President Trump and his administration’s full-throated denial of climate change has and will continue to cost lives. Trump’s latest comments regarding science, climate change, and the raging fires across the West exemplify the apathetic ignorance of his administration whose obsession with the polluting fossil fuel industry is only making it worse.
We’ve all heard Trump and his allies posit this alternative reality before and shouldn’t be surprised. Trump’s baseless claims are costing lives and communities. At a time when we should be assisting and helping our fellow Americans impacted by climate change on multiple fronts, President Trump is trying to land cheap rhetorical points that are abjectly false,” said Jayson O’Neill, Western Values Project director.
President Trump’s outlandish comments underline the administration’s climate denial policy objectives that started the day after the 2016 election when Trump implored swamp creatures like corrupt former lobbyist David Bernhardt to assist with the transition.
While states in the West are dealing with historic fires that have wiped entire communities off the map and cost lives, the Trump administration has largely ignored the growing crisis. Huffington Post reporter Chris D’Angelo noted that Trump’s Cabinet members David Bernhardt and Sonny Perdue, who both manage federal lands and firefighting resources, had yet to make a mention of the raging fires or the federal government’s response on social media until Trump’s ignorant comments.
More troubling are the recent reports of how the Trump administration has cooked climate denial into the federal ranks. In addition to altering and adding unscientific language to climate reports, new reporting by investigative journalist Adam Federman in Wired detail the administration’s future denial plans. As of 2018, the climate-denying right-wing Heritage Foundation had at least 66 former employees and alumni hired by the Trump administration.