Trump's War on Science

The Union of Concerned Scientists has compiled a list of the Trump Administration's efforts to silence the science that they don't like.  Although they don't involve locking scientists in cages, the kind of treatment that immigrants are getting at the southern border, the fact that they are ignoring science is a bad practice for the long-term benefit of the country.

There are a few particular points that are galling:

USDA announced a decision to relocate two of its research agencies, the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), from Washington DC to the Kansas City region. Scientists from these agencies have been quitting in large numbers as a result of this reorganization.   With almost no notice, the USDA decided to move major research agencies from the D.C.-area to Kansas City.  Scientists were given only a few months to decide to relocate their families or quit their jobs.  The rationale for the move seems to be largely fabricated.

According to the Huffington Post, "Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, ...speaking to the South Carolina Republican Party, brought up the USDA move and how many workers decided to resign because of it, calling it 'a wonderful way to sort of streamline government.'"  This move may also be illegal, since it isn't authorized by Congressional appropriation.

There is a general effort to suppress information on climate change in several agencies:  

• US Geological Survey (USGS) wrote a press release on a new climate change study; however, Trump administration officials delayed the press release for several months and then released a highly edited version that removed references to the study’s main findings.   
• Scientific assessments produced by USGS can only use climate models that project the impact of climate change through 2040, rather than through the end of the century as has been done previously.  
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, facing likely opposition from the incoming administration, canceled a planned conference on climate change and health.
• EPA Administrator Pruitt falsely claimed that carbon dioxide is not a primary contributor to global warming.
• Department of Energy websites [removed] references to climate change, downplay impacts of fossil fuels and scale back benefits of clean energy.
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration failed to link greenhouse gas emissions to human activity.
• Department of Interior’s strategic plan for 2018-2022 eliminated all mention of climate change and instead prioritized energy production on public lands. 
• Joshua Tree National Park’s Twitter account published a series of tweets based on climate change science, [and] Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke reprimanded the park’s superintendent in person and ordered the park to cease posting tweets on climate change.  
• Department of Interior remove[d] climate change and conservation from internal consideration by rescinding four science-based policies.
• USGS scientists will be unable to respond to reporters’ questions in a timely fashion, leading to a lack of dissemination of important scientific knowledge to the public.

Although these items may look insignificant by themselves, they show a larger pattern.  They all have the name of Trump on them, but clearly Trump had little to do with them personally in any detail.  They indicate that there are plenty of people in the Administration who are willing to take measures to follow Trump's directive to stop talking about climate change and pay little attention to scientific or rational discussions of issues.

This pattern may affect the way the government and the country is run for years into the future.