New emails show how President Trump roiled NOAA during Hurricane Dorian

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

A trove of documents released on Friday evening provide the clearest glimpse yet into how President Trump’s inaccurate statements, altered forecast map and tweets regarding Hurricane Dorian’s forecast path rattled top officials along with rank and file scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in September.

The documents, released in response to Freedom of Information Act requests from The Washington Post and other media outlets, show that the No. 2 official at the agency, Ret. Rear Adm. Tim Gallaudet, claims that neither he nor acting administrator Neil Jacobs approved a controversial unsigned statement that a NOAA spokesperson issued on Sept. 6. That statement criticized the National Weather Service forecast office in Birmingham for a tweet that contradicted Trump’s inaccurate assertion from Sept. 1, in which the president claimed that Alabama “will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated” from the Category 5 storm.

The statement was widely interpreted within NOAA’s National Weather Service as contradicting an accurate forecast due to political pressure from the White House and the Department of Commerce.

“[P]lease accept Neil’s reply as a sincere acknowledgment of a press release we did not approve or support,” Gallaudet wrote in an email to Gary Shigenaka, a NOAA marine biologist, on Sept. 8 at 5:48 a.m. “You know from my multiple messages to you and your colleagues that we respect and stand behind your service and scientific integrity.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/new-emails-show-how-president-trump-roiled-noaa-during-hurricane-dorian/ar-BBZxKAa?li=BBnb7Kz

But he used his magic sharpie.

[G_j]

1. a narrative that forest protection efforts are responsible for wildfires

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/24/trump-administration-wildfire-science-promote-logging-california-emissions


Revealed: emails show Trump and appointees tried to craft a narrative that forest protection efforts are responsible for wildfires

Emily Holden and Jimmy Tobias
Fri 24 Jan 2020 03.00 EST

Political appointees at the interior department have sought to play up climate pollution from California wildfires while downplaying emissions from fossil fuels as a way of promoting more logging in the nation’s forests, internal emails obtained by the Guardian reveal.

The messaging plan was crafted in support of Donald Trump’s pro-industry arguments for harvesting more timber in California, which he says would thin forests and prevent fires – a point experts refute.

The emails show officials seeking to estimate the carbon emissions from devastating 2018 fires in California so they could compare them to the carbon footprint of the state’s electricity sector and then publish statements encouraging cutting down trees.

The records offer a look behind the scenes at how Trump and his appointees have tried to craft a narrative that forest protection efforts are responsible for wildfires, including in California, even as science shows fires are becoming more intense largely because of climate change.

..more..

[MerryBlooms]

2. R&K