The reality of climate change has frequently put the Trump administration in an awkward position. Determined to set policies that ignored climate change and staffed by political appointees that refused to accept it, the administration nonetheless found itself responsible for scientists who kept publishing reports filled with awkward facts.
The administration’s response has been erratic. At several points, administration officials considered forming a “red team” of known contrarians to dispute the science, and they even put a prominent climate denialist on the National Security Council. Although these efforts fizzled out for various reasons, that didn’t stop the administration for seemingly trying again with the appointment of David Legates, another noted climate contrarian, to NOAA in September. Legates’ exact role was unclear, but speculation focused on two possibilities: another attempt at red-teaming the climate, or an attempt to dilute the science of the next National Climate Assessment.
But any big plans Legates may have had got short-circuited by the results of the election in November, which meant he only had a few months to get anything done. Now, with time running ever shorter, Legates has dumped his handiwork on the public: an attempt to red-team climate science done by a usual-suspects list of climate contrarians. In addition to emphasizing just how feeble the contrarians’ case is scientifically, the way the documents were released is at best bewildering and may have actually violated federal law.
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