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The Biden administration put out a congressionally mandated climate report on Tuesday, and its release differed greatly from the way a similar report came out in 2018 during the Trump administration.
The National Climate Assessment is due approximately every five years. The U.S. Global Change Research Program is required to issue a report to Congress and the president about how global warming influences the environment, energy, transportation, human health and other sectors. The program consists of 14 federal agencies ranging from the Department of Defense to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The most recent report comes after a year of natural disasters that some scientists believe were exacerbated by climate change, including vast, destructive wildfires in Maui, Hawaii, and extreme heat waves in the U.S. Southwest.
Since the report's release is congressionally mandated, presidential administrations can't ignore it. However, President Joe Biden approached the 2023 report in a much different way than Donald Trump did in November 2018, when the last report was released.
The Trump administration released the report on November 23, 2018, which was Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Days after the report's release, Trump told reporters that he "didn't believe it."
BREAKING: Trump on dire warning issued by his administration on economic effects of climate change: 'I don't believe it'
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 26, 2018
Trump is now running his third presidential campaign and is the clear front-runner for the Republican nomination. Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign by email for comment.
Some organizations spoke out against the Black Friday release, saying the Trump administration was attempting to "bury the truth" about climate change.
"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.
Five years later, the Biden administration is taking a different approach.
The most recent report was published more than a week before Thanksgiving, and the Biden administration held a conference call with reporters about the findings. The National Climate Assessment's release was accompanied by an art gallery project called Art x Climate to further spread the message through paintings, poetry and a podcast.
"Art × Climate is the first art gallery to be featured in the National Climate Assessment. The US Global Change Research Program issued a call for art with the understanding that, together, art and science move people to greater understanding and action," a webpage for the report said.
Biden and the White House have yet to post about the report on X. B Newsweek reached out to the Biden administration by email for comment.
For the past several reports, the U.S. Global Change Research Program has warned against doing nothing to combat climate change and has urged political leaders to reduce fossil fuel usage.
Even with the change in approach by the Biden administration, the report carries a dire warning: Emissions are not falling fast enough to meet the nation's goals, and no part of the U.S. is safe from the impacts of global warming.
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About the writer
Anna Skinner is a Newsweek senior reporter based in Indianapolis. Her focus is reporting on the climate, environment and weather ... Read more
