[Vision2020] NPR 7-19-17 "Climate Scientist Says He Was Demoted For Speaking Out On Climate Change"

[Ted Moffett]

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/07/19/538216232/climate-scientist-says-he-was-demoted-for-speaking-out-on-climate-change

Climate Scientist Says He Was Demoted For Speaking Out On Climate Change

July 19, 201711:13 PM ET

Nathan Rott

A former head policy adviser at the Interior Department is accusing the
Trump Administration of reassigning him to a lesser position for speaking
out about the dangers of climate change.

Joel Clement, a scientist who was director of the Interior Department's
Office of Policy Analysis for much of the Obama Administration, was
recently reassigned to work to an "accounting office," the agency's Office
of Natural Resources and Revenue.

In an op-ed
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/im-a-scientist-the-trump-administration-reassigned-me-for-speaking-up-about-climate-change/2017/07/19/389b8dce-6b12-11e7-9c15-177740635e83_story.html?utm_term=.d6ba6061ea46>
published Wednesday in *The Washington Post*, he wrote that he believes he
was retaliated against for "speaking out publicly about the dangers that
climate change poses to Alaska Native communities." He says that he's
turning whistleblower on an administration that "chooses silence over
science."

In his former role, Clement advised the Obama Administration on Arctic
issues. He authorized a report
<https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/migrated/ppa/upload/Managing-for-the-Future-in-a-Rapidly-Changing-Arctic-2013.pdf>
to Obama in 2013 that warned the Arctic is warming faster than any other
region on Earth and that the implications of the change would include
"rapid coastal erosion threatening villages and facilities, loss of
wildlife habitat, ecosystem instability... and unpredictable impacts on
subsistence activities and critical social needs."

Clement wrote in the op-ed that in the months preceding his reassignment,
he had raised the issue with White House officials, senior Interior
officials and the international community.

"It is clear to me that the administration was so uncomfortable with this
work, and my disclosures, that I was reassigned with the intent to coerce
me into leaving the federal government," he wrote.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told lawmakers last month that he aims to
reduce the workforce of his agency by 4,000 employees
<http://www.npr.org/2017/06/27/534597219/president-trump-looks-to-slash-nearly-4-000-interior-department-jobs>
to achieve a "balanced budget." And to achieve those cuts, he said the
agency would rely on buyouts, attrition and reassignments.

At an earlier event, Zinke told reporters
<https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2017/06/20/stories/1060056320> the agency
was about to enter "probably the greatest reorganization in the history of
the Department of the Interior."

Around the same time, there were reports that a massive reshuffling of
senior Interior Department officials was underway. Clement was confirmed to
be one of them
<http://www.ktoo.org/2017/06/19/interior-secretary-reassigns-top-climate-policy-adviser/>
.

His op-ed appears to be his first public comment since the reassignment. In
it, Clement says he's hoping for a thorough investigation into the Interior
Department's actions. "The threat to these Alaska Native communities is not
theoretical. This is not a policy debate," he writes. "Retaliation against
me for those disclosures is unlawful."

The Interior Department has not responded to a request for comment.

The impacts of climate change are already being felt in Alaska's coastal
communities. Residents of the island community of Shishmaref, Alaska, voted
to relocate
<http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/18/490519540/threatened-by-rising-seas-an-alaskan-village-decides-to-relocate>
last year because of rising sea levels.

The tiny village of Newtok asked the Obama Administration
<http://www.npr.org/2017/01/10/509176361/alaskan-village-citing-climate-change-seeks-disaster-relief-in-order-to-relocate>
for disaster relief resources to help relocate their entire community, but
their request was denied.

The Trump Administration has downplayed the effects and threat of climate
change.

Many mentions of it have been removed from government websites. Funding for
climate research has been stripped from proposed budgets. In early June,
President Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris
Climate accords.

During his confirmation hearings, Zinke told lawmakers
<http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/17/510335071/trump-pick-to-head-interior-department-says-climate-change-is-not-a-hoax>
that he believes the climate is changing and that man is an influence, but
that he thinks there's debate on "what that influence is [and] what can we
do about it."

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