My wife and I decided not to talk incessently about the results of the election, but to calmly wait and see what the new President actually does.

Our resolve didn’t last long. Of all the many issues one could worry about, global climate change has to be by far the most important .  Other changes or mis-steps can eventually be corrected, but turning back the international consensus on climate change cannot be corrected, if Trump is as good as his word.  His official transition official chosen to deal with the Environmental Protection Agency is  Myron Ebell,  a fierce climate change denier,  dependent on the oil companies for his income and prepared to wreck the planet and the futures of our children and grandchildren is pursuit of private gain.

Of all the egregious anti-intellectual posturing in the election campaign the gainsaying of almost every respectable scientist in the world, all of whom are daily warning us about the effects of climate change, is the most troublesome.  Almost  every week the New Scientist is reporting mass extinctions of wildlife or the disappearance of glaciers.  Reading this material makes me despair of the stupidity of mankind.  For two hundred years we have been pouring carbon into the thin sliver of breathable atmosphere surrounding the Earth, while destroying the forests that at least absorb some of the carbon, and doing nothing to restrain population increase that requires the extra food production. Where do these deniers think the burnt carbon goes, and what basis  do they have for calling climate science a fraud?

Over one hundred years of public education has still left us with a gullible and anti- intellectual section of the public, ready to believe every deliberately bogus “news” item on social media.  Could we have the money back that was spent on their schooling and at least repair the potholes in the streets? (joke).