We hate to start the week off on a bad note, but some things just can’t be helped. This week’s early favorite for co-climate jesters are:
Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy. The previous state administration, led by Independent Gov. Bill Walker, created a climate change task force, which in the fall, released a climate change strategy for the imperiled state. (It got its own section in the Fourth National Climate Assessment.) The new governor just rescinded the existence of the task force and the strategy. “Alaska’s footprint in terms of being a contributor to pollution or however you want to word it is pretty small compared to other states in the U.S.” Dunleavy told the Anchorage Daily News in December. “So my focus has been trying to create jobs for our kids and grandkids so they don’t have to leave the state.” For erasing the progress made by the last administration without putting forward a revised climate action plan in a state on the front lines of climate change, Dunleavy is co-climate jester of the week along with…
The White House. Speaking of the Fourth National Climate Assessment, which the Administration released last fall, the White House is apparently poised to create a new, closed-door climate group, comprised mainly of those who challenge the science of climate change, to challenge the conclusions drawn by its own report. To best response so far has come from Katharine Hayhoe, who summarizes the move and just generally has an amazing take on the situation.
In Aug 2017, the federal govt terminated the Federal Advisory Committee for the Sustained National Climate Assessment. Now, they plan to set up an “ad hoc group of select federal scientists to reassess the government’s analysis of climate science” (thread) https://t.co/oZzbKyiKG9
Katharine Hayhoe (@KHayhoe) February 24, 2019
Here’s to better news over the rest of the week.