TRUMP WATCH: So Long, Science

#Calling it "very unfair," President Trump withdraws the United States from the Paris climate accords. Among those urging him to stay in the agreement are BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell.

#Trump's appointee to the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is a prominent critic of renewable energy. His nominee for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's top scientist position is not a scientist.

#Trump signs a executive order seeking to expand oil drilling along the U.S. continental shelf. It would overturn President Barack Obama's ban on drilling in Arctic waters and on the Atlantic coast. The Sierra Club sues to block the order.

#The Trump administration's proposed budget for 2018 cuts funding for the EPA by nearly a third overall and for its enforcement arm by 40 percent; shuts down programs to clean up the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay, and Puget Sound; and ends the Energy Star program, which informs consumers about the energy efficiency of appliances. It slashes research and science programs across the government, particularly those related to climate science. The budget also presumes the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling.

EPA administer Scott Pruitt claims that 50,000 coal jobs have been created under the Trump administration. The actual figure is 1,000 jobs.

#Trump proposes that his border wall be 50 feet high and outfitted with solar panels.  Source: Paul Rauber, Sierra, September/October 2017).

#Sierra Club Climate-Related Impacts
#In March, wind and solar account for 10 percent of U.S. electricity generation for the first time.

#2016 had the second-biggest jump in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels on record -- to nearly double the pace since 1979.

#Asked about climate change, Representative Tim Walberg (R- Mich.) replies: "If there's a real problem, He (God) can take care of it."

#Because of a decline in sea ice, polar bears's diets are shifting from seals to bird eggs.

#Tropical diseases normally associated with warm waters -- like infections of Vilrio vuinficus -- are turning up not far from the Arctic Circle.

#On June 7, 2017, renewables supply more than 50 percent of the U.K.'s electrical-power needs.

#The rate of sea level rise is nearly three times what it was prior to 1990.

#In retaliation for new U.S. duties on Canadian wood imports, Canada threatens to bar shipments of U.S. coal from British Columbia ports. (Source: Same as above).

ADDENDUMS:
*The Congressional Budget Office says that $7 billion withheld in subsidies by President Trump would expand the national debt by $194 billion in a decade; also, it could raise premiums by 20-25 percent in two years.

*According to  Census Bureau data, 28.1 million Americans were uninsured in the January to March, 2017 period.

*A Monmouth poll found that 46 percent of hardcore Trump supporters are 55 or older.