Siding with science, a top intelligence official rejects Trump's policy of climate denial

Diverging from the Trump administration party line, Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, issued a warning about the dangers of a warming planet, including the possibility of “conflict, water and food shortages, population migration, labor shortfalls, price shocks, and power outages.” Contained within the White House intelligence office's annual summary of global threats, the laundry list of dire outcomes was a reminder to members of the Senate of what the scientific community has known for decades: Climate change is a force that must be reckoned with. The report by Coats, a Trump appointee, contrasted sharply with the president's efforts to scrub climate change preparedness from public policy, to cripple the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and to hand over the U.S. Department of the Interior to the oil and gas industry.