Many people may welcome a temperate day in February, but warm weather in normally cold months disrupts ecosystems. Trees may bloom after an unseasonably balmy spell — and then suffer frost damage when cold weather returns. Flowers may blossom and shed their petals before bees arrive to pollinate them. These minor destabilizations have a ripple effect, impacting flora, fauna and the industries built around them.
In Oklahoma, the spike in temperature is particularly ironic, given the state’s political climate. Inhofe is Washington’s most vocal climate denier, having published a book alleging that climate change is a hoax while serving as the ranking Republican member of the Senate Environment Committee.
Inhofe will soon have an ally inside the EPA — Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, President Trump’s pick to head the agency. Inhofe has describedPruitt, a longtime fossil fuel insider, as a “leader and a partner on environmental issues for many years.” Pruitt is expected to bring several former Inhofe staffers with him to his new office.
As Oklahoma’s attorney general, Pruitt has sued the EPA many times, including over the Obama administration’s plan to limit heat-trapping carbon pollution from power plants.
Jeremy Deaton writes for Nexus Media, a syndicated newswire covering climate, energy, policy, art and culture. You can follow him at @deaton_jeremy.
Source: Nexus Media. Reproduced with permission.