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I'm 'Too Intelligent' to believe...

NOAA chief: I’ve never briefed Trump on warming

The head of the government agency that monitors climate change says that in nearly two years he has never discussed the issue with President Donald Trump.

Acting National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) chief Adm. Timothy Gallaudet said in a press conference at a scientific meeting this week, "I personally have not briefed the president on climate change."

Obama's science adviser, John Holdren, estimates that over eight years he briefed the president about climate change more than 50 times.

Trump has dismissed his administration's warnings about the impact of climate change, including a recent government forecast that it could lead to economic losses of hundreds of billions of dollars a year by the end of the century.

"There is no sign that President Trump is interested in input from anybody on the scientific facts around climate change," said Holdren, now a professor of environmental policy at Harvard. "And his uninformed rejection of those facts — reflected in his administration's misguided policies on coal, offshore drilling, automotive fuel economy, clean-energy R&D, the Paris Agreement, and assistance to developing countries on climate-change mitigation and adaptation — is doing immense damage to the prospects for averting a wholly unmanageable degree of global climate change."

The White House Office of Science and Technology and Policy hasn't been briefing the president because it is waiting for its director to be confirmed by the Senate...

NOAA's Gallaudet acknowledged the lack of presidential briefings during a meeting this week of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). "Climate change is real, and we are already suffering the serious consequences. Humans are the dominant cause and if we don't take urgent action it will only get worse."

That's a conclusion based on real scientific data," said Chris McEntee, chief executive officer of the 100-year-old scientific society. "The president of the United States has access to some of the best scientific data and the brightest scientific minds in the world — in his own agencies and through reports like the recent National Climate Assessment. It is critical that he access that expertise and data to avoid further risk to the health and safety of the American public."

Pennsylvania State University ice scientist Richard Alley, a Republican most of his life, said: "Many scientists_dedicated, nonpartisan, knowledgeable — would happily provide administration officials with briefings or background information. The science is solid, and the full scholarship shows that making efficient use of our scientific knowledge will help the economy as well as the environment."

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2018 / U.S. National Climate Assessment/Report (Overview/PDFs/Docs)

U.S. Global Climate Change / 4th National Climate Assessment (PDFs)

"The New Abnormal"

Via E&E News: Not Good, Bad, Very Bad, Soon to be Worse

Via Axios / New climate report warns of increasingly dire risks to U.S.

Via CNN / Climate change will shrink US economy and kill thousands

Via The Guardian / Climate change 'will inflict substantial damages on US lives'

Via Washington Post / Trump administration climate report says damage is ‘intensifying across the country’

Scientists are more certain than ever that climate change is already affecting the United States — and that it is going to be very expensive.

Via CNN / Donald Trump buried a climate change report he doesn't believe

President Donald Trump's views on climate change are very, very well established.

Just over eight years ago, he tweeted this: "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive." In 2014, he penned this tweet: "It's late in July and it is really cold outside in New York. Where the hell is GLOBAL WARMING??? We need some fast! It's now CLIMATE CHANGE."

And then, this from last Wednesday: "Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS - Whatever happened to Global Warming?"

The report concludes not only that the world's temperature is rising and but also that the preponderance of evidence suggests human actions play a role in it. The report's authors conclude that the changing climate "is transforming where and how we live and presents growing challenges to human health and quality of life, the economy, and the natural systems that support us." And that, unless we change our practices and policies, there will be "substantial damages to the US economy, environment, and human health and well-being over the coming decades."

It's, candidly, a terrifying read. Unless we start making some major changes -- and soon -- we face the very real potential of crossing the point of no return when it comes to the planet's warming, and the consequences that result from it.

Important to note: This is not a partisan document. It was... produced by 13 agencies within the Trump administration -- the result of Congress, in the 1980s (after the first climate study and program approved by Congress in 1978,) mandating that this sort of report be submitted every four years as a sort of reference point for lawmakers and legislators.