Whoever runs the Twitter account for Badlands National Park is a national hero. After the Trump Administration imposed a social media blackout on the National Park Service and the Environmental Protection Agency, Badlands Park fired off a series of tweets that flew in the face of president Donald Trump’s stated beliefs on climate change – only to have those messages removed from the account just hours later.
On Tuesday Badlands National Park’s Twitter account was flush with statements such as “Today, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is higher than at any time in the last 650,000 years. #climate” and “Burning one gallon of gasoline puts nearly 20 lbs of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. #climate”
As Time notes, the tweets came in the aftermath of a brief suspension of all National Park accounts. The act required the U.S. Department of the Interior to suspend operations of its Twitter account after the National Park Services official account retweeted two posts that didn’t reflect well on the Trump Administration.
According to Recode, the Park Service issued an apology that said the tweets were a mistake, which apparently earned back its Twitter privileges. And while it might have displeased the president, the posts helped the NPS Twitter account jump from 7,000 on Monday to 60,000 on Tuesday.
Related: Trump signs executive actions to reinstate Keystone and Dakota Access Pipeline
The kerfuffle comes amidst an even bigger one on the same day that saw Trump sign executive orders aimed at advancing the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines. Trump told reporters at the Oval Office he planned to “renegotiate some of the terms” on the projects, but that he would seek to “get that pipeline built,” while issuing other executive actions requiring the pipelines be built in the U.S. with U.S. materials.
+ Badands National Park Twitter
Images via Stefan Fussan and Recode
