Internal government emails reveal new details about Mark Zuckerberg’s canceled meeting with a US Geological Survey climate scientist.

The Trump administration was recently criticized for canceling a meeting between federal climate scientist Dan Fagre and Mark Zuckerberg at Glacier National Park. The Facebook CEO wished to discuss global warming's effect on glaciers with Fagre. Only, at the very last minute, the scientist was prevented from attending. Friday, Motherboard published internal emails between Interior Department (DOI) staff, in which they discussed Fagre's dismissal. These documents were provided to us by the US Geological Survey (USGS) through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Saturday, Motherboard received additional documents from the National Park Service (NPS) in response to an identical FOIA request we submitted in June. The more than 300 pages of emails confirm that Trump administration appointees took issue with Fagre's involvement in the event. The emails also show that NPS staff were left scrambling to explain Fagre's exclusion to Facebook, which repeatedly requested a government scientist capable of speaking about the effects of climate change on melting glaciers at the park. The emails also show that, prior to Fagre's exclusion, NPS Acting Director Michael Reynolds suggested that the administration could try to "manage the talking point" of government scientists during the meeting...more