You just can’t make this up.
Speaking at the annual conference for the Society of Environmental Journalists, Trump’s acting Director of the Bureau of Land Management William Perry Pendley refused to acknowledge that climate change poses a threat to public lands. This is not surprising, as Pendley took the position in his prior job as head of the Mountain States Legal Foundation that a lawsuit filed by kids against climate change should be dismissed, stating:
"With public support for the fiction of man-made climate change at an all time low, it is little wonder these plaintiffs demand that the courts do what elected officials will not do," said William Perry Pendley, MSLF president.
At the conference, according to Bloomberg, Pendley dodged questions about climate change and its impact on public lands:
When pressed on the effects of climate change on federal lands, Pendley said he hadn’t yet been briefed on the issue. “There’s a ton of topics I haven’t been briefed on and one of the reasons is all of my recusals,” Pendley said.
The “recusals” he refers to result from his ties to the climate change denying legal advocacy group he previously directed.
A reporter for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, also present at the event, noted that Pendley further stated his past positions and statements did not matter because “My personal opinions are irrelevant. I’m a Marine. I follow orders.”
So what was he willing to say about the threats to public lands? That the biggest challenge to federal lands is the “existential threat” posed by wild horses and burros. “Some land in the West is so devastated it will never recover,” he said. See here:
Now, “wild horses and burros” are invasive species and they may well do some damage. But, are they an “existential threat” to public lands, a bigger threat than climate change? Not even close.
But this is what you get from the Trump Administration. A complete lack of seriousness or engagement with the real problems facing us. Endless squirrels to deflect attention away from real problems like Pendley’s desire to sell off our national parks and allow endless drilling.
Stories like this are so absurd that they deserve much greater coverage than they are getting. Please do your part to spread to the word.