{"id":132000,"date":"2016-11-10T12:02:05","date_gmt":"2016-11-10T19:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/11\/10\/and-so-it-begins-3.html"},"modified":"2016-11-10T12:02:05","modified_gmt":"2016-11-10T19:02:05","slug":"and-so-it-begins-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/11\/10\/and-so-it-begins-3.html","title":{"rendered":"And so it begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been holding off (aside from one pre-election outburst) talking about potential Trump appointees, because they've all been speculative (and because the idea of cackling Rudy Giuliani becoming AG makes my skin crawl). <\/p>\n

But here's something concrete to start kvetching about: Myron Bell, who's declared global warming a hoax (or, more recently, a good<\/i> thing because "people prefer less severe winters"), who has headed Exxon's anti-climate change policy project, who in the Bush White House watered down a climate change report from the EPA, and who then tried to get the head of the EPA fired so as to discredit the agency in the eyes of the president.<\/p>\n

This is the man that Donald Trump has picked to head his EPA "transition team."<\/p>\n

What colorful thing will Trump do next?<\/p>\n

Originally shared by +John Baez<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

This man must be stopped<\/b><\/p>\n

Trump has said on Twitter that:<\/p>\n

the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.<\/i><\/p>\n

While he later denied saying this, he is now threatening to put Myron Ebell<\/b> in charge of his Environmental Protection Agency "transition team". Transition team? Yes, apparently Trump wants to weaken or destroy this agency. And if you don't know Myron Ebell, you'd better learn about him now!<\/p>\n

Myron Ebell has said:<\/p>\n

I don’t want to say it’s a disaster, but I think it is potentially a disaster for humankind and not necessarily any good for the planet.<\/i><\/p>\n

What's he talking about? Global warming? No, he's talking about the Paris agreement to fight<\/i> global warming. He claims global warming is, on the whole, a good<\/i> thing. Why?<\/p>\n

In fact, there is no question that most people prefer less severe winters.<\/i><\/p>\n

After running an organization devoted to eliminating protection for endangered species, he switched to heading the Global Warming and International Environmental Policy project at an institute funded by Exxon. His job was to sow doubt and create confusion about climate change.<\/p>\n

But he burst into fame in 2002. That's when he helped Bush's White House "council on environmental policy" water down a key report on global warming<\/i>. He was caught by Greenpeace, and a scandal erupted. <\/p>\n

He also tried to get the head of the Environmental Protection Agency fired. Back then it was Christine Todd Whitman. In a secret memo to Philip Cooney, head of Bush's anti-environmental council, Ebell wrote:<\/p>\n

It seems to me that the folks at the EPA are the obvious fall guys, and we would only hope that the fall guy (or gal) should be as high up as possible. I have done several interviews and have stressed that the president needs to get everyone rowing in the same direction. Perhaps tomorrow we will call for [Christine Todd Whitman] to be fired. I know that that doesn't sound like much help, but it seems to me that our only leverage to push you in the right direction is to drive a wedge between the President and those in the Administration who think they are serving the president's best interests by publishing this rubbish.<\/i><\/p>\n

"This rubbish" was a report put out by the EPA warning people of the dangers of climate change.<\/p>\n

So, get ready: this guy will be working full-time to cause trouble!<\/p>\n

Here's a good Scientific American<\/i> article to get you up to speed:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/trump-picks-top-climate-skeptic-to-lead-epa-transition\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Here's Myron Ebell on Wikipedia:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Myron_Ebell<\/a><\/p>\n

Here's Myron Ebell rewriting scientific reports:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2005\/jun\/09\/science.environment<\/a><\/p>\n

Myron Ebell saying global warming is, on the whole, a good thing:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/forbes\/2006\/1225\/038.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Here's Trump's claim that climate change is a notion invented by the Chinese:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2016\/9\/26\/13067918\/donald-trump-presidential-debate-2016-climate-change-hoax<\/a><\/p>\n

#savetheplanet<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/a>\u00a0\n<\/div>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been holding off (aside from one pre-election outburst) talking about potential Trump appointees, because they've all been speculative (and because the idea of cackling Rudy Giuliani becoming AG makes my skin crawl). But here's something concrete to start kvetching about: Myron Bell, who's declared global warming a hoax (or, more recently, a good … Continue reading “And so it begins”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":132001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[710],"class_list":["post-132000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts","tag-savetheplanet"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/myron_ebell.jpgimgmax=660.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":135158,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/10\/23\/creeping-planetary-disaster-dare-not-speak-name.html","url_meta":{"origin":132000,"position":0},"title":"The creeping planetary disaster that dare not speak its name","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 23-Oct-17 1:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The EPA has cancelled at the last moment talks by three of their researchers at a Rhode Island conference being held today on how climate change is affecting Narragansett Bay. 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