Trump policy eliminates ‘climate change’ from Coast Guard curriculum

The missions of the US Coast Guard propel its members across changing and sometimes perilous waters, into neighbourhoods damaged by ever-more-intense hurricanes and around the melting ice of the Arctic.

However, the academy that trains most of the officers of the nation’s seagoing law enforcement and search and rescue force has eliminated ‘climate change’ and related terminology from its curriculum in an effort to conform to President Donald Trump’s policies.

Dr Amy Donahue, provost and Chief Academic Officer of the academy, confirmed the move in a statement posted last week on the Coast Guard Academy Alumni Association’s website. The association said in an online post that it had reached out to her office after receiving “several letters of concern” on how climate policy was playing out at the New London, Connecticut, institution.

Amy wrote that the academy was required to make the changes because of the President’s executive order withdrawing past climate change policies as well as a directive on 14 February from Kristi Noem, Homeland Security Secretary. Kristi had ordered department officials to “eliminate all climate change activities and the use of climate change terminology in Department of Homeland Security policies and programmes.”