Dear Editor,

There used to be a time in American politics when the presidents who won proclaimed that they were governing for ALL AMERICANS. Back then, candidates who lost graciously acknowledged defeat and the transfer of power between administrations was done peacefully. Both Clintons, Al Gore, Geo H W Bush, Bush Jr, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden all followed this tradition. It was part of what made America the free country it is.

That was pre-Trump. Now we have this man who appears to be driven by a bruised ego and a love of dictators, who is harnessing the vast powers of this government for revenge and personal gain. Did Russia intervene with thousands of bots to boost Trump in 2016? Yes. A bi-partisan congressional committee found this to be true. Did Biden win the election in 2020 outright? Yes.

Nearly every Republican supporter of Trump acknowledged this, as well as multiple governmental agencies… and the Electoral College. Did Trump engage in a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election? Yes, according to the evidence produced by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who has asked that his recent testimony before a congressional panel be made public.  

Now we have a vengeful and unhinged Trump installing plaques in the White House saying terrible things about his democratic predecessors. His latest outrage is his intent to close the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the gem of American climate research, at a time when planet warming is accelerating and extreme weather events are happening all around us.  

Why? He claims global warming is a hoax, but what does he know? He lives in an air-conditioned bubble away from the rest of humanity. One possible reason for closing NCAR is that Colorado won’t free one of his election denying toadies, Tina Peters, who was convicted of five felonies by a Mesa County court for plotting to copy and distribute Mesa County’s election system data to uncover alleged election fraud.

Trump has pardoned Peters, but because she was convicted in a state jurisdiction, he cannot free her. He is furious and Peters has become a “cause celebre” of the extreme right. So he wants to take it out on Colorado.

Russel Voigt, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and a Trump zealot claims that NCAR is “one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.” Sigh. Do we really have to debate whether climate change is real? We have lost so much since Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” came out. How far into the sand do these fools push their heads? 

Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe wrote that shutting down NCAR is “like taking a sledgehammer to the keystone holding up our scientific understanding of the planet.” Since 1960, NCAR scientists have studied Earth’s atmosphere, meteorology, climate science, the Sun, and the impacts of weather and climate on the environment and society.  

Governor Polis, whom Trump called a “sleazebag” for not releasing Peters, stated that if NCAR is shuttered, “public safety is at risk and science is being attacked. Climate change is real, but the work of NCAR goes far beyond climate science. NCAR delivers data around severe weather events like fires and floods that help our country save lives and property and prevent devastation for families.”

Climate denial is in line with Trump’s full speed ahead approach to fossil fuels, despite renewables being now cheaper overall, with much less environmental impact. He’s rewarding fossil fuel donors to power this AI mania which has hypnotized the big corporations like Amazon, Meta, and Google.

Meanwhile China, which is installing solar and wind at unprecedented rates and owns the EV market globally, while Trump illegally cancels all the sensible green initiatives from the Biden administration. Science denial has widespread effects leaving the US out in the cold. Even though he thinks he can, King Donald cannot revoke the laws of physics.  

Bill Thibedeau

Gilpin County