COLUMBUS, Ohio – Moms from Ohio are among those asking elected leaders to think hard about making Andrew Wheeler the nation's top environmental steward.

In the seven months since becoming acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Wheeler has moved to unravel regulations, including clean water rules and methane emissions from oil and gas drilling.

As a nurse and a mom, Peggy Berry of Dayton contends Wheeler's past as a lobbyist for the coal industry is particularly concerning, considering the EPA is now also looking to roll back limits on mercury emissions from coal plants.

"For him to look at what they can do to decrease or remove that health benefit from the standard just makes me really concerned about him being administrator,” Berry states. “I'm afraid we've gone from oil and gas to coal."

Even small amounts of mercury can harm the brain, heart, kidneys, lungs and immune system.

During a Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Wheeler said protecting human health and the environment were his most important responsibility.

Some Senate Democrats criticized Wheeler's actions to undo Obama-era rules intended to improve the environment and protect public health.

The Mercury and Air Toxics Standard was passed in 2011, and the EPA now maintains it's too expensive and cannot be justified as "appropriate and necessary."

Dominique Browning, co-founder of Moms Clean Air Force, counters that the standard has reduced mercury emissions considerably as well as other toxins spewed by coal plants – most of which she notes already are in compliance.

"The coal industry put these scrubbers on their plants and they realized that, in fact, it didn't cost anywhere near as much as they thought it was going to cost to put on these protections," Browning points out.

Wheeler became acting EPA administrator after Scott Pruitt resigned amid an ethics controversy.

Browning says she wishes there were less public focus on Trump administration scandals, and more attention given to attacks on the environment and public health.

"We're slammed with these rollbacks week after week after week and people are becoming a bit numb,” she states. “So we have to realize that we have a choice here to stop this barrage, this onslaught."


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Nine in 10 people in Virginia and across the globe are worried about climate change and want governments to do something about it, according to a new survey but they mistakenly assume others do not share their view.

Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, called it a perception gap.

"The average person believes that other people in their own country tend not to worry about climate change that much," Leiserowitz reported. "When, in fact, the majority of people in most countries do worry about climate change."

The gap in perception has real-world policy implications. In the U.S., almost 80% of congressional staffers underestimated their constituents' support for reducing climate pollution, sometimes by more than 50 percentage points.

Leiserowitz stressed helping more people understand they are not in the minority could unlock a social tipping point, moving leaders to act.

He pointed to one example where 96% of liberal Democrats and 78% of conservative Republicans supported helping farmers protect and restore soil to absorb more carbon dioxide. He acknowledged progress is stymied by misperceptions.

"If your perception is that Republicans are absolutely against climate policy, then many people might then conclude -- especially if you're a policymaker -- that we shouldn't be taking action," Leiserowitz outlined. "When, in fact, there's overwhelming support, even among conservative Republicans."

Decades of misinformation campaigns, aiming to protect fossil-fuel company profits, play a big role in perception gaps. Leiserowitz added gaps also persist because any two individuals, not knowing what the other thinks, are likely to avoid topics they believe are controversial, including climate change.

"That leads neither of us to talk about it," Leiserowitz observed. "Well, now expand that to 300 million people, and you can see that we start slipping down this 'spiral of silence.' Nobody talks about it, so nobody talks about it. Which means nobody talks about it."


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New Mexico's decades-long drought combined with climate change have more farmers and ranchers embracing the six healthy soil principles, tailoring how each parcel of land is managed.

New Mexico's farming practices date back at least 2,500 years but the state's Healthy Soil Working Group said the arid climate and diverse ecology make a one-size-fits-all approach ineffective.

Dave Dubois, climatologist at New Mexico State University, said the recent storm should improve this year's snowpack but farmers and ranchers must plan five or 10 years into the future.

"The scenarios from climate change models are showing warmer temperatures, hotter droughts and then more evaporation," Dubois explained. "How do you manage all that in a system where we still have agriculture as our cultural identity?"

Agriculture is the state's third-largest industry after energy and aerospace. The majority of New Mexico's farmland is heavily dedicated to growing grass, which feeds livestock, provides sod and serves as a cover crop to protect soil health between harvests.

Many factors contribute to soil degradation: intensive farming practices, deforestation, overgrazing, urbanization and erosion.

Ernest Diswood, a Navajo conservation leader, said using regenerative techniques, he has been improving his range soil since 2009.

"We're seeing, despite the drought now, about 21 species of grasses and we're probably between 700 to 1,000 pounds an acre," Diswood outlined. "For the Navajo Indian Reservation, that's usually a pretty good number."

Keeping soil covered is one of the six healthy soil principles.

Ralph Vigil, owner of Molino de la Isla Organics and an eighth-generation acequia farmer, changed his practices nearly 20 years ago. A lack of moisture led him to reduce the East Pecos land where he grows organic vegetables from five acres, to a half-acre. To improve the soil, he now uses drip irrigation and other conservation techniques.

"The acequia sees less water; I've done more cover-cropping to try to help build my soil, keeping my cover present at all seasons because (of) no snowpack, lack of rain and wind," Vigil emphasized. "Wind is beating us up and it doesn't go away. So, just trying to keep that soil covered at all times."

Significant cuts made by the Trump administration to the Natural Resources Conservation Service are expected to reduce climate-friendly programs nationwide.


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Nine in ten people in Colorado and across the globe are worried about climate change and want governments to do something about it, according to a survey of 130,000 people in 125 countries, but they mistakenly assume that others do not share their view.

Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, called this a perception gap.

"The average person believes that other people in their own country tend not to worry about climate change that much when, in fact, the majority of people in most countries do worry about climate change," he said.

That gap in perception has real-world policy implications. In the U.S., almost 80% of congressional staffers underestimated their constituents' support for reducing climate pollution, sometimes by more than 50 percentage points. Leiserowitz said helping more people understand that they are not in the minority could unlock a social tipping point that moves leaders to act.

He pointed to one example where 96% of liberal Democrats and 78% of conservative Republicans supported helping farmers protect and restore soil to absorb more carbon dioxide. But he said progress is stymied by misperceptions.

"If your perception is that Republicans are absolutely against climate policy, then many people might then conclude - especially if you're a policy maker - that we shouldn't be taking action when, in fact there's overwhelming support, even among conservative Republicans," he continued.

Decades of misinformation campaigns, aiming to protect fossil-fuel company profits, play a big role in perception gaps. But Leiserowitz said gaps also persist because any two individuals, not knowing what the other thinks, are likely to avoid topics they believe are controversial, including climate change.

"So, that leads neither of us to talk about it. Well, now expand that to 300 million people, and you can see that we start slipping down this 'spiral of silence.' Nobody talks about it, so nobody talks about it. Which means nobody talks about it," he concluded.


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