Climate scientists preempt possible suppression from White House
The average temperature in the United States has risen rapidly and drastically since 1980  and recent decades have been the warmest of the past 1 500 years  according to  a sweeping federal climate change report awaiting approval by the Trump administration .  The draft report by scientists from 13 federal agencies  which has not yet been made public   concludes that Americans are feeling the effects of climate change right nowâ¦.  The report  was completed this year and is a special science section of the National Climate Assessment  which is congressionally mandated every four years. The National Academy of Sciences has signed off on  the draft report   and the authors are awaiting permission from  the Trump administration  to release  it .
But then thereâs the story behind the story:  this report  was leaked for a reason.
 Its  authors appear to have shared the report with the New York Times because they donât trust the  Trump  administration â for fairly obvious reasons. ( Trump  has argued that climate science is part of a massive conspiracy cooked up by the Chinese to undermine the free-enterprise system.  He  also appointed an EPA administrator who appears aggressively hostile to the agency and its work.)
And so the leak to the paper of record has become something of an insurance policy: if the administration suppresses the report  weâll know. Just as importantly  if  Team Trump  demands changes to the report  weâll know that  too.
The average temperature in the United States has risen rapidly and drastically since 1980  and recent decades have been the warmest of the past 1 500 years  according to   [TGT]  .   [TGT] concludes that Americans are feeling the effects of climate change right nowâ¦.   [TGT] was completed this year and is a special science section of the National Climate Assessment  which is congressionally mandated every four years. The National Academy of Sciences has signed off on   [TGT] and the authors are awaiting permission from   [TGT] to release   [TGT]  .
But then thereâs the story behind the story:  this report  was leaked for a reason.
 Its  authors appear to have shared the report with the New York Times because they donât trust  [TGT]  â for fairly obvious reasons. (  [TGT] has argued that climate science is part of a massive conspiracy cooked up by the Chinese to undermine the free-enterprise system.   [TGT]   also appointed an EPA administrator who appears aggressively hostile to the agency and its work.)
And so the leak to the paper of record has become something of an insurance policy: if  [TGT]  suppresses  [TGT] weâll know. Just as importantly  if   [TGT] demands changes to  [TGT] weâll know that  too.