Above: The description for this WPA photo, taken between 1935 and 1943, reads, "Making a study of ultra violet rays in the study of air pollution in New York City." Photo courtesy of the National Archives.
President Roosevelt and his fellow New Deal policymakers funded thousands of science projects all across the country - environmental science, social science, and medical science. In modern America, however, Republican politicians and their wealthy donors are busy defunding and denying science, for example, trying to cut funding for the EPA, cut funding for the National Institute of Health, and loosen or terminate any recent rules that were designed to protect our air and water.
At a recent conference hosted by the right-wing "Heartland Institute" (I guess the name "God, Mom, and Apple Pie Institute" was already taken), and attended by right-wing billionaire donors Robert Mercer and Rebekah Mercer, various speakers blabbered various things to reinforce each other's psychosis, for example, that fossil fuels and rising temperatures are needed to avoid starvation; that the government is engaging in "perverted science"; that there is "no such thing as climate science"; and "There isn't a consensus [humans are causing climate change]. The people who did the survey reported it as 97 percent because they were communists and they didn’t care about the truth." Yep, it was the commies! It's always the commies.
Above: In this brief video clip from BBC News (showing fossil fuel-caused pollution in China in January 2017), we see America's future if Republicans, their super-wealthy donors, and their voters have their way. In fact, it's already begun. Doctors in Utah, one of the most polluted states in America in terms of air quality, have been warning pregnant women to stay indoors for several years now. Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nFZaSbkf0U.
Above: In this 2015 video clip from Denver 7 news, we see that some people have rigged their vehicles to pollute more. It's called "rolling coal," and it's being done to protest clean air. Some of the people who do this intentionally try to "smoke out" people who don't share their political views, such as "BlackLivesMatter, Trump Haters, Tree Huggers." Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaDqgtFAC40.
Isn't it amazing how we're devolving as a society? How we respect science less than we did 80 years ago? And how we're slowly but surely rejecting higher learning in favor of talking points and slavish devotion to the rich? Because remember, it isn't just the knuckle-dragging policies of Republican politicians and their super-wealthy donors. It's also the tens of millions of voters who are saying, "Yes, yes! I believe you! Science is a hoax! The billionaires are our gods, we MUST obey them! Hallelujah!!!"
Conservative voters have now placed climate-denying, air-polluting Republican politicians and billionaires in charge of most state governments, the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, the White House, and, soon, the Supreme Court. Indeed, right-wing politicians and billionaires have so much political control right now, that they're on the verge of being able to call a constitutional convention to rewrite the way we live. Who knows, maybe in a few years, you will be required to carry an assault rifle and a bible at all times; and also forced to drink contaminated water and wrap your mouth around the exhaust pipe of a "rolling coal" truck - to prove you're a genuine God-fearin', billionaire-lovin', low-paid American. Hell yeah!!!
Conservative voters have now placed climate-denying, air-polluting Republican politicians and billionaires in charge of most state governments, the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, the White House, and, soon, the Supreme Court. Indeed, right-wing politicians and billionaires have so much political control right now, that they're on the verge of being able to call a constitutional convention to rewrite the way we live. Who knows, maybe in a few years, you will be required to carry an assault rifle and a bible at all times; and also forced to drink contaminated water and wrap your mouth around the exhaust pipe of a "rolling coal" truck - to prove you're a genuine God-fearin', billionaire-lovin', low-paid American. Hell yeah!!!
Organizations like UNICEF, the American Lung Association, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have warned us that we are breathing highly polluted, lethal air - killing hundred of thousands of us every year (and children are especially susceptible). Unfortunately, as evidenced by their rallying cry "Drill Baby, Drill!", their "rolling coal" vehicles, and their ridicule of environmental protection laws, Republicans clearly don't give a crap. Even as we see children in China routinely wearing breathing masks, and surrounded by clouds of fossil fuel smog, Republicans just keep screaming, "It's a hoax!!"
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