It’s early days in the President Trump administration but already it seems that any hopes he wouldn’t be as bad for the environment as first feared seem outdated and hopelessly optimistic. Less than a week since he took the hot seat, Trump has already signed off on a number of things that put the environment itself at risk and undermine the very real battle against climate change.

Trump, who lest we forget looks like the back-end-of-a-horse, has tweeted in the past that he believes global warming to be a hoax created by the Chinese to negatively impact upon the competitiveness of American manufacturing – so, with that in mind, we perhaps shouldn’t be surprised that he’s already got stuck into dismantling battlements put in place to curb climate change.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the National Park Service (as well as the US Department of Agriculture, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Transportation) have all been told to cease and desist communications with the public and the media regarding their research. Organisations and scientists, it’s worth saying, that are funded by the American taxpayers.