The Centers for Disease Control just quietly canceled a long-planned major climate change summit, which was set to take place next month in Atlanta, via an email sent to scheduled speakers. E&E News, a trade publication for energy and environment professionals, obtained a copy of the email and published details on its website this afternoon.
In the email, the CDC suggested that it "may take place next year," and that organizers are "currently exploring options."
No reason for the abrupt cancellation has been offered, but it doesn’t take a seasoned gumshoe to cobble together the evidence. Newly elected President Donald Trump has made no secret of the fact that he opposes environmental efforts and climate change policies. The pages that deal with climate change on the White House website disappeared shortly after Trump’s inauguration as did all references to climate change generally. The CDC, wrote E&E News, is known to “back down” in the face of political opposition, quoting one former CDC director as saying, the agency has a “long history of political retreats.”