Monday, December 12, 2016

Going Dark - Trump's Cadre of Climate Science Skeptics


If we know one thing about Donald Trump it's that what he says rarely bears much connection with reality. Trump's words, his promises, are like stale bread crumbs tossed to pond carp. The creatures go into a momentary frenzy, swallow whatever is tossed their way, and then languish in their disappointment.

Trump is that sort of character that you can judge only by his actions, not his words. During the campaign he said climate change was a hoax. After the election he stepped back saying he was willing to reconsider and would keep an open mind.

Best to look behind the weasel words and see what the Orange Bloat is really up to.

The heads of Donald Trump’s transition teams for Nasa, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior and the Department of Energy, as well as his nominees to lead the EPA and the Department of the Interior, all question the science of human-caused climate change, in a signal of the president-elect’s determination to embark upon an aggressively pro-fossil fuels agenda.

Trump has assembled a transition team in which at least nine senior members deny basic scientific understanding that the planet is warming due to the burning of carbon and other human activity. These include the transition heads of all the key agencies responsible for either monitoring or dealing with climate change. None of these transition heads have any background in climate science.

Trump has also nominated Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt to lead the EPA and is expected to pick congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers to head the interior department. Pruitt has claimed that scientists “continue to disagree” about the causes and extent of global warming while McMorris Rodgers has said that former vice-president Al Gore, who has championed climate action, “deserves an ‘F’ in science.”


By the way, did you notice that Trump is back to the full orange hue. Toward the end of the campaign his handlers nixed the faux tan, eliminated the raccoon eyes, made him seem almost human. Seems that didn't last. Neither did his endlessly repeated promise to prosecute and imprison Hillary Clinton. (Gullibilly Alert - this may cause nausea and dizziness)




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