From left to right: President Trump, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, hard at work.
It’s a weird time that we’re living in. Just like back in the days when witches were real, the earth was hollow, and homosexuality was a sin, science has taken a backseat to insanity. The most recent proof, as usual, comes out of the reality television show that is the Trump administration: the Department of Energy’s climate change research office is reportedly no longer allowed to use the phrase “climate change”.
According to Politico, that wasn’t the only thing they had to swallow. “A supervisor at the Energy Department’s international climate office told staff this week not to use the phrases “climate change,” “emissions reduction” or “Paris Agreement” in written memos, briefings or other written communication,” wrote Eric Wolff, an energy reporter from Washington. “Employees of DOE’s Office of International Climate and Clean Energy learned of the ban at a meeting Tuesday, the same day President Donald Trump signed an executive order at EPA headquarters to reverse most of former President Barack Obama’s climate regulatory initiatives.”
President Trump has made his stance on climate change pretty obvious. Although he’s (sort of) taken it back, he once said that it’s a “hoax perpetrated by the Chinese.” He’s in the process of gutting the EPA, rolling back a bunch of Obama-era climate initiatives, and generally choosing economy over environment. Science, of course, disagrees with most of his actions and so does pretty much the rest of the world. Thanks to the Paris Agreement, the ball is at least rolling. The US–for the time being, at least–will make every effort to push back the clock, dig up all the coal, pump out all the crude, and God willing, make ‘Merica Great Again, just like it was back when Rex Tillerson (the Secretary of State, CEO of Exxon, and giver of President Trump’s favorite handjobs) was a kid in Texas.
It’s not just the head of the EPA who is in denial about our rapidly changing climate–which is no longer just a worry of the future–it’s a host of others occupying the orange-tinted space around the Oval Office. Rick Perry, the head of the Department of Energy, is one of them. Apparently, he hates the words so much it causes a “visceral reaction” according to Politico. Just how visceral the reaction really is hasn’t been revealed, but one can assume it’s a violent gagging noise followed by seven hail marys and a desperate splashing of holy water.
“This is like telling government scientists not to mention gravity or the fact that the Earth revolves around the sun,” said Taylor McKinnon from the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Trump administration can deny the reality of the climate crisis, but it can’t make it go away by simply telling government employees not to mention it anymore. This kind of anti-science meddling leads us straight back to the dark ages.”
Despite Politico’s report, a spokeswoman from the DoE denied it, but on a bit of a technical basis. “No words or phrases have been banned for this office or anyone in the department,” said DOE spokeswoman Lindsey Geisler. A State official, though, clarified. “People are taking their own initiatives to not use certain words based on hints from transition people,” the official said. “Everyone is encouraged to finding different ways of talking about things. There’s a sense that you’d better find a way to ‘delink’ from the previous administration’s talking points.”
While Trump’s aspirations to strengthen the economy (if that’s what his aspirations actually are) can be seen as a noble endeavor, if science is to be believed the world has a real problem on its hands. Not end-of-the-world, but one that is already affecting us in the form of ultra-violent storms and rising seas. The proof is all there. Every reputable researcher on earth agrees, and the ones who don’t inevitably have some ties with the oil industry. While no one can truly predict the future, science has proved itself to be pretty damn close to doing it and their predictions are worth listening to.
