Count me as a believer in abrupt “Climate Change.” The political climate changed so abruptly on November 8th that most were stunned. It led to rioting in Portland, profound mourning among Obama followers, and panic among those who have lived off Obama’s generosity with taxpayer money. For me, it was incredibly good news.
Trump not only defeated Clinton, he defeated the elitist ruling class in a magnificent return to the political center, even redefining where that center really lies. Thanks to President-Elect Trump, status quo Democrats and Republicans will no longer run this nation. Replacing them will be hard-working Americans who have a much better sense of where reality lies, from economic and defense policy to the social issues of poverty and racism.
While Trump concentrated on hot-button campaign issues, I realized that he was also headed in positive directions on issues most important to me, the survival of science and environmentalism. In one magnificent turn of the political winds, Americans ditched the Orwellian world of Obama doublespeak, where everything had become the opposite of what it really was.
‘Obama science’ and ‘Obama environmentalism’ are sad footnotes to history. We will no longer be led by a person dedicated to misusing science for ideological and political purposes, lavishing huge amounts of money on institutions and scientists who supported the science that he considered politically useful and denigrating scientists who dared disagree with him as “Flat-Earthers” and “Deniers.”
Suffering from a profound scientific illiteracy himself, President Obama never understood elementary science yet tried to dictate the correct science through the federal agencies under his control. He did this as an end run around the Congress, by misusing the “Deference” given to these agencies by law. The law presumes that government agencies are telling the truth even when they are not.
When we pursued Obama’s climate alarmism all the way to the US Supreme Court, we encountered justices unwilling to consider our arguments even though they conclusively demonstrated the fatal flaws in the Obama administration’s scientific case for regulating carbon dioxide. Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was given complete deference to dictate the science, despite lacking the expertise to do so. Eventually, the high court did stay Obama’s efforts for procedural reasons. We were grateful but remained concerned that Obama’s pursuit of power would continue to crush science.
Environmentalism also took a huge hit during the Obama years as he spent vast sums on crony capitalist schemes to solve a problem that does not exist: Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming. Even some of the most strident scientific supporters of ‘Global Warming’ have backed off of the primary selling point: catastrophe. The still raging scientific debate centers on the amount of warming to be expected for a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Alarmists say two or three degrees C while skeptics say one degree or less. This issue will be easily solved once the federal gravy train stops delivering so much money to the alarmist side.
Obama’s entourage never understood that industrializing our last open spaces with giant wind machines and solar arrays that do not competently address major concerns is outrageous. They kill endangered birds and bats while not even reducing carbon footprints, because the power produced is of such poor quality that backup is difficult and inefficient.
Will Trump be no better than Obama, abusing science to achieve his different political agenda? We do not really know. But as a very successful businessman, he has to have more respect for the objective considerations that build businesses. And his appointment of Oregonian Myron Ebell and Dr. David Schnare to lead his EPA transition team is very good news. They are first-rate people who support objective science. Trump’s appointment of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the EPA is a very strong signal that Obama’s misuse of science and environmentalism is ending. That is very hopeful.
Gordon J. Fulks lives in Corbett and can be reached at gordonfulks@hotmail.com. He holds a doctorate in physics from the University of Chicago’s Laboratory for Astrophysics and Space Research.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Northwest Connection.)
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