Maybe you remember reading a version of this headline within the last few weeks: “E.P.A. Chief, Rejecting Agency’s Science, Chooses Not to Ban Insecticide.”  Trump’s appointment of E.P.A. chief, Scott Pruitt—a climate change denier who previously sued the E.P.A.—was just the kind of appointment environmentalists dreaded, an inmate running the asylum. Yet, I still found it inconceivable that even Pruitt could simply ignore the facts provided by the E.P.A. on what should seem like a straightforward non-partisan issue, especially given the ample evidence of what happens when environmental regulation fails—notably the Flint water crisis. Of course, it’s not just Pruitt, but the entire Trump administration that chooses to ignore the evidence in favor of their "alternative facts.”...