CDC Postpones Climate Conference Ahead Of Donald Trump's Inauguration

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The Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) has postponed a summit previously scheduled for next month on climate change and public health ahead of President Donald Trump's inauguration. The CDC and participants confirmed the date change on Monday.

Although, the Trump administration did not ask for the postponement, a scheduled speaker of the Climate and Health Summit believes the move was made with the regards to the new President's position on climate change. Trump reportedly described the climate change as a hoax, though his Cabinet has tried to use a moderate tone in confirmation hearings.

The CDC started sending out notifications on the postponement of the summit to participants just before Christmas, CDC spokeswoman, Bernadette Burden said. The new of the postponement was first reported by E&E News, which reports that the CDC took a new role to treat climate change as a public health issue under the Obama administration and an effort to use its resources to help cities and states prepare for the public health  issues associated with climate change, such as extended heat waves, increased air pollution and rise in sea level.

The CDC is currently working with 16 states and two cities on public health initiatives relating to climate change. However, the American Public Health Association is planning a fall meeting, Executive Director, George Benjamin acknowledged, but the February conference had been intended to serve as a kickoff to a year of climate and health related events. He noted that the postponement bears the hallmark of the influence of the Trump administration.

"They were afraid that the Trump administration would cancel it and it would create all kinds of political headaches for them," he said. Benjamin continued to say that the CDC has received political heat in the past for positions on sensitive issues like a gun initiative. The climate scientists have been concerned about what the new administration might do on environmental policy since his election, according to CNN.

Many have been creating their own archives of government climate data for fear that it could possibly disappear from the agency's websites, others were alarmed when a new white house website did not immediately have a page for climate change.

One of Trump's first executive actions was stopping any Obama administration regulations that were not already finalized, which is common for an incoming administration of a different party. The action stopped some environmental rules.

Benjamin noted that he and APHA are disappointed, but they hope the interested groups will find a way to hold another conference later in the year, with or without the new administration. Trump's environmental nominees have revived the hope of environmental groups in confirmation hearings, but most of them have refrained from voicing out a contrary opinion.

The nominees have not called climate change a hoax, rather, they have all said that the climate is changing and man has a role, but they added that determining how much of a factor human action is and on how to stop it is still debatable. However, this position is contrary to the consensus among scientists that climate change is man-made and immediate action is required to prevent a number of harmful effects that could arise as a result.