Donald Trump has yet to take office and already environmentalists are using their fear of his administration to raise money in a fight against his policies. They’re predicting environmental disasters and calling him a fascist.
Most of the name-calling is coming from the Sierra Club such as the email notice for a weekend rally held in Oklahoma City.
“Join with others to show your rejection of fascism and of the politics of exclusion and dehumanization and support for more mutual understanding, solidarity and trust and protection of the planet,” stated the email notice from Johnson Bridgewater, director of the Oklahoma Chapter of the Sierra Club.
Michael Brune, the national executive director of the Sierra Club filled his fundraising message with fear.
“It’s been 2 days since Trump won. I’ve barely slept. End of Paris climate deal. End of the EPA. End of federal clean energy. More drilling. More coal. More pipelines. More lives destroyed. More wildlife bulldozed It’s all on the line,” he stated. “More than ever before, we must stand together. We are already mobilizing and launching an emergency grassroots campaign to stop Trump from derailing everything we’ve worked for.”
In another, he said, “Four days later, Trump’s presidential victory feels like a nightmare that surely we can awake from. But it’s real.”
Brune said his heart sank when he heard Trump’s rumored cabinet wish list. “Sarah “Drill, baby Drill” Palin as Secretary of the Interior, anti-EPA Texas Ag Commissioner Sid Miller as Secretary of Agriculture, fracking billionaire Harold Hamm as Energy Secretary.”
The message from Michael Bosse, Deputy National Programs Director of the Sierra Club was equally filled with terror.
“I know you’re scared. I know this can be paralyzing. But this is a moment when we have to fight back like we never have before. The outpouring from people across the country who are standing up, ready to fight back, is like we have never seen,” he said in a recent message. “Trump has released his agenda for the first 100 days. If fully implemented, it is a disaster for our country, our planet and everything we have worked for.”
Brune called Trump’s agenda for his first 100 days “as terrifying as his potential cabinet picks.” He wrote of his concern that the Keystone XL pipeline might be put into motion, payments will be canceled to the UN climate change programs and restrictions will be lifted on dirty coal and oil production.
“But one pretty major obstacle stands between Trump and a drilled, deforested, decimated America: the Sierra Club’s community of environmental champions.”
The Pulitzer Prize winning website, “inside climate news” called the election a “shocking moment in history” saying “The U.S. Has Put a Climate Denier in its Highest Office and Climate Action in Limbo.” The site said Trump’s victory “has stunned the Climate world.”
Inside climate news promised that its mission remains the same: “To tell the truth about the climate crisis and connect the dots to those responsible.”