Trump Administration Releases Obama-Era Junk Climate Science Reports

The Trump Administration on November 3rd released three climate reports—the final version of the Climate Change Special Report (volume 1 of the National Climate Assessment), the third-order draft of the fourth National Climate Assessment: Climate Change Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation (or volume two), and the second draft of the State of the Carbon Cycle Report. The two draft reports are open for public comment. 

The reports were made public in an open letter posted on the web site of the U. S. Global Change Research Program signed by Virginia Burkett, acting chair of the USGCRP’s subcommittee on global change research, and Michael Kuperberg, the USGCRP’s executive director.

All three reports were essentially prepared by the Obama Administration to support President Obama’s climate agenda.  They are full of junk science. Here is my statement on this sad state of affairs:

It is unfortunate that the Trump Administration has released these Obama-era climate reports, without attempting to remove the junk science—and the reports are full of junk science.   That career civil servants were allowed to go ahead and finish reports designed to support President Obama’s radical climate agenda show how much work still needs to be done to drain the swamp.  It is yet another instance of the damage caused by the White House’s failure to nominate people for top positions in a timely way.  After over nine months in office, the President has not yet nominated a chief scientific adviser and head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the official who is supposed to be in charge of producing the National Climate Assessment.   

There is a lot more to be said about these reports in the coming months. The fourth National Climate Assessment (now called volume 2) is due to be released in final form in 2018.