You cannot stop climate change with an executive order.

Misinformation is defined as politically motivated actors spreading false or misleading information to reinforce their beliefs. While it can be harmful, it is more of a symptom than a disease. Research shows that misinformation does not change the beliefs and actions of those who encounter it; it merely tends to reinforce them. Misinformation is simply bad actors preaching to the choir.

Republicans don’t want to hear that the climate is changing because it challenges their beliefs. The erasing of most climate-related information from government communication in Republican jurisdictions is a political act, not a scientific one. When you fire the director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because your policies are losing jobs, that is a political action, not an economic one. Spreading misinformation about the causes of failure provides false comfort to the uninformed.

In 1990, Congress passed, and President Bush signed the Global Change Research Act which mandated the compilation, every four years, of a National Climate Assessment. The assessments were intended to assemble scientific subject-matter experts from 15 federal agencies to “inform the nation about already observed changes, the current status of the climate, and anticipated trends for the future”.

Republicans don’t want to hear it. The Trump administration is dismantling the scientific foundations of our government. When it encounters information it doesn’t like, it simply eliminates it. Thus, it has removed past assessments from the public, then selected a handful of sketchy, like-minded ideologues to re-write the most current one to conform to his political, not scientific, beliefs. We will all suffer because of it.

The First National Climate Assessment (NCA) was published in 2000. There have been five in total. One key finding from the fourth assessment stated:

“[G]lobal efforts to mitigate the causes of climate change nor regional efforts to adapt to the impacts currently approach the scales needed to avoid substantial damages to the U.S. economy, environment, and human health and well-being over the coming decades.”

The fifth assessment was published in 2023. Among its many findings, it stated that with each additional increment of global warming, climate impacts in the US are projected to be more severe. In the Northeast, the most noticeable evidence of this is rainfall. Annual average US rainfall has increased rapidly, and more rain falls during the most extreme precipitation events. Since the 1950s, such events have become more frequent. These changes have contributed to increases in river and stream flooding. The Fifth National Climate Assessment found that the Northeast has experienced the largest regional increase of extreme precipitation in the U.S., with a 60% increase in recent decades.

Since the 1950s, there has been a 49% increase in the number of days with over 2 inches of rain, a 62% increase in the number of days with over 3 inches of rain, an 84% increase in the number of days with over 4 inches of rainfall, and a 104% increase in the number of days with over 5 inches of rainfall. This is data measured by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service. These are the facts and the facts are not political. Hiding those that disagree with your beliefs is.

Climate change does not ’cause’ the flooding, it makes it worse and more frequent. It does not ’cause’ wildfires, it makes them bigger, more destructive, and more frequent all over the world. Just look out your window at the smoke-filled sky. Climate change does not ’cause’ heatwaves, it makes them more frequent and more intense. An increase in extreme precipitation is only one result of human caused global warming. There are many others and the cost is adding up. Pretending the facts don’t exist won’t make us safer, lower our insurance rates, lower food prices, or prevent us from getting sick from unhealthy air.

When you fail to “inform the nation about already observed changes, the current status of the climate, and anticipated trends for the future”, you will also fail “to avoid substantial damages to the U.S. economy, environment, and human health and well-being over the coming decades.”

Tom Meara is a Jamestown resident.