Hours after reports surfaced that Donald Trump had issued a media blackout of the Environmental Protection Agency, a national park posted and then deleted a series of climate change facts.
Bandlands National Park in South Dakota began by tweeting about the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and also tweeted about the increase of ocean acidity.
The tweets were quickly deleted.
The tweets appeared to come in response to reports that Trump had told the EPA to freeze all grants and contracts, and that employees were no longer permitted to speak to members of the media or provide updates on social media.
These Badlands National Park tweets. Gone. Staff in the office? pic.twitter.com/Hgza4GDK8H
— Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) January 24, 2017
Trump has denied climate change on social media in the past. In 2012, he tweeted that he believed the concept of global warming was a hoax created by the Chinese.
Trump’s appointment to lead the EPA, Scott Pruitt, has ties to the oil industry and sued the agency a number of times as Oklahoma’s attorney general.
Monday’s thread was the second time since Trump took office on Friday that the National Parks Service took at shot at the president. During inauguration ceremonies, the agency’s account retweeted a side-by-side comparison of the crowd size at Barack Obama’s inauguration and Trump’s. That retweet was eventually deleted.
The National Park Service did not tweet over the weekend, telling CNN they were investigating whether their account had been hacked. The agency resumed tweeting on Monday.
The National Parks Service is controlled by the Department of the Interior.
Alex Hider is a writer for the E.W. Scripps National Desk. Follow him on Twitter @alexhider.
