WIKIMEDIA, GAGE SKIDMOREUS President Donald Trump moved to disband a federal advisory panel on climate change at the end of last week. The charter for the 15-person committee, set up to develop guidelines for policymakers and officials on the basis of the government’s National Climate Assessment, was scheduled to expire yesterday (August 20). Two days earlier, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration notified the committee’s chair Richard Moss that the charter would not be renewed.
“It doesn’t seem to be the best course of action,” Moss tells The Washington Post. “We’re going to be running huge risks here and possibly end up hurting the next generation’s economic prospects.”
Established in 2015, the Sustained National Climate Assessment Federal Advisory Committee includes a range of climate advisors, from academics to corporate representatives to local officials. The panel’s members first convened last fall, and their report on the conclusions of the National Climate Assessment had been due early next year.
But the Assessment’s findings are seen to contradict the views of the current administration, which just two months ago announced its intention to opt out of the Paris Climate Agreement. One included scientific report estimates that human activity has been responsible for a ...
