Mike Clayton: A very dark day for polar bears and everything else

Oil pipelines can be a danger to wildlife and the planet

There was never any real doubt where Trump’s sympathies lay, but the speed with which he’s indicated his contempt for the environment is scary.

By signing draft memoranda just four days into his presidency, facilitating the completion of oil pipelines blocked by the Obama administration on environmental grounds, he confirmed his “America First” policy, and put two fingers up to the rest of the world.

“Keystone XL” (1,900 miles, Alberta–Nebraska), duplicates an existing pipeline and cuts across environmentally sensitive landscape. “The Dakota Access” pipeline (1,170 miles, North Dakota–Illinois) will provide some short-term construction and steel jobs, but also suggest America intends to maintain a reliance on fossil fuels, further contributing to global warming.

In itself, the pipeline decision is just one item in the in-tray of a new president wanting to appear decisive. But, viewed alongside other events, a more calculating and cynical image is evident.

That same day he signed a directive ordering an end to protracted environmental reviews. Cutting red tape, dispensing with regulations which impede businesses: you know, things like environmental diligence, safety, compliance with acceptable standards, agreed global behaviour, the Paris Agreement. Things you might expect an averagely competent world “leader” to aspire to.

Trump then chose Scott Pruitt to head the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), a climate change denier who has previously sued the EPA.

Pruitt’s boss and Secretary of State will be Rex Tillerson, ex-CEO of ExxonMobil, whose environmental credentials include the Exxon  Valdez oil tanker disaster in Alaska and the Baton Rouge refinery explosion.

While the pipelines won’t directly affect polar bear habitat, the hostile intent signalled by the indecent haste to greenlight them, the insensitive appointees, and regulatory relaxation should alarm any globally climate-change sensitive area and its inhabitants – including polar bears.

One “alternative fact” is his tweet on 6 November, 2012 that “the concept of global warming was created by the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive”. That’s fake news!

From a polar bear perspective, a president who won’t believe, or denies, scientific evidence of climate change is dangerous.

While denying the reality of environmental climate change, Trump has changed the political climate in four days – with apprehension replacing hope. What might our world be like after four years?

Mike Clayton lives in Perth. He writes Paul R Bear’s enviroblog, https://paulrbear.wordpress.com