Science envoy resigns over response of president to Charlottesville

One of the US State Department’s three science envoys publicly resigned on Wednesday, the latest in a wave of defections over President Donald Trump’s response to a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Daniel Kammen, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a letter posted on his Twitter account that Trump had failed to condemn white supremacists and neo-Nazis, part of “a broader pat-tern of behavior that enables sexism and racism, and disregards the welfare of all Americans, the global community and the planet”.

Trump told reporters last week that “both sides” were to blame for the violence between white supremacists and counter protesters in Virginia on Aug 12, and said there were “very fine people” among those who participated in the white nationalist rally.

The science envoys serve as unpaid volunteers and engage with government and nongovernment science officials around the world.

In his letter, Kammen also criticized Trump’s decision to leave the Paris Climate Accord. The first letters of each para-graph spell out the word “IMPEACH”.

Kammen and the White House did not respond to requests for comment. State Department spokeswoman Julia Mason said Kammen “made a personal decision to resign”.

Science envoys typically serve for one year. According to his LinkedIn profile, Kammen served as an envoy since August last year.