Environmentalists, journalists and lawmakers are among those criticizing the Trump administration for releasing a dire federal climate change report the day after Thanksgiving, when fewer Americans are…
Environmentalists, journalists and lawmakers are among those criticizing the Trump administration for releasing a dire federal climate change report the day after Thanksgiving, when fewer Americans are likely to read the news.
The bombshell report, which warns of large-scale climate disasters if the U. S. continues down the track it’s headed, was released without much rollout midday Friday.
Known as Black Friday, it’s a day in which people are likely more concerned with shopping than national affairs. Late Friday in general is famous in Washington for being a “news dump,” in which an administration quietly releases less-than-optimal news.
“Obviously, they timed the release to get the minimum visibility,” Philip Duffy, an environmental scientist and president of the Woods Hole Research Center, told The Hill over the phone.
He added that they likely calculated to “let [the report] fly under the radar as much as possible, take the heat and move on.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), one of the Senate’s most vocal critics of the president, in a tweet accused the administration of seeking to “bury a new report about the devastating consequences of climate change.”
“Why?” Sanders said in the tweet. “Because Trump’s actions are actively making it worse.”
The report, the first of its kind released by the Trump administration, is the result of coordination by more than 300 federal and non-federal scientists. Its final product was reviewed by 13 federal agencies.
It is unequivocal in its warning that climate change will brutally harm the material lives of human beings, particularly those who are poor and marginalized, if political leaders don’t mobilize resources, energy and legislation towards resolving some of the rapidly intensifying issues.
