Whether they like it or not, the Trump administration, which is still trying to prop up the U.S. coal industry, is responsible for publishing government research on climate change. But that doesn't mean they have to be good sports about it. This past November, for example, 13 federal agencies released a 1,000-page report on climate change's expected devastation to the U.S. The Trump administration chose to release the report on Black Friday so that it could get as little media attention as possible.

Now, a new report from the New York Times describes the administration's latest offensive in its war on climate science. Namely, Trump's White House wants to create a new body to undermine and challenge climate change research. Per the Times:

That effort is led by a 79-year-old physicist who had a respected career at Princeton but has become better known in recent years for attacking the science of man-made climate change and for defending the virtues of carbon dioxide—sometimes to an awkward degree. "The demonization of carbon dioxide is just like the demonization of the poor Jews under Hitler," said the physicist, William Happer, who serves on the National Security Council as the president’s deputy assistant for emerging technologies.

Obviously, calling to reduce or eliminate carbon emissions is nothing whatsoever like the Holocaust, or any genocide for that matter. That is, objectively, a preposterous comparison. It's also ludicrous since even meager environmental regulations would save lives—according to the World Health Organization, 4.6 million people die each year from air pollution alone.

The Trump administration is also targeting the National Climate Assessment, a report the U.S. government puts out roughly every four years, with the next version expected to be released in 2022. But officials have declared that the assessment and other research reports can only project as far out as 2040, well before the most cataclysmic aspects of climate change are supposed take effect. By the end of this century, hotter, higher seas could flood major cities all over the world and cause more intense hurricanes to form more frequently. But this new policy would ban scientists working for the federal government from investigating any of these possibilities in their research.

Old-school climate change denial was relatively straightforward by comparison: Lie about climate science, try to discredit researchers, etc. But today, the American public has largely accepted the reality of climate change. According to the Pew Research Center, 56 percent of Americans say protecting the environment should be a top concern for the president and Congress, with 44 percent saying the same about dealing with climate change specifically—a 15 point jump from a decade ago. On top of that, a whopping 71 percent of Americans believe climate change will impact either them or their communities directly. So if conservatives can't successfully change anyone's mind, they may as well sabotage as much research as they can.