Daniel Kammen on why he just resigned as Trump's science envoy in viral letter: 'Facts matter'

His letter contained the message: 'IMPEACH'

University of California - Berkeley professor Daniel Kammen publicly resigned from his post as a science envoy to the US State Department in a letter that went viral (Daniel Kammen)

Science envoy to the US State Department Daniel Kammen who resigned in a public letter that went viral has said he did so because "facts matter".

Mr Kammen, a professor at the University of California - Berkeley, told The Independent that the only way for the scientific community to operate in what some former government science advisors during the Trump administration have called an environment of hostility towards evidence and data is "to be clear that facts do matter, and to show that open and inclusive research and action can prevail."

His letter of resignation pointed to Mr Trump's response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia during which Ku Klux Klan members, neo-Nazis, and other white supremacists protested the removal of a statue of Civil War Confederate General Robert E Lee.

Counter-protesters were present to oppose keeping the statue because they saw it as a monument to a losing side in the bloodiest war in America and a monument to hundreds of years of brutal slavery.

Mr Trump has maintained his thought that "many sides" were responsible for the violence that resulted in three deaths - two Virginia State Police officers in a helicopter accident and a counter-protester who was killed after a car rammed into a crowd - and that there were "innocent" protesters who wanted to keep the statue to preserve history who were "treated very badly" by the media.

He did condemn the hate groups but many CEOs and members of various presidential councils felt it was too little, too late.

Mr Kammen wrote in his letter: "Your response to Charlottesville enables racism, sexism, & harms our country and planet."

He posted his resignation letter in full on Twitter, where it was quickly shared tens of thousands of times. The first letters of each paragraph read: "IMPEACH," his apparent message about Mr Trump's presidency.

Mr Kammen said he was inspired by the members of the Presidential Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, who resigned with a letter spelling the message "RESIST" with the first letter of each paragraph after the President's response to Charlottesville.

The Director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at UC- Berkeley, Mr Kammen had been appointed in 2010 as the very first Environment and Climate Partnership for the Americas (ECPA) Fellow at the State Department and worked on a variety of issues including climate change.

He said he did not immediately resign from his consulting post after Mr Trump announced the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change because "left the door open after pulling the US out to return" or re-negotiate the deal, which nearly 200 countries signed in order to reduce carbon emissions and help poorer countries adapt to an already-changed planet.

However, Mr Kammen noted: "while I disagree with that decision, if he were to have engaged, or had [Secretary of State Rex] Tillerson do so, I would be displeased, but would take a wait and see. There seems to be no re-engagment taking place."

In fact, at least three countries - Germany, Italy, and France - were quick to respond to Mr Trump's announcement and said re-negotiation was not possible. Environmental Protection Agency Chief Scott Pruitt may have increased tensions when he insisted that parties must come to the US if they want America in the agreement.

Mr Kammen wrote in the letter that the President's "decision to abdicate the leadership opportunities and job creation benefits" of the Paris Agreement was "not acceptable".

He said that the President has "is justifying and emboldening extremists who threaten other communities. That is not acceptable leadership and impact both domestic issues, and the international level of tolerance, or, actually, intolerance."

Mr Kammen explained that kind of leadership makes his "role as a science envoy charged to facilitate collaborations" between the US, Middle East, and Africa that much more difficult.

Several CEOs also resigned from Presidential business councils in the wake of Mr Trump's comments, prompting him to close them as well as the arts council. Several scientific and engineering advisors to the EPA also previously resigned from serving under the administration or were pushed out as a result of Mr Trump's change in policies towards the environment, the energy sector, and his promotion of the coal industry.