Climate Concerns, Global and Political

By SERIAH SARGENTON

Staff Writer

It has been more than a week since Donald Trump was sworn in as president, and he has already signed several executive orders that have worried citizens across the nation.

One issue that is concerning Saint Rose students is Trump’s plan to cut a billion dollars from the Environmental Protection Agency budget. It’s estimated that 15,000 EPA workers will be receiving a pink slip due to planned budget cuts.

“Trump himself has shown that he is against science repeatedly, and that’s very worrying to me when we’re coming up to a point where global warming is going to be the number one problem facing, not just America, but the planet,”said Blake Vaisey, Saint Rose environmental club public relations offi cer and vice president of the political science club. Trump has stated in the past that he thought climate change was a hoax created by the Chinese, later claiming he was making a joke.

Vaisey believes Trump is intelligent and knows what he is doing, but is playing the villain on purpose to appeal to his voters. In a businessman mindset, Trump is more worried about how the country is doing at the moment, rather than what it will be in the future. Vaisey is worried that if Trump is running the country as a business, he will ignore important issues that will soon have a great impact on America.

The administration ordered a social media freeze on the EPA Twitter account until all the policies were reviewed, and grants that allow college students to conduct research about potential harms to the environment have been frozen as well. Trump ordered the EPA to delete all climate change information off its website and further that any studies conducted by the EPA must undergo review by someone in his administration prior to the public release of data.

“I understand the reason why Trump wants to get rid of the EPA, because he wants to make room for oil companies and the non-renewable energy groups,” said Nicholas Negron, a Saint Rose student.

Negron believes that Trump should trust the scientists who conduct the research because it is their area

KATE PIERCE