Thanks To Black Friday, Trump Just Managed To Bury His Own Administration’s Damning Climate Report


Even as Donald Trump laughed off climate change warnings on Thanksgiving by tweeting a comment in which he conflated “climate” with “weather,” scientists at 13 federal agencies concluded that we are heading towards catastrophic change unless significant action is taken, according to the Huffington Post. The fact that the damning report was issued by the Trump administration on Black Friday, a day when shoppers turn out in huge numbers post-Thanksgiving, gives reason to believe that the president wanted as few people to read the report as possible.

Congress mandated in the first decade of the 21st century that administrations give updates on climate change every four years. This is the first time that the report, which is the fourth National Climate Assessment, has been released since Trump took over. But the president, who often mocks climate change advocates, calls it a hoax and made the United States withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, seemingly disapproves of scientific conclusions on climate change and appeared to purposefully release the report on Black Friday.

It seems to have worked as well, with relatively few news outlets reporting on the devastating report, drafted by Trump’s own administration officials. According to the climate report, the United States will warm at least 3 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century unless fossil fuel use is dramatically reduced with chances that the temperature could increase by a staggering “9°F (5°C) or more by the end of this century” if we continue using fossil fuels at the present rate.

The evidence at hand “does not support any credible natural explanations for this amount of warming” but instead “consistently points to human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse or heat-trapping gases, as the dominant cause,” according to the report.

The report—which is endorsed by NASA, NOAA, the Department of Defense, and 10 other federal scientific agencies—also warned that disasters like California wildfires and hurricanes would keep on getting worse unless humans decide to take significant steps in reducing carbon emissions, according to the Atlantic. In order “to avoid substantial damages to the U.S. economy, environment, and human health and well-being over the coming decades,” the administration must act aggressively to tackle worsening climate, the report stated.

The timing of the report’s release has angered environmentalists, journalists, and lawmakers who all believe that the Trump administration is seeking to sweep the catastrophic predictions by scientists under the carpet, reported the Hill.

“Obviously, they timed the release to get the minimum visibility,” Philip Duffy, an environmental scientist, said, adding that the Trump administration likely intends to “let [the report] fly under the radar as much as possible, take the heat and move on.”

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