Over the weekend, there was a bit of friction between Donald Trump’s administration and the National Parks Service, after the latter got involved in picking on Trump’s inauguration crowd size. After a brief shutdown on tweeting, an apology was issued, but it seems that individual parks may feel emboldened to weigh in on the issues themselves, as it seems fewer agencies are capable of doing so.
What do I mean by that? Well, word has gone out today that the EPA and other agencies have been banned from speaking to the media or putting out their own updates on Twitter, at least while the transition of presidential administrations is still underway. They’ve also had some operations frozen until Trump’s team can look them over and decide whether they’re OK to go ahead.
Meanwhile, Badlands National Park in South Dakota isn’t having it. They’re making themselves quite clear on where they stand on scientific issues—something Trump himself has historically had a bit of a problem with:
“The pre-industrial concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 280 parts per million (ppm). As of December 2016, 404.93 ppm.”
— Badlands Nat’l Park (@BadlandsNPS) January 24, 2017
Today, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is higher than at any time in the last 650,000 years. #climate
— Badlands Nat’l Park (@BadlandsNPS) January 24, 2017
Flipside of the atmosphere; ocean acidity has increased 30% since the Industrial Revolution. “Ocean Acidification” #climate #carboncycle
— Badlands Nat’l Park (@BadlandsNPS) January 24, 2017
“and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” Organic Act of 1916
— Badlands Nat’l Park (@BadlandsNPS) November 18, 2016
[Update:] The tweets in question have been deleted, so here’s a screencap for posterity:
I, for one, am here for our rogue National Parks in the age of Trump. ✊ pic.twitter.com/z9CoQCxRPY
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) January 24, 2017
Sure, they’re not specifically addressed to Trump, but it’s pretty clear why the park’s staff felt the sudden desire to tweet about climate change data in a time of great concern about the future of scientific data on the matter—not to mention that their previous tweet had a pretty significantly different tone. We don’t need anyone’s alternative facts. We have real ones, and climate change isn’t a hoax made up by the Chinese, as (despite how he lied about it at a debate) Donald Trump has claimed. He’s also pulled the tired tactic of saying ‘global warming’ can’t exist if it’s cold at any random spot on the planet. Friendly reminder: most of our planet is covered in water, meaning human beings never personally experience the weather on most of it.
Luckily, we have scientific data we can look at and people willing to share it even and especially when it’s not popular. I can’t wait to see how mad Trump gets about a park contradicting him on climate change, because reports continue to suggest that he was pretty furious about the crowd size issue.
Thank you for your service, brave park employee. Leslie Knope would be proud.
(via Parker Molloy on Twitter, image via NBC)
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