It is no secret that the screaming Twitter man in charge of the United States and scientists do not get along. Everyone knows this.
The President and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt (Image: AP)
As if scientists weren’t angry enough from Trump’s rejecting evidence-based facts, they also happen to be human beings, human beings who do not like the fact that the President of the United States finds it difficult to condemn white supremacists and literal swastika-waving Neo-Nazis. In response, one scientist, Daniel Kammen, has resigned from his post in the US Department of State’s Science Envoy position.
The resignation letter contains a secret message: The first letter of each paragraph spells out “IMPEACH”.
Mr. President, I am resigning as Science Envoy. Your response to Charlottesville enables racism, sexism, & harms our country and planet. pic.twitter.com/eWzDc5Yw6t
— Daniel M Kammen (@dan_kammen) August 23, 2017
Kammen runs the Renewable and Applied Energy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. As a science envoy, his role is to “leverage [his] expertise and networks to forge connections and identify opportunities for sustained international cooperation,” according to the State Department website. Kammen’s role, specifically, is “building capacity for renewable energies”.
In his letter, Kammen lists his decision to resign specifically as the President’s “attacks on core values of the United States”, including his “failure to condemn white supremacists and neo-Nazis”, which has “domestic and international ramifications”. He lists the Charlottesville response as “particularly troubling”, as part of a “broader pattern of behaviour that enables sexism and racism”.
The resignation comes in the wake of a ton of others in response to the President’s post-Charlottesville behaviour. CEOs began stepping down from the US President’s manufacturing council before he disbanded it. All of the members from the White House Arts Committee also resigned this week. And the assault on science continues — the NOAA under the President disbanded the National Climate Assessment Advisory Committee, also last week.
I reached out to Kammen and the White House for further comment, but had not heard back at time of writing.