Any kind of war takes a human toll on a nation’s population by design. However, so does a contemptible leader who is on pace to kill more Americans per decade than died during the past three wars. It is interesting that in an important midterm election, there has been hardly any reporting or candidate outrage about the number of American citizens Donald Trump’s assault on environmental protections will kill prematurely.
First, it is noteworthy that since his poorly attended inauguration, every last Trump assault on environmental regulations was wholly supported by Republicans in Congress; they have as much blood on their dirty “pro-life” hands as their corrupt leader Trump. According to a comprehensive study by two Harvard professors, Trump’s assault on environmental regulations will, “under the most conservative estimate, cost the lives of over 80 000 US residents per decade and lead to respiratory problems for many more than 1 million people."
It is important to note too, that the Harvard report only calculated the number of premature American deaths due to Trump as of June, 2018. Tragically for Americans who do not want to die prematurely, Trump is still laying waste to environmental regulations he claims are “destroying us.” His exact words:
“We are going to get rid of the regulations that are just destroying us. You can’t breathe—you cannot breathe.”
It is unclear who Trump claimed cannot breathe due to clean air and water regulations, but according to the Harvard study, getting rid of regulations will create serious breathing problems for well over a million Americans per decade, many will be young Americans. And for an additional 80,000 Americans, those breathing problems and exposure to chemicals and pollutants will just kill them prematurely.
To get an idea of just how deadly Trump’s anti-environment crusade really is, it is worth looking at the American death toll when enemy combatants are actively seeking and trying to kill Americans in wars. Compared to America’s 20 year involvement in Vietnam, a few days in the 1st Gulf War, and the still-ongoing Iraq/Afghanistan wars, Trump’s assault on the environment will have killed 14,790 more Americans than those three wars combined.
It is noteworthy that while wars eventually end, there is hardly no chance the environmental regulations being ravaged will ever be reinstated – it is one of the dire repercussions of Trump and the Heritage Foundation packing the federal judiciary with judges enamored with fossil fuels and bestowing unlimited executive power when a Republican is in the White House; especially when the corrupt Republican occupant is unilaterally eviscerating environmental regulations enacted by a Democratic President.
What incited this particular screed was not solely the number of American citizens Trump’s environmental assaults will kill and make it difficult to breathe, it was Trump’s latest attack on a legally-enacted rule reducing the amount of methane oil and gas companies can release into the environment. To make matters that much more ire-inspiring, a little over a year ago a United States Appellate Court ordered Trump to implement the 2016 methane reduction rule by a vote of 9 to 2.
It is no coincidence that confirmed serial perjurer and “alleged” sexual predator Brett Kavanaugh was one of the two W. Bush-appointed judges voting to allow Trump to say f*ck the rule of law and the United States Constitution. Kavanaugh supported Trump refusing to do his constitutionally-mandated duty and take care to execute the laws of the land. And it is noteworthy that Kavanaugh was well aware of why the Appellate Court’s majority ordered Trump to enact the rule; to save and protect American lives. In part, the Court said that Trump’s EPA willfully not implementing the methane rule:
“Is causing substantial additional methane, ozone-forming [volatile organic compounds], and hazardous air pollutants such as benzene and formaldehyde to be released into the air of communities near these wells. [Instead] of delivering significant benefits, [Trump’s] EPA unlawfully stayed these and other requirements of the rule retroactively. [EPA} has not offered any support for the proposition that compliance would cause significant hardship to regulated entities that had a year’s lead time to prepare.”
It is noteworthy that Trump’s EPA readily acknowledged that of course; not implementing the rule will make even more American children sick, but it is what the oil and gas industry wants. By dog this is America and anything the fossil fuel industry wants trumps the health and welfare of Americans – especially young Americans. And, those “conservatively estimated” 80,000 premature American deaths per decade do not include any of Trump’s latest environmental regulation attacks; it is sheer futility attempting to estimate the centuries-long damage to the Earth’s climate due to Trump, but “game over” is considered a fairly accurate measure. Methane is significantly more “potent” than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
One would think that Democrats would seize on the number of Americans Trump’s “deregulation frenzy” will kill thus far and particularly note that Republicans in Congress are not attempting to stop him. The only reason congressional Republicans are not legislating environmental regulations out of existence is because Trump is doing their dirty work for them, to the delight of the fossil fuel and chemical industries.
It is a travesty that while every nation on the planet has signed on to voluntarily do something to combat climate change, America under Trump is doing everything to make it much, much worse. At this juncture it is likely that most sane Americans comprehend that anthropogenic climate change is real, but probably have little interest in Trump’s assault on environmental regulations. Perhaps they would pay attention if they know Trump’s environmental regulation attacks could, without intervention, conservatively kill more Americans than the wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined.