NASA Is Defiantly Communicating Climate Change Science Despite Trump’s Doubts

Washington Post - Jason Samenow

Via NASA Climate Change’s Facebook page: “Two of the three top January temperature anomalies have been during the past two years.”

If you peruse NASA’s social media feeds dedicated to climate change, you would have no clue a new administration has taken power that has expressed doubts about the reality or seriousness of the issue.
Every day, NASA has dutifully posted updates on Twitter (@nasaclimate) and Facebook pertaining to climate change science, including some that are in direct contradiction to statements made by President Trump and some of his Cabinet picks.
Steve Cole, a NASA spokesperson, told the Capital Weather Gang the change in the administration has not altered how the agency communicates science. “We’re doing our jobs, it’s business as usual,” Cole said.
Early Thursday afternoon, the @NASAClimate account tweeted, “I want to put images right in front of people that #globalwarming is, in fact, happening,” quoting and displaying the work of aerial photographer Timo Lieber who is documenting climate-change effects in Greenland.

IMAGE

Trump has long been a global warming doubter, at one point calling it a Chinese hoax. In a November interview with the New York Times, he would only concede there may be “some connectivity” between human activity and climate change.
But on Monday, and in direct contradiction to Trump, the @NASAClimate Twitter account retweeted a scientific finding that humans are climate change’s dominant cause. “Humans are changing the climate 170 times faster than natural forces, according to a new study,” the tweet said.

At his confirmation hearing, President-elect Trump's Environmental Protection Agency administrator nominee Scott Pruitt outlined his plan for the agency. (Video: Thomas Johnson/Photo: Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

This finding was not only at odds with Trump’s view of the issue, but also Scott Pruitt’s, his pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency. During his confirmation hearing, Pruitt waffled on the linkages between human activity and climate change, saying: “I believe the ability to measure, with precision, the degree of human activity’s impact on the climate is subject to more debate on whether the climate is changing or whether human activity contributes to it.”
NASA’s climate change website has a far less ambiguous characterization: “The vast majority of actively publishing climate scientists — 97 percent — agree that humans are causing global warming and climate change.”
On Wednesday, NASA’s climate change Facebook page highlighted the specter of “significant” damages from climate change, quoting the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

IMAGE (NASA Climate Chance Facebook page, accessed Feb. 16, 2017)

Trump, of course, has been dismissive of the scale of the problem, telling The Washington Post: “I just think we have much bigger risks.”
The Facebook post touting the risk of climate change damages then linked to NASA’s website on climate change effects. It states scientists have “high confidence” in predictions of future temperature rise. This doesn’t quite square with a statement of Rex Tillerson, now Trump’s secretary of state. Tillerson said the ability to predict the effect of increasing greenhouse gases is “very limited” during his confirmation hearing.
NASA appears unfazed by the political winds swirling around the climate change issue. It has steadfastly shared information, even when out of step with the positions of new leadership.
NASA’s active presence on social media is in stark contrast to the EPA, which hasn’t published a single tweet since Trump was inaugurated. Trump’s officials imposed a media blackout at the agency.
The EPA media blackout and the administration’s stance on climate change have worried some scientists that more drastic efforts to suppress scientific information may follow. Some scientists are even working with computer coders to back up federal online data, including NASA’s, out of fear the administration will remove it.
NASA insists none of its data has been touched.
“Availability of NASA Earth science data has not changed in recent months, nor have any Earth science data sets been taken offline,” the agency said in statement. “Since 1994, NASA has supported a full and open sharing of data from Earth science satellites, field campaigns and research.”
One does wonder whether NASA will be an enduring safe-haven for climate change science information and if it will continue to post information that contradicts the positions of administration officials. But so far, no one has stopped it.

Links

• The EPA’s social-media accounts have been silent since the inauguration
• Trump’s pick to lead Commerce Department says NOAA scientists can freely share their work
• Contrary to reports, climate change doubter Ken Haapala is not guiding NOAA
• Trump adviser proposes dismantling NASA climate research
• NASA smacks down climate change doubters in Facebook discussion