November 1, 2016
By Moisha Blechman, Global Warming Committee Co-Chair
Donald Trump talks security with the promise of “law and order” and an expanded military. But you can’t eat a police officer, or put a drone on your plate. For food on your plate, you need a healthy environment with fertile soil, rain, and a climate within the thermal limits of corn and cows.
When we think about security, a healthy climate is the fundamental issue. It needs to be examined broadly and in depth. No part of it was examined in the Hillary Clinton/Trump debate. But Trump does give us clues on what to expect. Let’s compare what Trump has said with Sierra Club environmental policy. We know that Trump is outrageous, but what would happen specifically to Sierra Club issues in a Trump administration?
Let’s start with the Donald’s most famous line, “You’re fired!” I will never forget the day, many years ago, that those words screamed across the headlines. It seemed like a celebration of callousness, and a total absence of respect or regard for a human being.
Respect and compassion is exactly how Sierra Club policy engages members in the defense of elephants, the big cats and, the whales. It asks for endangered species status for wolves and grizzlies. A Trump presidency would either eliminate or ignore the Endangered Species Act. It would no longer protect wildlife or forests. We see his values in his sons, who trophy-hunt game animals in Africa.
Butterflies, and domestic and wild bees, are on the brink of extinction as a result of neonicotinoid pesticide use. Pollinator mortality would trigger the loss of many vegetables and most fruits from your menu. This is even more serious for vegetarians than carnivores. If Trump wants to lower taxes on the great corporations, do you think he would demand that Bayer and Syngenta relinquish production of their pesticides? The Club is petitioning Obama on this issue, but with Trump, success has no hope.
Monsanto is on the verge of introducing so many new GMOs that they threaten to overwhelm the American food market. Without food labeling they will be hard to avoid. The most basic purpose for genetically modifying a plant is to make it resistant to the herbicide, Roundup, whose basic ingredient is glyphosate. Glyphosate appears in all the processed foods. As it builds up in the human gut it kills the gut flora, leading to all the metabolic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, depression and cancer. An agent from the Cornell Cooperative Extension said, “We are all eating glyphosate.” The EPA has labeled glyphosate a probable carcinogen.
GMOs are a triple threat. They escape into the cropland of non-GMO agriculture and escape into the wild, polluting both. After a rain, run off from fields enters the entire watershed, including reservoirs. By patenting its seeds, Monsanto, not nature, would control the seed supply. America will never be great if Monsanto succeeds. This is a major issue and a tough call. A Trump presidency would likely give Monsanto free reign.
The Sierra Club has banned fracking, fights pipe lines, and bomb trains, and has called for leaving coal, oil and natural gas in the ground. It’s against nuclear power. During the first debate, Clinton said that she wanted to promote solar and wind, Trump responded that he liked all energy sources. As an aside, he added that he didn’t believe in global warming.
It has been reported that Trump would pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord. Can you imagine the international reaction? It is safe to assume that Trump would summarily scratch Obama’s Clean Power Plan, our major federal action plan to reduce climate change.
The Republicans are pushing for the sale of public lands, expanding permits to resource extraction in even such sensitive and beloved icons of American identity such as the Grand Canyon. I have not seen any expressions of love for natural beauty, from Trump, a primary Sierra Club mission, but plenty of expressions of love for making money. America’s public lands are held in trust by and for the people. Would Trump respect this against corporate interests exactly when the planet is experiencing its sixth extinction, and when E.O. Wilson has said that human survival depends on reserving half the Earth for biodiversity?
If you access the Sierra Club web sites you will read that member activism on behalf of the environment is a cornerstone of Sierra Club policy. The Club organizes for attendance at hearings and demonstrations on a regular basis. Under his declared policy of “law and order”, Trump would utilize our already militarized police against peaceful protestors even more than what we are seeing today. In a Trump administration, it could quickly become too dangerous to pursue this cornerstone of Sierra Club policy.
“I will make America great again.” is Trump’s rallying cry. From history we know that the minute a nation, or a culture, is corrupt enough to deny truth, its social and cultural decline is inevitable. Trump’s denial of climate change is a recipe for national decline, not greatness.