Last month, the social media folks at California’s Joshua Tree National park sent out a tweet (seen below) noting that 97% of the world’s climate scientists “agree that human activity is the driving force behind today's rate of global temperature increase.” Well, that didn’t sit well with climate change-denying Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, someone who has been frequently accused of wasting tax dollars on things like charter helicopters to go horseback riding with Mike Pence, chartering private flights (from an oil and gas billionaire no less!) to spend one night at his Montana home and yes, even buying a hunting video game for the cafeteria of the Department of the Interior. Zinke found yet another way to burn taxpayer dollars. After seeing the tweet from the Joshua Tree National Park account, he flew the director from California to Washington, D.C. to light him up in person. From The Hill:
Zinke did not take any formal disciplinary action against David Smith, superintendent of Joshua Tree National Park. And the tweets at issue weren’t deleted, because they didn’t violate National Park Service or Interior Department policies.
But Zinke made it clear to Smith that the Trump administration doesn’t want national parks to put out official communications on climate change.
And by bringing Smith from California to Washington, D.C., to deliver the tongue-lashing, he also sent a message to the park service at large.
One source said Smith “got a trip to the woodshed” and described his one-on-one meeting with Zinke as “highly unusual.”
Another source said Zinke expressed concern with the tweets during the meeting, and told Smith “no more climate tweets.”
Climate change is a serious topic that deserves serious consideration. Why is the Trump administration and Republicans in general so eager to bury, hide, twist the data and the facts? And why is Ryan Zinke using tax payer money for one frivolous expenditure after another, especially when doing everything they can to shrink National Park funding and services? After all, the cuts have been described "crippling."
President Trump’s proposed Interior Department budget for Fiscal Year 2018 has evoked many reactions, cheers from the oil and gas industry and jeers from almost everyone else. The proposed budget would increase funding for energy development on public lands while cutting virtually everything else, including the National Park Service. Overall the budget would cut the Department of the Interior’s budget by roughly 12 percent.
Last month the National Park Service released its budget justification, explaining the requested funding levels and their impacts. If passed, there’s little doubt that President Trump’s budget would decimate America’s national parks, leaving our treasured lands from Yellowstone to Yosemite and Acadia to the Grand Canyon in deterioration.
Shame. Shame. Shame.
And here is that ridiculous video game: