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environmetalism

Monday 2nd of March 2026

Bad news Mr. Pruitt's office also began to send letters to federal regulators – including the E.P.A. and even President Obama – that documents obtained through open records requests show were written by energy industry lobbyists from companies including Devon Energy [a contributor to Pruitt's election campaigns]. Mr. Pruitt's straff put these ghostwritten letters on government stationery and then sent them to Washington, moves that the companies often then praised in their own news releases, without noting that they had actually drafted the letters in the first place. New York Times, December 7, 2016, on Scott Pruitt, Trump's choice to head the EPA, which both despise © 2015 Kwiple.com
Bad news Senate confirms Scott Pruitt, preeminent pimp for polluters, as EPA administrator If water becomes undrinkable and air becomes unbreathable, blame him and his enablers: Lamar Alexander (R) Steve Daines (R) Johnny Isakson (R) Pat Roberts (R) John Barrasso (R) Mike Enzi (R) Ron Johnson (R) Mike Rounds (R) Roy Blunt (R) Joni Ernst (R) John Kennedy (R) Marco Rubio (R) John Boozman (R) Deb Fischer (R) James Lankford (R) Ben Sasse (R) Richard Burr (R) Jeff Flake (R) Mike Lee Tim Scott (R) Shelley Moore-Capito (R) Cory Gardner (R) Joe Manchin (D) Richard Shelby (R) Bill Cassidy (R) Lindsey Graham (R) Mitch McConnell (R) Luther Strange Thad Cochran (R) Chuck Grassley (R) Jerry Moran (R) Dan Sullivan (R) Bob Corker (R) Orrin Hatch (R) Lisa Murkowski (R) John Thune (R) John Cornyn (R) Heidi Heitkamp (D) Rand Paul (R) Thom Tillis (R) Tom Cotton (R) Dean Heller (R) David Perdue (R) Pat Toomey Mike Crapo (R) John Hoeven (R) Rob Portman (R) Roger Wicker (R) Ted Cruz (R) Jim Inhofe (R) James Risch (R) Todd Young American Electric Power (utility) Liberty 2.0 (energy industry super-PAC) American Fuel & Petrochemical Mfgrs (lobby) Lucas Oil Products (oil company) Americans for Prosperity (anti-EPA lobby) Murray Energy (coal copmany) Continental Resources (oil company) Oklahoma Gas & electric (utility) Devon Energy (oil and gas company) Oklahoma Strong Leadership (his super-PAC) KochPAC (Koch Industries PAC) Protecting America Now (anti-EPA lobby) © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Portion of EPA Superfund sites whose cleanup costs are borne entirely by taxpayers: 3/10 Harper's Index, December 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Corporate welfare Allowing companies to challenge EPA decisions about Superfund sites, but prohibiting communities from doing the same © 2017 Kwiple.com
Environmentalism The findings from [Shanna] Swan and her colleagues [at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai] suggest that if we continue to use industrial chemicals at the current rates, we could plasticize and nonstick and flame-retard ourselves into a state of near sterility. Anna Louie Sussman,  New York Review of Books, September 23, 2021 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Environmentalism The state always seems to come down on the little  guy. Take this bayou. If your motorboat leaks a little gas into the water, the warden'll write you up. But if companies  leak thousands of gallons of it and kill all the life here? The state lets them go. If you shoot an endangered brown pelican, they'll put you in jail. But if a company kills the brown pelican by poisoning the fish he eats? They let it go. I think they overregulate  the bottom because it's harder to regulate the top. A Louisiana resident on enforcement of environmental regulations in the state, quoted by Arlie Russell Hochschild, in Strangers in Their Own Land © 2017 Kwiple.com
Dead-in-the-heads say Carbon dioxide has none of the characteristics of a pollutant that could harm human health. Kathleen Hartnett-White, oil and gas industry propagandist and Donalds Trump's nominee to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the office responsible for coordinating environmental and energy policies and improving the environment © 2016 Kwiple.com
Dead-in-the-heads say Industrialized nations that utterly depend on the consumption of fossil fuels have not amplified environmental degradation of the natural world. Kathleen Hartnett-White, oil and gas industry propagandist and Donalds Trump's nominee to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the office responsible for coordinating environmental and energy policies and improving the environment © 2017 Kwiple.com
Dead-in-the-heads say There is no environmental crisis – in fact, there's almost no major environmental problems. Kathleen Hartnett-White, oil and gas industry propagandist and Donalds Trump's nominee to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the office responsible for coordinating environmental and energy policies and improving the environment © 2017 Kwiple.com
Dead-in-the-heads say The war on coal is over. Scott Pruitt, EPA Administrator, announcing his plan to repeal the Clean Power Act which sought to curb emisions from coal-fired power plants © 2017 Kwiple.com
Environmentalism Under a 1970 environmental policy act, projects take an average of 4.5 years to complete their impact assessments.  That is before litigation and other overruns. The law’s key flaw is that it emphasises the views of local communities over the benefits to millions who live elsewhere. Time and again, experience shows that “community participation” is captured by wealthy retirees and lawyers with time on their hands. The law was written before global warming became the issue. Edward Luce, Financial Times, December 16, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Environmentalism What use are our gadgets if future generations can't drink the water? What is the point of advances in medicine if the air is unfit to breathe? David Attenborough © 2016 Kwiple.com
Housing If you have a windmill anywhere near your home, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value. And they say the noise causes cancer. Donald Trump © 2019 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Ban the use of neonicotinoid pesticides, a killer of bees, nature's pollinators © 2016 Kwiple.com
Law Being inanimate should not be a barrier to legal personhood – the courts are well populated by inanimate objects: the State, the Church and the corpo- ration have all, over the centuries, been recognized by the law. Why shouldn't nature have the same legal standing as the companies seeking to exploit it? André Dao,  “What if trees could sue?” New Philosopher #14: Nature © 2016 Kwiple.com
Leftists Sooner or later, the Left is going to have to adopt a platform that ties environmental justice and economic justice together in a single movement. That platform must be rooted in reinvestment, not just regulation.  Michelle Wilde Anderson © 2019 Kwiple.com
Profits  If it's wrong to wreck the planet, then it's wrong to profit from that wreckage. Bill McKibben and Kumi Naidoo  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Punt returners say Can't a man pollute America's air and waterways in peace? Bess Levin responding to Scott Pruitt, pro-polluter and chief despoiler of the EPA, who said a “toxic environment politically” justifies him flying business or first class or charter planes at taxpayer's expense – even when flying home to Tulsa – as if only people flying coach think he's a dick © 2018 Kwiple.com
Punt returners say Chop me down before I kill again Sign posted on a tree by students at Claremont College in response to Ronald Reagan's claim that “Eighty percent of air pollution comes not from chimneys and auto exhaust pipes, but from plants and trees” © 2023 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Eliminating rules aimed at reducing exposure to the carcinogen beryllium is change we believe in © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Increasing pollution and waste in national parks by overturning the ban on selling plastic water bottles there is change we believe in © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Letting mining companies dump waste into streams again is change we believe in © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say  The problem with guns is noise pollution. Making silencers cheap and easy to get is change we believe in © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Sacrifice air quality on the altar of costs to improve it © 2015 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Sacrificing the environment and public health to increase corporate profits is change we believe in © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Stopping studies of how pollutants created by mountaintop-removal mining cause birth defects, cancers and respiratory diseases is change we believe in  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Resisters say Save the planet Placard, Neko Harbor, Antartica, Women's March, January 21, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Science In turn, the fragmented design of technology reflects its scientific foundation, for science is divided into disciplines that are largely governed by the notion that complex systems can be understood only if they are first broken into their separate component parts. This reductionist bias has also tended to shield basic science from a concern for real-life problems, such as environmental degradation. Barry Commoner, The Closing Circle © 2022 Kwiple.com
Sleepers at the wheel say “Always lean to the green” refers to protecting the environment © 2015 Kwiple.com
Sleepers at the wheel say The United States, under the Trump administration, will continue to be the cleanest and most environmentally friendly country on earth. Donald Trump, announcing America's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Trump loves nobody and has no sense of tomorrow.  Like an animal, he lives only in the present. Yet even an animal will avoid fouling the place in which it lives and sleeps. Trump cannot even meet that test. Donald Trump portrayed by David Frum © 2020 Kwiple.com
Surely you jest Saying, “Water's not just for drinking,” Republicans fulfill a campaign promise by passing the pro-polluter PIPSIS, The Piss in a Pond, Shit in a Stream Act of 2017 An alternative face [they rescinded the Stream Protection Rule] © 2017 Kwiple.com
 
Trumpists say By reversing the previous administration's steps to ban one of the most widely used pesticides in the world, we are returning to using sound science in decision-making – rather than predetermined results. Scot Pruitt, on reversing the ban on chlorpyrifos, a pesticide linked to neurodevelopmental problems in children © 2019 Kwiple.com