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Response to Grost’s “Why the federal government is making climate data disappear.” Adam Zakman. University of California - Davis.

The erasure of National Climate Assessments and limiting the availability of vital climate data is not accurately described by the author as a "flex of executive power, an escalation of the culture war over climate change, or a strategic attempt to erase the scientific foundation for climate policy." It is a clear abuse of executive power and a testament to Trump's influence over U.S. industry. Trump, historically, has brought attention to "culture war" issues to distract and draw attention away from specific topics, not as a guide for his policy. Additionally, climate change denialism is far from being a popular decision.

In 2024, Nature published an article by Andre et al. sharing demographic data on the global support for climate action. They found that the vast majority of Americans believe climate change to be a real phenomenon, with 74% of Americans agreeing that "the national government should do more to fight global warming." Furthermore, Our World In Data published a study called "More people care about climate change than you think," stating that the mainstream discussion surrounding climate change has grown past the debate over its existence and " is now about the merits of different solutions, not whether we should act." Given the widespread support for climate action, even among Republican voters and officials, an attempt by Trump to use this as an escalation to the 'culture war' would only diminish his credibility among the average voter.

The scale and impact of this "climate erasure" are too great to be explained away as a "flex of executive power." This is Trump actualizing his plan to drive money towards Big Oil and other GHG-emitting fuel industry leaders who donated over $450 million to his most recent campaign.

Trump and his administration understand that support for climate action has become too ubiquitous for their climate change denialism to be taken seriously, so they pivoted. By eliminating the variety and amount of information dedicated to measuring the impact of climate change and taking funding away from researchers studying the efficacy of climate change mitigation measures, Trump is stripping away essential tools and knowledge, thereby undermining the capacity for people to reach a consensus on how to approach mitigating climate change. The result is a diversion in the form of an endless debate with no clear answer that distracts the populace from Trump allowing Big Oil's dominance over the U.S. energy market to continue.

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