While climate change is still known to exist in most parts of the world, the USA appears to be doing its best to ignore the idea that it ever was or could be an issue—if the latest round of stupidity is anything to go by.

In an email last Monday, the administration dismissed all 400 scientists and other authors working on the next authoritative look at how climate change affects the country.

The report they’re tasked with producing is the National Climate Assessment, an ongoing and rolling review that last came out in 2023. It found that climate change is already transforming every region of the country, with more frequent and intense extreme weather events, as well as a slew of other costly and harmful effects.

It’s a move that will allow the administration to skip the congressionally mandated report (Global Change Research Act, 1990) altogether, possibly favouring a more sceptical take on what the bulk of respected scientists have accepted for many years.

The currently planned document is the Sixth Assessment. The fifth (https://nca2023.globalchange.gov/) was released during Trump’s first term but was mostly produced under the Obama administration.

Before the dismissal of the authors slated to work on the next iteration, NASA had already cancelled a key contract with the consulting firm ICF to support the US Global Change Research Program, which produces the reports, CNN reported.

Professor Dustin Mulvaney of San Jose State University, who was to be involved in the following assessment due in 2027, issued a warning about potential outcomes that could result.

“Losing this report makes us less prepared for extreme weather, wildfire, sea level rise and other important changes we face on a warming planet,” he said.

The report’s fundamentals enable urban planners and other professionals nationwide to better assess potential risks and structure local initiatives.

It’s a “crucial resource” for communities, local and state governments, and businesses, asking how climate change is affecting the things they care about now and into the future, and what can be done to reduce risks, says climate scientist Meade Krosby from the University of Washington.

The decision comes at a time when many scientists are expressing outright alarm at the climate threats humanity faces.

NASA scientist Peter Kalmus chained himself to the doors of JP Morgan-Chase building in LA in protest at the bank’s support of fossil fuel financing.

An emotional Kalmus broke down in tears in the video shot at the time, saying, “We’re going to lose everything. And we’re not joking, we’re not lying, we’re not exaggerating.”