In 1946, at age 3, my oldest and best friend, Harvey Mogul, moved into the modestly decorated Dutch Colonial house across the street from me. I was only six years old. His residence, so close to mine, was somewhat of an embarrassment for me because at age three Harvey could easily read my second grade reader while I dyslexically stumbled over words like “was” and “saw.” When Harvey himself entered second grade, his classmates were so hopelessly beneath his mental age that it produced a freakish social gulf between them. Harvey’s mother found it necessary to bribe friends his own age with party cookies and ice cream to tolerate him in their playtime activities. As we grew older, I became one of Harvey’s only trusted friends in spite of the wide intellectual gulf between us. At age 16, Harvey won a full scholarship to Harvard University and still another at age 19, to Harvard University Law School. He graduated magna cum laude two and a half years later, third in his class, with a Juris Doctor degree. Harvey went on to a brilliant legal career for many decades. Yet, oddly enough, shortly following Harvey’s final graduation, he confessed a sense of personal unfulfillment because he did not graduate first in his class nor did he graduate summa cum laude instead of simply magna cum laude. While Harvey was too poorly coordinated to participate in sports, he was a widely and deeply knowledgeable sports fan. Harvey recently confided in me a cherished lifelong fantasy. Harvey would trade all his degrees and professional position to be the uncontested best as a nationally syndicated and celebrated sports commentator. So how is Harvey’s unlikely fantasy related to the current EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin?
Zeldin, EPA’s 17th administrator, recently decided to rescind the EPA’s “endangerment finding,” a fundamental EPA policy, underpinning much of the regulations governing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions since 2009. Zeldin, like my friend Harvey, is also inspired by a fantasy. Zeldin is courageously risking his entire political career and argues that this long overdue reversal releases hell-bent for leather American businesses from onerous widespread bureaucratic, economically-debilitating red tape and will economically “Make America Great Again.” Zeldin’s willingness to risk so much engendered thoughts of Harvey Mogul, my long-time scholarly friend. Harvey expressed a willingness to sacrifice his entire, only ever so slightly less than perfect legal career, to be the very best celebrated and syndicated national sports commentator. It seems that Zeldin actuated what Mogul only dreamed about. Bravo for Zeldin’s courage to realize a life-long personal dream! “Make America Great Again!”
Yet, paradoxically, Zeldin managed to fly squarely into the face of a no-brainer global warming policy developed over many decades by the best scientific global warming researchers and managers in the world. On March 20, 2023 the almost 800 UN supported IPCC {Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) scientists, the world’s most authoritative source of research for global climate change, issued its Sixth Assessment Report on climate change. One hundred and ninety-five member states rely on information and guidance from the IPCC. It warned of devastating consequences of consistently rising greenhouse gas emissions globally, the widespread global destruction of homes, fragmentation of communities, loss of crops and irreversible risks if we do not change the course of rising greenhouse gases (GHGs).
Ultimately, Mogul understood that for all practical purposes his dream of sports commentator should remain just that, a dream. Mogul also understood that his squeaky voice and unproven sports writing skills presented far too great a risk to his lifelong happiness.
Zeldin’s “fetish of seeking perfection” has no such sense of self or prudence. The president who appointed Zeldin to a position for which Zeldin is clearly not qualified, neither by education nor experience, probably could not differentiate between a GHG and a bursting birthday balloon.
Incidentally, when did America actually stop being “Great Again”? Let us pray!
Art Siegel resides and works on his tree farm in Walton. Sustainable and productive stewardship are his primary goals. He earned a bachelor of science in biology and a master of science in education at Wagner College and a master of science in school administration at the City University of New York. Art is a retired English teacher and dean of students, certified tree farmer with the National Tree Farm System, Master Forest Owner and filmmaker (EmArt Productions Ltd). He is producer of the films, “Parcelizing the Catskills and the Boiled Frog Syndrome”, “Once Upon a Time on Staten Island”, “Staten Island, Then and Now”, “No Requiem for Mt. Manresa” and “Escape from the Holocaust.” Art produced two more documentary film titles about pilots of the Eighth and Ninth United States Army Air Force (USAAF) in the European Theatre of War during World War II.
