APCC had the pleasure of hosting Dr. John Holdren to provide a science-based, and very sobering, talk on climate change last week. Dr. Holdren’s presentation slides can be found on our website and I encourage you to spend the time they warrant to read and digest them. We are in for a very rough ride under the best of circumstances, and these are decidedly not the best of times.
I am not going to restate the information Dr. Holdren presented, I can’t do his work justice. What I can tell you is, while listening to his insights, I felt a great appreciation that public service benefits from people of science and vision like Dr. Holdren. I can also share with you my feeling of dread stemming from the worry that the Trump Administration not only pays science professionals no heed, they are driving them out of decision-making roles and government altogether. While high profile and topnotch people like Dr. Holdren have been driven away, there remain many capable and dedicated professionals hard at work doing the work of the public. I worry that not only will their recommendations and findings be ignored by this White House, but that it is a matter of time until they are purged altogether in an effort to extinguish any thoughtful dissent from the wrongheaded and self-destructive environmental polices of this administration.
These dark thoughts led me to think again about the increasing importance of independent organizations like APCC, that can sponsor events and spread needed scientific information and say what needs to be said. In the face of increasingly strong head winds against scientifically based decision making, organizations like APCC have a greater role than ever before balancing the scales against the roll back of protections that threaten the public health and the environment. We are currently in the middle of our Summer Appeal. If you value the role that APCC has played in creating a new source of money from the state to help towns lower the local cost of water quality improvements, protecting the public health through our innovative approach to testing ponds for potentially toxic cyanobacteria blooms, or our advocacy for a meaningful response to climate change, then please consider generously supporting APCC [hyperlink to: https://www.apcc.org/support/donations.html]. Our ability to fight back relies on you and your support.
