Stand Up, Dig In
Monday
morning, just as I was getting settled into the
work week, one email in particular caught my
eye. It was a press release from the
Environmental Protect Agency, with an
unmistakably Trumpish subject line:
“What
They Are Saying: EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to
Unleash American Greatness as Head of EPA.” I
took the bait and clicked, only to find more
than 40 quotes from Republican lawmakers and
industry insiders singing the praises of the
newly confirmed Zeldin.
The
email sent me down a rabbit hole.
I’d
been avoiding news of the EPA’s rapid
transformation as much as one can in this line
of work, but no longer. I decided to dig in —
and there was, of course, a lot to dig into.
Since Trump took office a month ago,
all members of the EPA’s clean air and science
advisory boards have been dismissed.
Its diversity, equity, and inclusion staff have
been placed on administrative leave. Former
Dupont executives and industry lobbyists have
been appointed to leadership positions within
the
agency’s
chemical oversight division. Earlier this week,
more than 1,100
employees received notice that they could be
immediately terminated. On Wednesday, news broke
that Trump was expected to close the
agency’s
Office of Environmental Justice and External
Civil Rights, which supports communities
particularly vulnerable to pollution, and just
yesterday 168 of the office’s employees were put
on leave. The Trump administration has placed a
partial gag
order on public communications, removed
prominent online references to climate change,
and done away with the
agency’s
online environmental justice mapping tool,
too.
There’s
little doubt that these changes, and the
inevitable regulatory rollbacks that are to
follow, will do much harm to our land, our
health, and our communities. This is all
happening in addition to the countless other
blows the administration is dealing to
communities around the world through its
policies on immigration, transgender rights,
foreign aid, and more.
It’s
bleak, and
it’s
hard to find a silver lining. Still, part of me
feels relieved after wading through the
news. I’ve
managed, finally, to push past avoidance. Now
that
I’ve
begun processing the situation, I feel energized
by the emerging resistance, including the lawsuits
that have already started flowing, the community
organizing
that’s
taking place, and our own work here at the
Journal,
reporting on people offering a vision for a
better world. Those are stories I can dig
into.
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