American Mythology: The Presidency of Donald Trump (Part Seven: Climate Carnage)

The Intercept Briefing

The Intercept

Politics, Unknown, Daily News, History, News

4.8 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2020

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In his denial of science, Donald Trump has guided the U.S. far past the tipping point of mitigating the unfolding existential threat of the climate crisis. Under both Democratic and Republican administrations over decades, U.S. climate policy has fallen far short of the urgent action scientists have demanded. In crucial ways, Donald Trump has been far more dangerous than his deeply-flawed predecessors. Trump seems to actually revel in his dangerous denial of fundamental and scientifically indisputable realities. In part seven of “American Mythology,” we examine how the Trump administration has catapulted the corporate-fueled deregulation crusade dramatically forward. In the past four years, Trump has undone or weakened up to 70 rules and regulations aimed at protecting the environment, while another 30 policy changes are still underway. The majority of these 100 changes are being done at the Environmental Protection Agency, which is currently headed by a former lobbyist for the coal industry who fought the Obama administration’s attempts at environmental regulations. Trump has overseen the largest rollback of federal land protection in U.S. history, opening environmentally-sensitive areas for corporate and industrial development and has portrayed himself as opening up “God’s great creation” to mining and extraction, freeing it from government protections. We analyze the corporate and industry executives and lobbyists Trump has placed in key environmental positions, his withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, and hear from environmentalists and scholars on how to proceed if the earth is to remain inhabitable.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is intercepted.
0:30.0	I'm Jeremy Skayhill coming to you from New York City and this is part seven of an intercepted special
0:39.6	American mythology the presidency of Donald Trump. I believe that there's a change in weather
0:46.2	and I think it changes both ways. Don't forget it used to be called global warming that wasn't working
0:51.4	then it was called climate change. Now it's actually called extreme weather because with extreme
0:55.9	weather you can't miss. Look we have a thing now in tornadoes. I don't remember tornadoes.
1:00.9	In August the United States recorded the highest temperature ever registered on earth 130 degrees
1:07.5	Fahrenheit in Death Valley California. Scientists are working to confirm the reading but say the
1:13.2	increase in record breaking temperatures around the world is due to global heating. This comes as
1:18.8	California's battling 30 wildfires and it's a record breaking heat wave. The West Coast was
1:24.8	inundated again this summer just like the one before it by gruesome uncontrollable wildfires.
1:31.3	During the presidential debate against Joe Biden Donald Trump blamed California. Every year I get
1:38.6	the call California is burning California is burning if that was cleaned if that were if you had
1:45.3	forest management good forest management you wouldn't be getting those calls. In recent years
1:51.7	hurricanes in the Atlantic and Gulf have become more ferocious due to warming waters. The summer's
1:58.3	Arctic sea ice cover reached a record low as the Arctic region warms two to three times faster than
2:04.4	the rest of the globe and as with every year before it more species win extinct new deadly diseases
2:11.3	spread biodiversity was lost and humans suffered droughts and food shortages while war and conflicts
2:18.7	raged on. For many years top climate scientists have warned about all of this but now a stark
2:25.3	reality has emerged the unfettered desire for corporate profit over trust in science has simply been
2:32.1	too strong.
2:34.6	If you believe in the science of climate change why have you rolled back the Obama
	...

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