Someone forgot to tell NOAA that climate change is a ‘hoax’ Despite Trump, environmental science administration is sticking to facts on man-made climate change

President Donald Trump has called climate change a “hoax.”

His Environmental Protection Agency chief claims not to believe that carbon dioxide – the Earth’s second most prevalent greenhouse gas – is a significant contributor to global warming.

His Republican Party basically stands alone as the only major Western political party not to recognize that humans are causing climate change.

But the earth science people Trump inherited at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration? They’re still preaching science.

A check of the Internet Archive shows that NOAA’s model lessons on climate change haven’t seen an edit since Inauguration Day. NOAA suggests America’s teachers say what some Trump Administration officials will not.

This recent screenshot shows a National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration webpage on climate change as it appeared in April 2017. This recent screenshot shows a National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration webpage on climate change as it appeared in April 2017. Photo: NOAA Photo: NOAA Image 1 of / 38 Caption Close Someone forgot to tell NOAA that climate change is a ‘hoax’ 1 / 38 Back to Gallery

In “The Essentials of Climate Literacy” curricula guide, NOAA’s writers outline seven principles key to understanding climate change.

The sixth principle – “Human activities are impacting the climate system” – may make for good reading Tuesday as Trump’s inner circle weighs a withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. It reads in part:

“Human activities have affected the land, oceans, and atmosphere, and these changes have altered global climate patterns. Burning fossil fuels, releasing chemicals into the atmosphere, reducing the amount of forest cover, and rapid expansion of farming, development, and industrial activities are releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and changing the balance of the climate system.”

Contrast that with this recent comment from EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, made in March on CNBC’s “Squawk Box”:

“I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do. And there's tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact. That - so, no, I would not agree that it's a primary contributor to the global warming that we see.”

Of course, Pruitt has nothing at all to do with NOAA. The administration falls under the U.S. Commerce Department, now headed by billionaire “King of Bankruptcy” Wilbur Ross.

Ross’s ride into the Trump cabinet was among the administration’s smoothest, in part because he agreed not to muzzle NOAA scientists researching climate change. The confirmation process saw Ross tell the U.S. Senate that "science should be left to scientists."

"Barring some national security concern, I see no valid reason to keep peer reviewed research from the public," Ross said in a letter, adding, "To be clear, by peer review I mean scientific review and not a political filter."

Agencies concerned with climate change or environmental issues broadly have seen communications on those issues curtailed since Trump took office. The National Park Service underwent a brief Twitter blackout during the crowd count kerfuffle on Inauguration Day. Trump’s move in late March to rollback President Obama’s Clean Power Plan drove several EPA scientists to tender their resignations publicly and angrily.

Ross stopped short of endorsing the basic assertion put forward by NOAA and the rest of the scientific community, that people are warming the world. But he pledged not to get in the way; if NOAA’s website is any indicator, it is a promise he has kept.

Whether that matters at all in the White House remains to be seen. With Earth Day arriving Saturday, Trump and his advisers are set to address a landmark climate treaty on Tuesday.

The Paris agreement was struck in 2015, when nearly 200 countries agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions in a belated effort to stave off the worst impacts of climate change. The United States agreed to cut emissions to three-quarters the level seen in 2005.

While campaigning, Trump blasted the agreement as a bad deal for the United States. He has quieted on the issue since, though he, Vice President Mike Pence and Pruitt have frequently appeared with American coal miners, the human form of the rhetorical argument against the agreement.

Regardless of the outcome, Americans are expected to take to the streets Saturday in marches for science around the country. The largest is expected on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Seattlepi.com reporter Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter at twitter.com/levipulk.