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Regular-article-logo Monday, 18 November 2024

Blind amphibian to be named after Donald Trump

Dermophis donaldtrumpi is the name for the amphibian with no legs and poor eyesight

PTI London Published 19.12.18, 10:37 AM
The small creature is blind and has an ability to bury its head in the ground. These features match Trump's opinion on climate change, says the person who picked the name.

The small creature is blind and has an ability to bury its head in the ground. These features match Trump's opinion on climate change, says the person who picked the name. AP file picture

Donald Trump is getting a blind amphibian named after him, thanks to his stance on climate change, according to a media report.

EnviroBuild, a UK-based sustainable building materials company, announced on Tuesday that it would be using Dermophis donaldtrumpi as the name for the newly discovered amphibian from Panama with no legs and poor eyesight.

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The company says the name still will need to undergo peer review, but other animals have been named after presidents in the past.

The name was chosen by Aidan Bell, the boss of the firm that paid thousands at an auction for the right, The Guardian reported.

Trump in June last year withdrew the US from the Paris climate change agreement, which commits countries to keeping a limit on rising global temperatures.

The small creature is blind and has an ability to bury its head in the ground. These features, Bell said, match the US leader's opinion on climate change.

The company said Trump was 'the perfect name' for the limbless animal.

It is the perfect name. Caecilian is taken from the Latin caecus, meaning 'blind', perfectly mirroring the strategic vision President Trump has consistently shown towards climate change.

Aidan Bell, who chose the name

The Panamanian underground amphibians are particularly vulnerable to global warming.

Dermophis donaldtrumpi, 10 cm in length and belonging to a group of snakelike animals called caecilians, was recently found in Panama by a group of scientists.

Its naming rights were auctioned off in a fundraiser for Rainforest Trust, a non-profit rainforest conservation organisation, the report said.

The winning bid of $34,478 was made by Aidan Bell.

'It is the perfect name,' Bell said. 'Caecilian is taken from the Latin caecus, meaning 'blind', perfectly mirroring the strategic vision President Trump has consistently shown towards climate change,' he said.

Bell said Trump's worldview resembled a caecilian's, whose eyes can only detect light and dark.

'Capable of seeing the world only in black and white, Donald Trump has claimed that climate change is a hoax by the Chinese,' he added.

I don't know that it's manmade. I'm not denying climate change but [temperatures] could very well go back.

Donald Trump

The world's leading scientists agree that climate change is primarily human-induced.

But Trump, whose administration has pursued a pro-fossil fuels agenda, has accused those scientists of having a 'political agenda' and cast doubts on whether humans were responsible for the Earth's rising temperatures.

'I don't know that it's manmade,' he said in an interview with CBS's 60 Minutes in October. 'I'm not denying climate change but [temperatures] could very well go back,' he added, without offering evidence.

He justified this decision by asserting that he had been elected to serve the citizens of Pittsburgh and not Paris and the deal disadvantaged US businesses and workers.

Caecilians lost their limbs at least 60 million years ago to better burrow in the earth, and live almost entirely underground.

'Burrowing its head underground helps Donald Trump when avoiding scientific consensus on anthropomorphic climate change and also appointed several energy lobbyists to the Environment Agency, where their job is to regulate the energy industry,' Bell said.

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