Trump administration to create panel to deny climate change facts almost all scientists agree on – The Independent
The Trump administration is reportedly ready to set up a panel to reconsider and possibly change the US government’s position on climate change.
A committee working under the National Security Council (NSC) would include sceptics who have questioned the scientific consensus on manmade global warming, administration officials have revealed.
The White House plan has been championed by William Happer, one of the NSC’s senior directors and a physicist who has disputed the damaging impact CO2 emissions are having on the earth’s atmosphere.
Having the panel operate under the NSC would avoid the public scrutiny usually required of government advisory committees, senior officials told The Washington Post.
The White House is thought to be keen to formally challenge recent federal reports, including the National Climate Assessment – an interagency study released in November that outlined the threats posed to the US by global warming.
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1/19 Donald Trump’s Cabinet
Donald Trump’s Cabinet is one the richest in American history, filled with billionaires, conservatives and several career politicians.
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2/19 Wilbur Ross
Secretary of Commerce Wibur Ross raised controversy when he was accused of falsely claiming to have sold stock in a bank and violated a government ethics agreement.
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3/19 Robert Lighthizer
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has been a fixture in Donald Trump’s ongoing trade spat with China.
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US Vice President Mike Pence has defended Donald Trump throughout his presidency while walking a fine line to avoid any public involvement in major scandals.
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5/19 William Barr
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7/19 Rick Perry
Energy Secretary Rick Perry has held his post throughout Donald Trump’s presidency despite previously undermining the need for the agency he now leads in past public statements.
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Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has also held her post throughout the presidency, despite major backlash to her apparent undermining of the nationwide public school system and advocacy for charter programmes.
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9/19 Alex Acosta
Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta still remains in his post despite calls to resign over his involvement in a controversial case surrounding Jeffrey Epstein.
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10/19 Steven Mnuchin
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has faced numerous controversies throughout his tenure as the head of Treasury, including costing taxpayers at least a million dollars in travel expenses.
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11/19 Robert Wilkie
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12/19 Elaine Chao
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13/19 Kirstjen Nielsen
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14/19 Ben Carson
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15/19 Gina Haspel
CIA Director Gina Haspel was appointed in 2018 and faced backlash surrounding her oversight of Guantanamo Bay.
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16/19 Dan Coats
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17/19 Sonny Perdue
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has been dogged by ethics questions throughout his tenure and faced controversy when emails showed the agency appeared willing to eagerly work with lobbyists under his leadership.
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18/19 Alex Azar
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is a former pharmaceutical lobbyist and former drug company executive.
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19/19 Mick Mulvaney
Acting Chief of Staff and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney has described himself as one of the most conservative officials in the White House.
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1/19 Donald Trump’s Cabinet
Donald Trump’s Cabinet is one the richest in American history, filled with billionaires, conservatives and several career politicians.
AFP/Getty
2/19 Wilbur Ross
Secretary of Commerce Wibur Ross raised controversy when he was accused of falsely claiming to have sold stock in a bank and violated a government ethics agreement.
AFP/Getty
3/19 Robert Lighthizer
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has been a fixture in Donald Trump’s ongoing trade spat with China.
AFP/Getty
4/19 Mike Pence
US Vice President Mike Pence has defended Donald Trump throughout his presidency while walking a fine line to avoid any public involvement in major scandals.
AFP/Getty
5/19 William Barr
Attorney General William Barr replaced Jeff Sessions as the nation’s top cop in early 2019 and has refused to commit to recusing himself from the Russia probe despite an unsolicited memo he sent to the Justice Department decrying the investigation.
EPA
6/19 Mike Pompeo
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo replaced Donald Trump’s previous appointment to the post, Rex Tillerson, and has led talks with North Korea in establishing high-profile summits between the president and Kim Jong Un.
Getty
7/19 Rick Perry
Energy Secretary Rick Perry has held his post throughout Donald Trump’s presidency despite previously undermining the need for the agency he now leads in past public statements.
Getty
8/19 Betsy DeVos
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has also held her post throughout the presidency, despite major backlash to her apparent undermining of the nationwide public school system and advocacy for charter programmes.
Getty
9/19 Alex Acosta
Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta still remains in his post despite calls to resign over his involvement in a controversial case surrounding Jeffrey Epstein.
Getty
10/19 Steven Mnuchin
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has faced numerous controversies throughout his tenure as the head of Treasury, including costing taxpayers at least a million dollars in travel expenses.
AP
11/19 Robert Wilkie
Veterans Affairs secretary Robert Wilkie was appointed after Donald Trump’s White House doctor Ronny Jackson withdrew over allegations he provided prescription drugs to patients without prescriptions.
AFP/Getty
12/19 Elaine Chao
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has held her post throughout the presidency and has mostly avoided controversy, despite a report claiming her office has been in frequent coordination with her husband’s, Mitch McConnell.
AFP/Getty
13/19 Kirstjen Nielsen
Secretary of Homeland Kirstjen Nielsen has stirred major backlash throughout her tenure for allegedly lying about details of the zero tolerance policy that caused the systematic separation of migrant families at the US-Mexico border.
Reuters
14/19 Ben Carson
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson was appointed shortly after Donald Trump took office and raised controversy over an exorbitant furnishing bill for his office.
Reuters
15/19 Gina Haspel
CIA Director Gina Haspel was appointed in 2018 and faced backlash surrounding her oversight of Guantanamo Bay.
Getty
16/19 Dan Coats
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats could be the next person to leave Donald Trump’s administration over his refuting the president’s claims surrounding ISIS.
Reuters
17/19 Sonny Perdue
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has been dogged by ethics questions throughout his tenure and faced controversy when emails showed the agency appeared willing to eagerly work with lobbyists under his leadership.
Reuters
18/19 Alex Azar
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is a former pharmaceutical lobbyist and former drug company executive.
Getty
19/19 Mick Mulvaney
Acting Chief of Staff and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney has described himself as one of the most conservative officials in the White House.
EPA
The report linked climate change to an increase in natural disasters and warned of the dire effects in failing to contain a rise in global temperatures to 2C. Only days after its release, Donald Trump told reporters: “I don’t believe it.”
Climate scientists strongly condemned the latest Trump administration plan, reportedly discussed at the White House Situation Room on Friday.
“This is like assembling a panel of ‘gravity sceptics’ who insist it’s safe to jump off tall buildings, except in this case they want to take us all with them,” NASA climate scientist Kate Marvel told Axios.
Trump’s pick for UN’s ambassador believes ‘both sides of the science’ about climate change
“This is a truly bad idea that just refuses to die. All bureaucracies have them – they are just more dangerous when they originate and live in the White House,” the US Navy’s retired oceanographer David Titley told the website.
Donald Trump has characterised the National Climate Assessment as a study prepared by Obama administration officials, but scientists have insisted the federal study was subjected to a series of in-depth peer reviews.
There is also huge concern about the influence of Mr Happer, the senior NSC official set for a major role in the proposed committee, who has called the scientific consensus on climate change “a cult”.
In 2010, he told a climate committee in the House of Representatives that global warming “will be small compared the natural fluctuations in the earth’s temperature, and that the warming and increased CO2 will be good for mankind.”
Mr Happer previously ran a think tank of sceptics called CO2 Coalition, a group which has received funding from the right-wing Mercer Family Foundation, according to the Climate Investigations Centre.
The president has his own history of denying the science on anthropogenic climate change. Mr Trump once claimed the phenomenon was a Chinese hoax intended to hurt American exports and has repeatedly confused seasonal weather with global warming.
Last week he selected diplomat Kelly Craft to serve as the country’s next ambassador to the United Nations. Ms Craft has said she respects “both sides” of climate change science, framing the consensus as a debate in which deniers have equal credibility.
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