The Interior Department left 'climate change' off its new strategic plan, but we're sure that's just a typo
The Interior Department — which manages the country's 417 national parks and governs hundreds of millions of acres of other public lands — made a striking omission from a draft version of its new five-year strategic plan. The Sept. 24 version of the document, which was first reported by The Nation, contains precisely zero references to "climate change" in its 48 pages.
This is rather odd for the agency containing the U.S. Geological Service (USGS) and National Park Service, among other entities dealing with the impacts of global warming. Numerous USGS scientists study climate change, for example.
The lack of climate change references also contrasts with the previous strategic plan for the agency, which was completed under the Obama administration and contained 46 references to "climate change."
The strategic plan is just one sign of a far larger shift taking place at the agency under Secretary Ryan Zinke, a former Republican congressman from Montana. Under Zinke, the Interior Department's priorities have already been tilting heavily in favor of extracting resources from our public lands, rather than protecting and preserving the 500 million acres of land and 1.7 billion acres of Outer Continental Shelf waters that it manages.
The new strategic plan places significant emphasis on revenue-generating activities on public lands, such as drilling for oil, coal, natural gas, or other valuable resources. Under the Obama administration, Interior was more focused on balancing resource extraction activities with conservation goals, and factored climate change into everything from planning decisions at National Parks to what kinds of energy production should take place on public lands.
Zinke, who is under fire for making use of private air travel for Interior Department business and a recent no-bid, $300 million government contract for a small logistics company he has ties to, has taken other steps that further demonstrate just how hostile the agency has become to mainstream climate science. Under his leadership, about 50 senior Interior Department employees, including a senior climate scientist, received involuntary reassignments to other agency offices.
Joel Clement, who was director of the Office of Policy Analysis, working on climate issues, was transferred to the department's Office of Natural Resources Revenue. This transfer occurred despite Clement's total lack of accounting experience. He spoke out about the potentially illegal transfer in the Washington Post in June.
"I believe I was retaliated against for speaking out publicly about the dangers that climate change poses to Alaska Native communities," Clement wrote. "During the months preceding my reassignment, I raised the issue with White House officials, senior Interior officials, and the international community, most recently at a U.N. conference in June."
"It is clear to me that the administration was so uncomfortable with this work, and my disclosures, that I was reassigned with the intent to coerce me into leaving the federal government," he said.
Clement resigned from his new post on Oct. 4, and the Interior Department Inspector General is currently investigating his and other senior staff members' involuntary reassignments.
Andrew Freedman is Mashable's Senior Editor for Science and Special Projects. Prior to working at Mashable, Freedman was a Senior Science writer for Climate Central. He has also worked as a reporter for Congressional Quarterly and Greenwire/E&E Daily. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Post, online at The Weather Channel, and washingtonpost.com, where he wrote a weekly climate science column for the "Capital Weather Gang" blog. He has provided commentary on climate science and policy for Sky News, CBC Radio, NPR, Al Jazeera, Sirius XM Radio, PBS NewsHour, and other national and international outlets. He holds a Masters in Climate and Society from Columbia University, and a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts University.
