The Trump administration has selected a former geochemist who frequently challenges established climate science to lead the federal government's flagship report on domestic climate impacts.
Matthew Wielicki, who describes himself as an "Earth science professor-in-exile," now heads the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) after federal officials downsized the initiative during Trump's second term.
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In his new role, Wielicki will oversee the National Climate Assessment (NCA), a congressionally mandated report detailing how environmental changes affect Americans.
Wielicki's Background and Views
Wielicki previously questioned scientific findings on social media, expressing doubt about extreme weather attribution and historical warming data published in past assessments.
"If every extreme weather event ends up being attributed to climate change in one way or another, is it really attribution science ...
or just confirmation bias dressed up as science?" he posted on Thursday.
In 2023, he stated that people who believe in climate science are "being sold snake oil."
On his personal blog, titled Irrational Fear, he argued that increasing solar radiation, rather than carbon dioxide, caused recent atmospheric warming trends.
Wielicki left his post as a geosciences professor at the University of Alabama three years ago, saying the profession was "no longer worthy of my efforts."
He cited the earth science community's silence on what he called the false "climate emergency" narrative as a contributing factor.
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