Politics by its nature leads to disagreement. We should expect the hot topics of education, abortion, and health care to draw sharp debate. The pendulum swings and it usually swings back. 

That’s politics.

We expect that. Ugly as it can be, unproductive as it seems, we realize that no one can be on the winning side all the time. We understand that.

What we cannot understand is the attitude of the present administration toward environmental protection. Each week brings a new rollback of protective measures.

For more than a century of the industrial revolution the effects of carbon emissions and industrial waste were unknown, disregarded, ignored, belittled. Nearly half a century ago the spectacle of smog across the skyline, rivers on fire, and poisoned earth prompted formation of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Richard M. Nixon.

Improvements have been noted and, yes, regulations have increased. They needed to. Much had to be done, and much has been ac...