CLIMATE CHANGE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Earth is experiencing the warmest period in the history of civilization and humans are the dominant cause of the temperature rise that has occurred since the start of the 20th century, according to an exhaustive scientific report unveiled Friday by 13 federal agencies. The report was approved by the White House, but it directly contradicts much of the Trump administration’s position on climate change…
The findings come as the Trump administration is defending its climate change policies on several fronts. The United Nations convenes its annual climate change conference next week in Bonn, Germany, and the Trump delegation is expected to face harsh criticism over President Trump’s decision to walk away from the 195-nation Paris accord on climate and top American officials’ stated doubts about the causes and impacts of a warming planet…
The climate science report is part of a congressionally mandated review conducted every four years known as the National Climate Assessment. The product of hundreds of experts and scientists within the government and academia and peer reviewed by the National Academy of Sciences, it is considered the United States’ most definitive statement on climate change science.
But the Environmental Protection Agency has wiped references to climate change from its website and barred its scientists from presenting scientific reports on the subject, and its administrator, Scott Pruitt, does not believe carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to warming. Rick Perry, the energy secretary, asserted Wednesday that “the science is out” on whether humans cause climate change.”
-Lisa Friedman, “U.S. Report Says Humans Cause Climate Change, Contradicting Top Trump Officials,” The New York Times online, Nov. 3, 2017