CCD Editor’s note: Given that just about every study using real-world data shows no indication of more or stronger disasters, this is welcome news to people who care about transparency in government and using the latest data to make decisions. Biden politicized FEMA and Trump is undoing it. [emphasis, links added]
Top officials at the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) received a memo on Friday ordering an immediate stop to work connected to climate change and the elimination of climate-related terms across the agency.
The memo instructs senior office heads to “eliminate all climate change activities and the use of climate change terminology in DHS policies and programs, to the maximum extent permitted by the law,” according to the document seen by Bloomberg News.
The changes are meant to bring “alignment” with Trump’s executive orders that reverse multiple climate-related orders by former President Joe Biden, it said.
The directive from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem marks the latest move by President Donald Trump and his appointees to roll back federal efforts to address global warming, which could affect disaster response capabilities that are overseen by DHS.
DHS did not immediately provide a comment outside of regular business hours on the climate-related contents of the memo.
In the three weeks since Trump’s inauguration, his administration has already moved to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, halted the flow of billions of federal grant dollars funded by two major climate laws, and abruptly fired or put on administrative leave hundreds of Environmental Protection Agency staff who work on climate or environmental justice.
Activities impacted by Noem’s new directive at DHS include modifying or terminating contracts related to climate change, ending participation in climate working groups, revising or rescinding climate policies, and ending reporting requirements.
Noem also ordered agency leaders to remove “climate change terminology in all DHS programs, policies, products, communications, and activities,” according to the document.
In her previous job as South Dakota governor, Noem questioned the established scientific consensus that humans have caused climate change, Politico reported.
With a workforce of more than 260,000, DHS is an umbrella organization that includes Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Coast Guard, and Customs and Border Protection, among other offices.
But perhaps the one most impacted by the new directive is the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the nation’s primary means for organizing federal responses to disasters.
Top image: An aerial view of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Headquarters in D.C. by CBP Photography via Wikipedia.
Read rest at Bloomberg
