CLIMATE CHANGE/NOMINATIONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/USDA: “President Trump on Wednesday [7-19-17] nominated Sam Clovis, a former college professor and talk radio host who has challenged the scientific consensus that human activity has been the primary driver of climate change, to serve in the Agriculture Department’s top scientific post.
‘Dr. Clovis was one of the first people through the door at USDA in January and has become a trusted advisor and steady hand as we continue to work for the people of agriculture,’ Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a statement Wednesday evening. ‘He looks at every problem with a critical eye, relying on sound science and data, and will be the facilitator and integrator we need. Dr. Clovis has served this nation proudly since he was a very young man, and I am happy he is continuing to serve.’
Clovis, whose expected nomination has been previously reported by The Washington Post and several other outlets, is a former economics professor at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, who served as one of Trump’s first campaign policy advisers. In a 2014 interview with Iowa Public Radio, he said he was ‘extremely skeptical’ about climate change and added that ‘a lot of the science is junk science.’…
This position represents a departure from the scientific consensus. In its most recent report, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that it is ‘extremely likely’ that, since the 1950s, humans and their greenhouse gas emissions have been the ‘dominant cause’ of the planet’s warming trend.”
-Juliet Eilperin and Chris Mooney, “Trump just nominated a climate change skeptic to USDA’s top science post,” The Washington Post online, July 19, 2017 08:56pm