Trump Does Not Misunderstand Air Pollution, He Hides It
The G20 reporting claims that Trump confuses air pollution with climate change. But Trump is also sweeping harmful US air pollution under the rug as well. He doesn’t misunderstand them. He is a covering these pollutions up for his oilgarch donors.
Trump and his oil and coal swamp creatures Scott Pruitt and Andrew Wheeler, former and present heads of the EPA, have ignored the ruling of the Supreme Court that Greenhouse Gases are also harmful air pollutants and fall under the Clean Air Act. They have also changed the Science of air pollution considered under the Clean Power Plan.
In regulating the pollution from Coal Plants, the smog that results from nitrous oxides, and the tiny particular matter that goes into your and my lungs, called PM2.5, were considered harmful pollutants. Under the new Trumpian “Science”, they are being dropped, and only the 1,400 deaths over ten years from Mercury and SO2 are being considered. Furthermore, they have another dodge, the theory that any time the concentration of these falls below the limits, that they do no harm. The more common theory is that they build up over time and cause proportionate effects.
So here is the clincher. The Lung Association has determined that the lethality of smog and PM2.5 really is double the figures previously used. And that 213,000 people in the combined US and Canada have hastened deaths EACH YEAR from air pollution. That is over 1500 times per year greater than that cited in the Trump EPA con. We may have nearly the cleanest air, but it is still lethal. Worldwide, of concern for the G20, 8.9 million people die prematurely from air pollution.
Internationally, leaders in the G20 may not know of the frauds that Trump is committing at home. But they have to stand strong, especially knowing that Trump and other oil, coal and natural gas producing countries are owned and run by clans protecting their fossil fuel wealth. Instead, they flatter Trump and try to avoid The Wrath of Khan, or the Tariff Man. Not to mention the countries which supply them with oil, coal, and natural gas.
