Protesters line Central Park West during the Earth Day 'March For Science NYC' demonstration to coincide with similar marches globally in Manhattan, New York, U.S., April 22, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
An official in the Trump administration gutted endangered species protections and mining regulations because they deemed a science to be a “Democrat thing.”
The Washington Post reported as part of a story on the Trump administration’s environmental and regulatory rollback of mining regulations in West Virginia:
Davis repeatedly served as a liaison between West Virginia and coal industry representatives and Interior officials, according to public records, relaying West Virginia’s concerns to Skipwith and urging her to address the permitting holdup.
Davis also questioned other department efforts to monitor mining’s impacts. Explaining why it had abruptly canceled a study into coal mining’s effects on the health of nearby residents, he said, “Science was a Democrat thing,” according to notes by the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General.
Climate change is the most significant looming example of what happens when a political party rejects science, but there are other small local and state examples of species going extinct and people getting sick and dying because Republicans reject science.
Republicans have turned their anti-intellectual and anti-science beliefs into public policy with adverse outcomes.
The deeper problem is that it is impossible for the nation to reach a consensus on the issues when one party rejects facts. Science is based on fact, so when Republicans reject science, they are also rejecting facts, and without a common agreement on fact, it is impossible to have bipartisan governance.
Science isn’t a partisan issue, and by treating it as such, Republicans are undermining the basics of knowledge and fact.
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