Administration harms environment

In this perilous time, we all have plenty to keep us up at night, but I hope we are still able to pay attention to what this administration is attempting to do on the environmental front.

In February 2020, the American Psychological Association reported that a majority of adults believe climate change is the most important issue facing us today. Even though that survey preceded the global pandemic, Americans realize that climate is still a looming threat. Despite this, the Trump Administration has taken these steps in the last few months:

Trump has attempted to set aside the more stringent targets for automobile emissions put in place in the Obama years in favor of lower targets that would be diminish the effectiveness of possibly the most important tool we have to bring down carbon emissions and fight global temperature rise.

Trump pushed to include a giveaway to the fracking industry in the pandemic aid bill coming out of Congress.

The administration has been trying since December to lessen protections of Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which has operated since passage in 1918 to prevent even accidental injury to birds and habitats, by insulating companies from liability for reckless practices that they know would needlessly kill birds. The fate of birds mirrors the environmental degradation of the earth and the atmosphere and shows the threats to our own species.

In January Trump proposed stark changes to the nation's oldest and most established environmental law, the 50-year old National Environmental Policy Act, that could exempt major infrastructure projects from environmental review.

These efforts to overturn environment law seem relentless and incomprehensible at this time of particular urgency and danger.

Our most important opportunity to put people in Congress and someone else in the White House to be in charge of assuring a safe future for our planet will come in November. Voting is imperative.

Laura Haule

Warrenville