Glacier National Park. Photo by Tim Rains, National Park Service.
This isn’t ironic, it’s unconscionable.
At the same time scientists released a study finding Glacier National Park’s namesake glaciers are headed for extinction, Trump’s U.S. Department of the Interior scrubbed its website of pictures of melting glaciers and discussions of climate change.
Even more galling, Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke, had the nerve to also spend his time at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by visiting a coal seam. Yes, a coal seam.
Took a look at the coal seam at Grand Staircase outside Big Water. Listening and learning. pic.twitter.com/gkEeqiAMky
— Secretary Ryan Zinke (@SecretaryZinke) May 10, 2017
As if that wasn’t enough, Zinke vowed to dismantle limits on methane pollution from the oil and gas industry, even though Congress refused to do so.
The move come even as Interior Department scientists continue to sound the alarm over climate change and the effect of unchecked carbon pollution.
As one U.S. Geological Survey scientist put it, “it is humans” who have changed the climate and are fueling the loss of glaciers in Glacier National Park and beyond
While we’ve known that Zinke is totally in bed with the fossil fuel industry, this level of climate denial really crystallizes what we’re up against. This isn’t just an Interior Secretary doing the bidding of oil and gas and coal companies, it’s an Interior Secretary at war with reality.
Sadly, for Americans, it means our public lands everywhere are at more risk than ever. While Glacier’s glaciers stand to disappear, it’s only a matter of time before we lose our most iconic, valuable, and critically American landscapes.
While we’re standing up to confront Trump’s and Zinke’s war on reality, the stakes are high. For anyone who cares about the future of the American West, now is the time to be outraged, engage, and be a part of a movement to defend and restore reality and reverence for our lands and our climate.
