US climate experts on Tuesday strongly condemned a Trump administration climate report, accusing it of reviving tactics previously used by the tobacco industry to cast doubt on established scientific consensus.
In a 440-page rebuttal, 85 scientists criticised the government for relying on a small group of contrarian voices, who drew on discredited studies, misrepresented evidence, and bypassed peer review to reach predetermined conclusions.
The administration’s 150-page report, released on the Department of Energy (DOE) website in late July, aimed to support the proposal to overturn the 2009 Endangerment Finding — the legal basis for numerous federal regulations on greenhouse gases.
“This report makes a mockery of science,” said Andrew Dessler, climate scientist at Texas A&M University and co-author of the rebuttal.
“It relies on ideas that were rejected long ago, supported by misrepresentations of the body of scientific knowledge, omissions of important facts, arm waving, anecdotes, and confirmation bias.”
The DOE report, titled “A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the US Climate”, made a series of controversial and contradictory claims:
| Claim | DOE Report | Scientific Rebuttal |
| Extreme weather events | Not increasing | Linked to emissions; evidence shows escalation |
| US temperatures | Not rising | Temperatures rising due to human activity |
| Elevated CO₂ | Boosts agriculture | Rising heat and altered rainfall expected to reduce yields overall |
| Solar activity | Could explain warming trends | Overemphasised; human activity remains dominant driver |
| Dust Bowl (1930–36) | Disproves human-caused warming | Misleading; poor land management amplified heat |
| Ocean acidification | Life evolved in acidic oceans; harmless | Irrelevant; complex life did not exist then |
The rebuttal emphasises the coordinated misinformation strategies of the fossil fuel industry: “Just as the tobacco industry funded scientists to question the harms of smoking, the fossil fuel industry engaged in a coordinated campaign throughout the 1990s to fund scientists willing to argue that it was the Sun, and not humans, causing the climate change observed up to that point,” said Ted Amur, climate scientist at Aon Impact Forecasting.
He added he was alarmed to see these ‘zombie arguments’ resurfacing in the DOE report.
The rebuttal highlights that while elevated carbon dioxide can sometimes spur plant growth in isolation, the overall effect of climate change — including rising heat and shifting rainfall — will likely reduce agricultural yields.
Pamela McElwee, ecologist at Rutgers University, criticised the report for ignoring biodiversity impacts, despite their significant social and economic consequences:
“US coral reefs alone provide an estimated $1.8 billion in coastal protection from storms and floods annually,” she noted
Since returning to office in January, President Donald Trump has intensified his pro-fossil fuel agenda compared to his first term. Key actions include:
| Action | Description |
| Legislation | Republicans passed the Big Beautiful Bill, cutting clean energy tax credits and opening sensitive areas to drilling |
| Paris Agreement | US withdrawal |
| International Trade | Pressuring the EU to purchase more US liquefied natural gas |
| Climate Funding | Pressuring the World Bank to scale back climate initiatives |
Experts warn that these policies, coupled with misleading climate reports, undermine scientific consensus and threaten long-term environmental and economic stability.
