptiles​, ​amphibians, and fish. Source
  • Trump’s White House canceled a NASA program which tracked global greenhouse gas emissions, making it more difficult to even monitor global changes to the environment. Source

What they said they will do:

  • The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced plans to open virtually all U.S. coastal waters and the Arctic to oil and gas drilling and roll back protections put in place after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, which killed 11 workers and spewed 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Source
  • The EPA and Army Corps of Engineers proposed rescinding the 2015 Clean Water Rule, a move which would end drinking water safeguards for one in three people in the U.S. Source
  • Scott Pruitt told coal industry lobbyists that he was preparing to convene a team to undermine the overwhelming consensus among climate scientists that carbon dioxide and other fossil fuel emissions are the primary drivers of climate change. Source
  • The EPA announced it will roll back requirements that carmakers boost fuel efficiency and cut greenhouse gas emissions for passenger cars. Source
  • The EPA proposed weakening standards aimed at reducing potent greenhouse gas that trap heat and contribute to climate change and Volatile Organic Compounds which can damage the liver, kidneys, and central nervous system. Source

What they have unleashed

  • Statehouses across the country have introduced ​a wave of bills ​allowing the teaching of creationism and climate​ change​ denial in schools’ curricula​. Source
  • In 2018, Idaho stripped climate change from school guidelines. Source
  • In speeches and tweets, Trump falsely claims there is a connection between vaccination and autism, promoting conspiracy theories that threaten to allow previously contained communicable diseases to resurface with terrible consequences. Source 1 Source 2

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IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY, WE REFUSE TO ACCEPT A FASCIST AMERICA!

NOW IS the TIME WHEN WE MUST RISE UP and ACT to STOP the CONSOLIDATION of TRUMP MAGA FASCISM. For the lives of people here and around the world we must refuse unlawful and inhumane orders… we must fill the streets and town squares in non-violent protest—not stopping until we become millions — not relenting until this regime is no longer able to implement its program or maintain its hold on power.