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Photo courtesy of CalFire Forestry Maps on November 20, 2018, showing the state of an area devastated by fire in Magalia, California. EFE/Calfire Incident Forestry Maps.
Photo courtesy of CalFire Forestry Maps on November 20, 2018, showing the state of an area devastated by fire in Magalia, California. EFE/Calfire Incident Forestry Maps.

What you missed during the weekend: the government recognized climate change

While the country enjoyed its long weekend, the government finally had to accept the reality of climate change and took advantage of the disconnection of the…

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Since his presidential campaign, Donald Trump has insisted on delegitimizing the scientific basis behind climate change.

In 2012, he even wrote on Twitter that the entire debate around the effect of man on nature was "a plot by China to make the United States less competitive," and after his inauguration, he decided to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement.

For its part, the policy of the current administration has focused on cutting funds to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), approving mining projects that would seriously affect the environment, and appointing magnates like Rex Tillerson or deniers like Rick Perry to important positions.

You only need to see the performance of the former EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, who tried to dismantle the clean air regulations and Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, to understand the all-out attack on climate change mitigation that Trump's handpicked cabinet has waged. 

The president's decision to reactivate coalmines and to exploit fossil fuel-based energy resources has transformed him into one of the most anti-environmental presidents in recent years.

However, despite his insistence on unraveling the credibility of climate change, the Congress' mandatory report published on Friday, called the National Climate Assessment, exposes the results of the investigation of 13 federal departments and agencies who determined that "the effects of climate change have already reached the United States," the Washington Post reported.

They include "an increasing likelihood of events such as deadly wildfires and debilitating hurricanes that have dominated the news in recent months," the media explains.

Despite the government's efforts to push out the story under the table - after all, it was published intentionally during Black Friday - the report was in all the national media, and the discoveries again contradict the president, shedding light on the inconsistencies in the media machinery of the administration.

The 1,656-page document "is the most comprehensive scientific study to date and details the effects of global warming on the economy, public health, coasts and infrastructure of the United States," the New York Times explained. "It describes in detail how global warming will cause hundreds of billions of dollars in damages in the coming decades."

In addition, specialists directly connect crop failures in the west of the country and the devastation of hurricanes in the South, warning that "American exports and supply chains could be disrupted, agricultural yields could fall to 1980s levels by midcentury and fire season could spread to the Southeast."

This second volume of the climate report is a mandatory document that must be published by law every four years. Although the government has not shown signs of trying to modify the text, it is expected that the president will continue with his disqualifying speech despite the discoveries.

Even so, this report is a key tool for the new, Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, who will be able to promote measures to combat the presidential branch's efforts to dismantle environmental protection policies.

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