It’s 3:15 in the morning. There’s a tamper proof smoke alarm in my apartment’s hallway begging for batteries like a high-pitched baby bird every 51 seconds, it’s a three day weekend so that’ll be a thing, and today Scott Pruitt, noted shitgoblin, was confirmed as the head of the EPA. The EPA is a governmental agency that Pruitt has repeatedly sued to favor corporations that benefit financially from loosening regulatory policies that protect the health of US citizens. As a scientist who studies the environmental impacts of wastewater effluent (poop and pee and everything we flush, y’all) and agricultural runoff upon key invertebrate communities, and who currently has, I dunno? Hundreds? of peer reviewed papers squirreled in my apartment and at my lab and in my computer about the consequences of poorly tested, under monitored, barely regulated environmental contaminants or worse yet, thoroughly tested but who-gives-a-fuck, dilution-is-the-solution regulated compounds upon ecosystems, human communities (especially poor communities of color; water and air quality is seriously a social justice issue; don’t freak out about GMOs and incredibly trace pesticides and gluten in the food of rich people; start caring about mercury and particulate matter and the geography of superfund sites) and upon, yeah, our entire planet. My unhealthy solutions today have been watching TAZ animatics, drinking gin, and skipping a seminar speaker so I could hang out at home. My healthy solutions tomorrow will be lifting weights, editing my fucking paper on the impact of pharmaceutical and agricultural contaminants on insects, texting Emily and Eryn, checking my work email, cuddling with my love, writing a bunch of postcards to my representatives. Also, I think I might go to DC for the March for Science.
