Federal Climate Research, Targeted for Elimination by Trump, Lauded by Scientists

National Academies of Sciences endorses the program

overseeing federal research, calls for even more emphasis on bringing carbon emissions to zero.

The federal program overseeing climate change research has won an important endorsement from the authoritative National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine just as it faces the threat of budget cuts under the Donald Trump administration.

An expert National Academies review panel issued a ringing endorsement of the work of the United States Global Change Research Program, calling the interagency program's recent draft overview of the science "impressive, timely and generally well-written."  That draft was  issued in the closing days of the Obama Administration, and was intended both as an up-to-date benchmark for the scientific consensus and to help set future research priorities.

The reviewers said they were "impressed with the breadth, accuracy and rigor of the draft."

If anything, the National Academies panel urged the USGCRP to emphasize the urgency of bringing carbon dioxide emissions rapidly to zero.

Instead, the Trump administration is signaling that it would rather bring climate research itself to zero, at least at the Environmental Protection Agency, a key participant in the USGCRP.

Read more at Federal Climate Research, Targeted for Elimination by Trump, Lauded by Scientists