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.
