Government climate change report leaked amid fears Trump administration might suppress it

Donald Trump might not believe in climate change, but scientists working under him sure do.

Scientists from 13 federal agencies have produced a climate change report highlighting the stark rise in temperature over the last several decades and the role human activity plays in it, according to the New York Times, which obtained a private, draft copy.

The report’s findings directly contradict claims by President Trump that global warming is a “hoax” perpetrated by the Chinese, as well as claims by Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt that carbon dioxide is not a primary contributor to global warming.

The draft report, which is part of the congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment, was approved by National Academy of Sciences, according to the Times, but it is currently awaiting approval from the Trump administration. Government scientists cited anonymously in the Times say they’re worried the report could get suppressed.

A copy was published online by the Times, and VICE News compiled several of its most important findings.

• The last few years have seen “record-breaking, climate-related weather extremes as well as the warmest years on record for the globe.”

• Scientists found with “very high” confidence that the global annual average temperature (measured over land and ocean) increased more than 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit between 1880 and 2015.
• There are “many lines of evidence” to show that human activities were “primarily responsible for observed climate changes in the industrial era.”
• Even if humans stopped emitting greenhouse gases today, the earth would still warm up 0.5 degrees Fahrenheit over this century because of the already existing levels in the atmosphere.
• Extreme weather events are occurring more frequently and have become more intense. The warmest days have become warmer since the early 1960s and extreme heat waves have become more frequent.
• Overall, it has rained more heavily and more frequently in the U.S. since 1901, and the highest increase has been observed in the northeastern part of the U.S.
• Oceans have risen 8-9 inches since 1880, the report found with “very high confidence,” citing human activity as making a “substantial contribution” to that rise.
• Oceans are getting increasingly acidic because they are absorbing a quarter of the carbon dioxide produced from man-made activities, which is a growing threat to marine life.

Since Trump’s inauguration, top scientists across the country have said they’ve been blocked out by the Trump administration. As early as Jan. 26, Christine McEntee, chief executive and executive director of the American Geophysical Union, told the Washington Post, “The signals are not encouraging, and they’re alarming, and they’re causing a lot of fear in the scientific community.”