Al Gore accuses Trump officials of trying to ‘bury’ climate report

Former Vice President Al Gore blasted the Trump administration on Friday for choosing to release a major climate change report on the day after Thanksgiving.

“Unbelievably deadly and tragic wildfires rage in the west, hurricanes batter our coasts — and the Trump administration chooses the Friday after Thanksgiving to try and bury this critical U.S. assessment of the climate crisis,” Gore said in a statement.

“The President may try to hide the truth, but his own scientists and experts have made it as stark and clear as possible,” the former vice president-turned climate change advocate added.

My statement on the National Climate Assessment released today: https://t.co/fltD5DOmoy pic.twitter.com/PLpGCnaUc0

— Al Gore (@algore) November 23, 2018

The congressionally mandated federal report details how climate change will interrupt the way people live day-to-day while impacting human health, posing challenges to the global economy and threatening the world’s energy supply.{mosads}

The report, the first of its kind from the Trump administration, makes clear that climate change is real and human caused and that its effects are getting worse. It states that U.S. officials must quickly respond to mitigate its effects.

“The warming trend observed over the past century can only be explained by the effects that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, have had on the climate,” the fourth federal National Climate Assessment reads.

The report contradicts many statements that President Trump has made expressing skepticism about climate change and offers a number of recommendations that are at odds with the Trump administration’s deregulatory agency.

Gore wasn’t the only one to call out the timing of the report’s release on Black Friday, a major day for retailers when Americans are generally more interested in holiday shopping and related festivities.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in a tweet accused the administration of seeking to “bury a new report about the devastating consequences of climate change.”

“Why?” Sanders said. “Because Trump’s actions are actively making it worse.” 

“It’s an absolute disgrace to bury the truth about climate impacts in a year that saw hundreds of Americans die during devastating climate-fueled megafires, hurricanes, floods, and algal blooms,” National Wildlife Federation President Collin O’Mara said in a statement.

David Easterling, director of the National Centers for Environmental Information Technical Support Unit, said the release date was moved up because the program responsible for it felt it “would be a topic of discussion” at two international conferences coming up.

“We wanted to get this out sufficiently in advance of those meetings to ensure that folks have a chance to review it,” Easterling said during a phone call with reporters on Friday.