The President Is Removing
Litter Protections from National Parks
By
By most measures Trump’s had an ineffective presidency.
If you oppose his agenda, as I do, this is no doubt a good
thing. Like countless others, I rely on Obamacare for my health insurance. I
sleep soundly at night only because Trump and congressional Republicans failed
in their attempts to take my insurance away.
But, while Trump spews verbal diarrhea at press conferences,
refuses to denounce Nazis, fires and replaces half of his top appointees, and
attempts to convince us he didn’t collude with the Russians, there’s one area
in which he’s getting a few things done.
While Trump cannot single-handedly pass new laws, he can alter
the policies within the executive branch of the government. And that’s what
he’s been doing.
Even as we’ve been distracted by Russia investigations and
Nazis, Trump managed to find the time in between his busy golfing and cable TV
watching schedule to trash a few Obama-era environmental programs.
To take one petty example, he eliminated a ban on bottled water in national parks.
First, Trump’s guiding policy goal appears to be demolishing everything that Obama did.
Did Obama do it? OK, undo it. Was Obama for it?
Trump’s against it. Down to the minute details, like a local D.C. bike
share station Trump had removed from outside the White House.
(Apparently White House commuters used it during the Obama administration.)
Second, those who work with Trump say he wants to “win.” Of course, everybody
likes to win. But most politicians have deep convictions that the policies they
advocate will benefit the nation in some way, and they want to win in order to
better the country.
Sometimes it seems like Trump just wants to win because he wants
to win. And, in part, he wants to do it by undoing Obama’s legacy.
True, his poll ratings are extremely low. Perhaps that’s why he
continues to have rallies — not because he needs voters to turn out to any
upcoming election, but because he enjoys having his ego stoked by thousands of
screaming acolytes.
It’s why he fixates on cable news, and sends off nasty tweets
about anyone who says anything negative about him. And it’s why his staff has to give him a folder of positive news about
himself twice a day — to keep him from typing uncensored tweets
that harm his image and his agenda.
Trump’s presidency may eventually self-destruct if he continues
going in the same direction. But in the meantime, how much harm will he do?
Being against everything Obama was for, and undoing everything
Obama did, will result in making some poor decisions.
Banning bottled water from national parks was never going to get
rid of all plastic waste. It wasn’t even going to get rid of all of the plastic
waste in the parks themselves. But it would’ve at least removed the most
unnecessary waste.
Many of our parks are in remote areas, and handling their
garbage requires some finesse to avoid harming wildlife. So reducing waste in
the parks can help preserve these precious places Americans love. Bringing or
buying a reusable bottle is a small sacrifice to help protect a place you care
about for the next generation.
With his hands tied in other areas by a dysfunctional Congress,
low approval ratings, high staff turnover, and ongoing scandals, Trump is
turning his drive to win for the sake of winning into the small petty victories
he can achieve — and in this case, our national parks paid the price.
OtherWords columnist Jill
Richardson is the author of Recipe for America: Why Our Food System Is
Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It. Distributed by OtherWords.org.
