Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Public Climate Information Threatened Under Trump

The EPA's new climate change website. (Credit: EPA) Click to Enlarge.
Google “climate change” and the top two hits are websites that are part of NASA’s online climate portal, followed by a Wikipedia entry and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s climate website.

Websites maintained by the federal government are among the first online stops for the general public — from students, local policymakers, and everyone else — to learn about climate change.  There is rising concern among scientists and climate communications experts that those websites may be among the first to be deleted, politicized or degraded with inaccurate climate information after President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, all of which would impact the public’s understanding of the science and urgency of climate change.

Trump is populating his cabinet with appointees who reject established climate science and have pledged to overturn nearly all of the government’s climate regulations and pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate pact.

EPA administrator nominee Scott Pruitt has falsely said that scientists disagree about the human connection to global warming, and debate about it should be encouraged.  Pruitt, currently Oklahoma’s attorney general, says on his official website that he is “a leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda.”

Read more at Public Climate Information Threatened Under Trump

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