Zinke also emphasized his support for drilling, mining and logging on federal lands, activities strongly opposed by many environmental groups."Įnvironmental science specifies threats to the environment from oil and gas drilling, including disruption of wildlife migration routes oil spills that hurt animals' health and pollution that negatively affects ecosystems' health as well as scenic views and night skies. Zinke's remark that humans "influence" climate change does, though, seriously underestimate the scientific conclusions that I have noted above about anthropogenic climate change.Īnd crucially, as The New York Times reported: "Mr. On both counts, this is somewhat encouraging news for environmental science. Trump's nominee to head the Department of Interior is Ryan Zinke, who declared during his confirmation hearing on Tuesday that climate change is not "a hoax." He also said that he is against selling of public lands to the states, which would increase the risk of development on those lands. The Smithsonian's Human Origins program offers equally excellent information about the timeline and details of human evolution.Įnvironmental Science And Protection Of Public Lands The NCSE website includes page after page of fabulous resources giving the facts of evolution. (The NCSE also promotes climate-change science, as 13.7's Tania Lombrozo has noted.) The National Center for Science Education is, as its website proclaims, "the only national organization devoted to defending the teaching of evolution in public schools". And as I have argued here before, we fail our children unless we teach them precisely that. There is no doubt that, like all other life on Earth, we humans have evolved and continue to evolve. There is no controversy about evolution, though. Pence did address this question, in the same interview with Matthews: "I think, in our schools, we should teach all of the facts about all of these controversial areas and let our students, let our children and our children's children decide based upon the facts and the science."
What matters, however, is not Pence's personal belief but whether he (and Trump) would vigorously defend the teaching of evolution in public-school science classes - without the "equal time" teaching of creationism, which is not science.
#Trump mocks disabled snopes tv#
Unlike anthropogenic climate change, the teaching of evolution in public schools was not mentioned (as far as I can determine) during the campaign or its aftermath.īack in 2009, however, Pence told TV interviewer Chris Matthews: "Do I believe in evolution? I embrace the view that God created the heavens and the Earth, the seas and all that's in them." More recently, in a May 26, 2016, speech in North Dakota, he vowed to dismantle the international Paris Accord. 2012, Donald Trump tweeted that climate change was a creation of the Chinese. Many in the science community have expressed concern about the lack of science literacy demonstrated by the new Trump administration.Ī look at the administration's statements and actions related to five key issues that are informed by science - anthropogenic climate change, vaccines, evolution taught in public schools, environmental science and protection of public lands, and human rights - bolsters that concern.Īs the new administration takes office, here's a look at statements made and actions taken by the Trump team - and a check against the science. From left are, Vice President Mike Pence, the president's wife Melania Trump, their son Barron Trump, and House Speaker Paul Ryan. 20 in the President's Room of the Senate on Capitol Hill in Washington. President Donald Trump is joined by the Congressional leadership and his family before formally signing his cabinet nominations into law on Jan.
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