This blog will highlight some of the current battle lines, and also describe the heroic measures now being formulated and implemented to fight this War on Reason.
We have all heard about President Trump’s penchant for making up facts and pushing them out to his followers, but this blog series is not about that on-going, and unprecedented, problem. Since Day 1, this administration has begun the process of actively (or by accident!) suppressing scientists who are working in politically uncomfortable fields such as climate change and Earth science. This is only the beginning of what will be a long battle against clarity and reason.
Bad News Bullets.
January 25 – The Trump administration has told the EPA to remove its climate change data from its website (The Business Insider)
January 24 – Badlands National Park deletes tweets on climate change(CNN)
January 24 – Trump imposes gag order on EPA and USDA (USUNCUT)
January 24 – Trump Administration Restricts News from Federal Scientists at USDA, EPA (Scientific American)
January 23 – EPA freezes grants. Tells employees not to talk about it – (Huffington Post)
January 23 – CDC abruptly cancels long-planned conference on climate change and health (The Washington Post)
January 20 – White House Office of Science and Technology climate change webpage disappears after Trump’s inauguration (The Hill)
December 20 – Canadian Scientists Warn U.S. Colleagues: Act Now to Protect Science under Trump (Scientific American)
December 13 – Scientists are frantically copying U.S. climate data, fearing it might vanish under Trump (The Washington Post)
November 23 – Trump adviser proposes dismantling NASA climate research (Chicago Tribune)
October 30 – Trump takes aim at NASA’s climate budget (The Hill)
May 15 – House Budget Cuts NASA Earth Science By More Than $250 Million (SpaceNews)
Good News Bullets
January 26 – CDC’s canceled climate change conference is back on — thanks to Al Gore (Washington Post)
January 26 – NPS Climate Change website still online (NPS.gov)
January 26 – National Park Service staff escalate campaign against Trump – No one from the Trump administration has complained or asked them to remove the posts – (CBSnews)
January 26 – USDA Office of Chief Economist – climate change report still online (USDA.gov)
January 26 – EPA climate change website still online (EPA.gov)
January 26 – The Department of Energy Climate and Environmental Science Division webpage is still online (energy.gov)
January 25 – USDA scrambles to ease concerns after researchers were ordered to stop publishing news releases (Washington Post)
January 25 – Scientists planning their own march on Washington (CNN)
January 25 – Report: Trump Team Backtracks On Order To Remove EPA Climate Site (InsideEPA)
January 25 – NASA scientists join resistance with rogue Twitter account @rogueNASA with over 27,000 followers. (USUncut)
January 25 – National Park Service employees set up rogue twitter account to disseminate climate change information @AltNatParkSer (USUncut)
January 25 – EPA employees set up rogue twitter account to disseminate science @AltUSEPA (USUncut)
January 24 – Badlands NPS goes on climate change tweetstorm (USAToday)
January 24 – People’s Climate March being organized for April 29 in Washington DC. (PeoplesClimate.org)
January 24 – USDA disavows gag-order emailed to scientific research unit (Reuters)
January 24 – March for Science starts organizing on Facebook with 500,000 registrants in 24 hours – #ScienceMarch #ScienceResists #USofScience (MarchForScience)
January 24 – Trump’s pick to lead Commerce Department says NOAA scientists can freely share their work (Washington Post)
January 10 – NASA Earth science director expects short-term budget stability (for FY17: The division received $1.92 billion in 2016, and requested $2.03 billion for 2017) – (SpaceNews)
December 28 – Earth scientists are freaking out. NASA urges calm. (SpaceNews)
Bookmark this blog for future updates as new news develops!