This story was originally published by Fusion and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
In Trump’s America, Sarah Palin might be the next secretary of the Interior Department. According to an anonymous Politico source, the former Alaska governor and onetime vice-presidential hopeful is being considered for the job, and Trump has already said she will certainly hold a place in his cabinet. Other people reportedly on Trump’s short list for the Interior Secretary position include oil barons and Trump’s own son, Donald Trump Jr., who The Washington Post says could conceivably squeak past nepotism laws by declining to be paid a salary.
In any of these cases, things are about to change drastically for the scientists and officials that study, manage, and preserve America’s national parks and public lands. The Secretary of the Interior is in charge of overseeing the National Park Service, as well as overseeing all federal lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, and presiding over the U.S. Geological Survey, a massive scientific research agency which studies America’s natural resources and anything that threatens them — you know, like c... Read more
