A climate change test
Climate change isn’t uncertain, short lived or tied to whimsical weather. It’s real and happening now with rising temperatures the main effect, according to a top-drawer report compiled by 13 federal agencies.
The study confirms what a heap of earlier ones have to say. The real test will be President Trump’s response when it comes time to formally issue the findings. His administration, which doesn’t believe in the heat-trapping phenomenon caused by human activity, could suppress the report.
The White House review will be the latest indication of Trump’s outlook. He could permit the facts and findings to be published, a decision that would undercut his actions such as pulling out of the Paris climate pact to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Or he could dispute the report. But that would put his administration at odds with its own government scientists who are now weighing in with their most comprehensive work to date.
The report, known as the Climate Science Special Report, determined that it’s “extremely likely” that over half the temperature rise recorded over the past four decades is linked to human activity such as tailpipe, smokestack and other industrial emissions. “No alternative explanations” such as weather cycles or excuses about faulty data make sense, the report indicates.
From warmer oceans to dirtier skies, the results are being felt. More severe storms, a shrinking ice pack and loss of sea life make for a plain-to-see picture. The trend toward higher temperatures, even by only a few degrees, can spell trouble that will be hard to reverse. The longer this country does nothing, the worse the problem gets.
The report was kept confidential, pending White House review, until it was leaked to the New York Times and surfaced in other publications. The scientists who worked on it clearly wanted to make sure their findings weren’t bottled up or rewritten by the climate change deniers who populate Trump’s administration.
Pushing the document into public view should have defining results. Muzzling science, especially this broad-based report, will underline Trump’s devotion to the fossil fuel industry and his willful avoidance of facts.
It will further isolate this country from a global push to work cooperatively to rein in harmful emissions. All the rallies in coal country, as Trump enjoyed last week, can’t make up the damage being done by his do-nothing team.
In dumping the Paris climate change pact, Trump criticized it as unfair and unworkable for American industry, passing over the challenge that rising temperatures pose. Now he can’t avoid that topic. Climate change is real, Mr, President, and it’s time to admit it and address it.