Sponsored message
Logged in as
Audience-funded nonprofit news
radio tower icon laist logo
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Subscribe
  • Listen Now Playing Listen
  • Listen Now Playing Listen

This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.

This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

News

Badlands National Park Has Gone Totally Rogue And Started Tweeting Climate Facts [Updated]

Badlands00534.JPG_-_Version_2.JPG
Badlands National Park (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)

One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.

On Tuesday, the keeper of the keys to the official Badlands National Park Twitter account went blissfully rogue and decided to drop some science knowledge on the public. And we're not just talking vanilla science, we're talking climate science.

It's 23 degrees out in South Dakota, on a day when now-President Donald Trump muzzled EPA employees and signed executive actions advancing the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipeline, and whoever is running the Badlands account had clearly reached their boiling point. He or she didn't care that a gag order had been temporarily placed on all Department of Interior Twitter accounts, which happened after another hero employee had kicked up a hell of a storm by retweeting two less-than-favorable sentiments about Trump on the main National Parks account (which they "regret"). Climate change is real, and they were ready to tweet about it.

Things were still going normally on the account at 8:40 a.m. PST, when they issued a nice but extremely non-controversial tweet pairing a pretty picture with a Frank Lloyd Wright quote.

But then, an hour and ten minutes later, things started to get interesting:

Then came the science. That's when things got crazy:

Sponsored message

God bless whoever runs this social media account, and the rugged 244,000 acres of park they rep. We're pulling for you.

Sidenote: What does it say about America in 2017, when a national park tweeting out scientific facts is the definition of going rogue?

Update [2:30 p.m. PST]:
As of 2:30 p.m., all of the climate-referencing tweets have been deleted. The screenshots, however, will live forever, much like the damage we have caused to our environment.

One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.

You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.

If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief

Make your tax-deductible donation today