This article is geared towards anyone who thinks that climate change is a hoax. Those who think it’s not real. Those who don’t have a real concern about how the Trump Administration has gutted the Environmental Protection Agency.

I spent the first eleven years of my life in Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland was a major industrial town in the 60’s, located on the banks of Lake Erie, and the factories were booming.

Iron, Steel, Cars, Tires, Heavy Machinery, and more were coming out of my old hometown and the surrounding area.

I was young, but I have vivid memories of smoke billowing out of the chimneys. Vivid memories of driving by big, dirty buildings.

And vivid memories of crying when I went to visit the grave site of my grandparents.

I wasn’t crying because I missed grandma and grandpa, which I did. I cried because the air in the part of town we had to drive through to get to the grave smelled so bad I could hardly breathe.

Cleveland is the city where the Cuyahoga River famously caught fire in 1969.

But pollution in that era wasn’t just happening in Cleveland; it was happening everywhere.

And while some thought a burning river was a bit of a joke, most of the public did not. So in 1970, Richard Nixon worked across the aisle to create the EPA.

Yes, a Republican created the agency that worked to clean the air, water, and land.

But that was then, and this is now.

Do a Google search for, “Trump EPA” and the headlines jump out at you. Regulations that were put in place to help the environment are being cancelled. All across the country, EPA funds that had already been promised are being blocked.

Here in Nebraska, the EPA stopped payment on a 62.4 million dollar grant for the Center for Rural Affairs. This grant was to reach rural, urban, and tribal communities to provide a renewable energy source at a time when more energy is needed than ever before.

Which brings me to those who want to deny that climate change is real.

You may be able to deny that carbon emissions are causing more extreme weather conditions, but you can’t deny that pollution is real. You can’t deny that throughout history, corporations, when left to their own devices, won’t care about the air we breathe and the water we drink as much as the profits they can make.

Yet this administration is gutting long-time guardrails that worked to keep our air fresh and our water clean.

For the sake of argument, let’s say those people are right and that the floods, droughts, fires, and other climate abnormalities are not caused by man. This is all part of God and nature’s plan. Then, there’s nothing we can do about it.

But there’s no harm in treating it like it’s manmade. It would be a sin if there were things we could do but chose not to.

What’s the harm in working to provide clean, renewable energy sources? What’s the harm in having reasonable regulations to protect wildlife? Where are the dangers in making sure the government provides us with safe drinking water? What’s the harm in making sure the rivers don’t catch fire again?

I have no doubt that in some instances, industries can be overregulated. And if there was thoughtful research done to rid us of unnecessary regulations, I would have no problem with that.

But this administration is burning all government environmental protections to the ground. They are throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Our own governor is ignoring the high nitrate levels in the water and soil surrounding his and other ag facilities. Nebraska has a high rate of pediatric cancer patients, especially in rural communities where these nitrates are prevalent.

The ramifications of what this administration is doing to gut the Environmental Protection Agency won’t be felt tomorrow, but they will be felt very soon, and it’s not going to be pretty.

You can’t spell conservative without conserve. The environment used to be important to conservatives, but now they stay silent. Now they don’t care. Tax cuts won’t do them a bit of good if they can’t breathe. Will the MAGA crowd still relish owning the libs when their grandchildren are dying from cancer? When their oceanfront condos are demolished by hurricanes? or their mountain retreats destroyed by a forest fire?

Gutting the Environmental Protection Agency is not making America great again. It’s making America more like Cleveland in the 1960s.

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.

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