Climate Change

Trump Appoints Climate Change Denier to Top Climate Agency

Written by SK Ashby

The southern coast of Louisiana is still in shambles from the last hurricane that made landfall in the United States and another hurricane is now headed in the same direction. There's also half a dozen areas of tropical development currently under observation in the Atlantic.

Meanwhile, a significant portion of the west coast is on fire and air quality readings in major metropolitan areas are among the worst in the world; bad enough to necessitate closing businesses and schools.

But you may have noticed that the Trump regime is paying little to no attention to these ongoing disasters so it follows that Trump has now appointed a climate change denier to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) office for climate prediction.

David Legates, a University of Delaware professor of climatology who has spent much of his career questioning basic tenets of climate science, has been hired for a top position at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Legates confirmed to NPR that he was recently hired as NOAA's deputy assistant secretary of commerce for observation and prediction. The position suggests that he reports directly to Neil Jacobs, the acting head of the agency that is in charge of the federal government's sprawling weather and climate prediction work. [...]

In 2007, Legates was one of the authors of a paper that questioned previous findings about the role of climate change in destroying the habitat of polar bears. That research was partially funded by grants from Koch Industries, the American Petroleum Institute lobbying group and ExxonMobil, according to InsideClimate News.

If Trump is reelected, I have no doubt this is the caliber of person we'll see appointed to top positions across the entire federal government.

To some degree, that is already the case. From the Department of Housing and Urban Development, where Ben Carson is somehow still in charge, to the Department of Homeland Security which is led by a literal "Chad," Trump has already appointed more than three stooges to top posts. But things can always get worse or at least more harmful to the public and the world.

We can't afford to waist yet another presidential term in office doing nothing about climate change. We're running out of terms to piss away if we haven't already.

I don't enjoy being alarmist and avoid it whenever possible, but I think we probably already have.