The Scientific Method, or “Reality Studies” as we like to call it, is the beating heart of today’s world. More than religion, more than war, more than any other philosophical or political revolution, the Scientific Revolution been the foundation of virtually every human advance since the 1600’s. If you are a hawk then Science gives you the ability to conquer your enemies, if you’re a dove then it gives you the ability to prosper with them. Since we all depend on this Golden Goose for our livelihood, what’s the Trump Administration’s plan for it? Kill it with fire. To inflate your ire this month we bring you a look at the Trumpet’s all-too-successful attempts to gut Science and muzzle Scientists, from slashing scientific advisory boards to strangling funding to just putting gag orders on facts. Your life depends on Science, the life of your family, humanity, and even the planet depend on Science, so get Furious as we watch an entire generation of scientific minds flushed down the toilet of expediency…
Science denial is pervasive today. Climate Change denial is the poster child, but Flat Earthers and Anti-vaxers are too other gigantic examples in the public sphere. These beliefs don’t cause much of a problem if they stay on the fringe, but when they become mainstream they cause real problems. The resurgence of measles in the US is a perfect example, but the death of the planet could occur if denialism persists around Climate Change.
A strongly held opinion is not the same as a fact, and that doesn’t change if the opinion is motivated by fear, political expediency, or religious preference. Science establishes facts, and then we make policy based on those facts. If a poison kills bees we can choose to use it or not but we can’t pretend the bees aren’t dead. We may decide it’s too expensive to save the planet, but we can’t pretend it stops warming because we stop caring.
The Assault on Science
Attacks on Science- Ongoing, updated list of attacks on Science, Union of Concerned Scientists
The Trump Administration Has Attacked Science 100 Times … and Counting. That’s more than any administration since the Union of Concerned Scientists started tracking. Carter, Desikan, and Goldman in Scientific American, May 2019
Inside a Trump-era purge of military scientists at a legendary think tank, Charles Levinson on Reuters, Jul 2019
Scientists Brace for a Lost Generation in American Research, Adrienne LaFrance in The Atlantic, Mar 2017
Trump Admin Continues Assault on Science with Intimidation Tactics, Lauren Lantry on Sierra Club, Aug 2019
Issued Friday, the order calls on agencies to slash advisory boards by one-third. By Andrea Germanos on Common Dreams, Jun 2019
Who does President Trump treat worse than anyone else? Scientists. By Robert Gebelhoff in Washington Post, Aug 2019
Trump’s order to slash number of science advisory boards blasted by critics as ‘nonsensical’, Phil McCausland on NBC News, Jun 2019
The Lost Generation
How to track the “lost generation” of scientists, Podcast by David Payne on NatureJobs, Jul 2018
Point of View: Avoiding a lost generation of scientists, Taylor, Kovacik, et al, May 2016
How to track the “lost generation” of scientists, Podcast from Working Scientist, Aug 2018
Facts Mattter
Rudy Giuliani says Trump is ‘honest’ because facts are ‘in the eye of the beholder’, William Cummings in USA Today, Aug 2018
“We’re embarrassed”: US is close to losing measles-elimination status, Beth Mole on ARS Technica, Aug 2019
‘It feels like something out of a bad sci-fi movie’- A top climate scientist quit USDA, following others who say Trump has politicized science. Helena Bottemiller Evich on Politico, Aug 2019
Bees and Beekeepers Feel the Sting of Trump Administration’s Anti-Science Efforts, Jessica Knoblauch on EarthJustice, Jul 2019
Fighting Back
A New Study Explains Why—And How—You Should Respond to Science Deniers, Annie Reneau on LeapsMag, Aug 2019
The State of Science in the Trump Era (2019)- Damage Done, Lessons Learned, and a Path to Progress, Union of Concerned Scientists, 2019
What’s next for the ‘Lost Generation’ of academics? Marie Curie Alumni Association, Jan 2019
Congress Must Do More to Counter Trump Administration’s Assault on Climate Science, Majumder and Costa on Center for American Progress, Jun 2019
There’s a lot of info in those links above, so let us give you just a few of the stand-out sections…
“The budget proposal President Donald Trump released on Thursday calls for major cuts to funding for medical and science research; he wants to slash funding to the National Institutes of Health by $6 billion, which represents about one-fifth of its budget. Given that the NIH says it uses more than 80 percent of its budget on grant money to universities and other research centers, thousands of institutions and many more scientists would suffer from the proposed cuts.”
from “Scientists Brace for a Lost Generation in American Research”
“President Donald Trump signed an executive order late Friday to cut the number of government advisory committees by a third across all federal agencies, a move that the White House said is long overdue and necessary to ensure good stewardship of taxpayers’ money.
The administration has for two years been “shrinking and restricting the role of federal science advisory committees,” said Gretchen Goldman, the research director with the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, in a statement. “Now they’re removing the possibility of even making decisions based on robust science advice. It’s no longer death by a thousand cuts. It’s taking a knife to the jugular.””
from “Trump’s order to slash number of science advisory boards blasted by critics as ‘nonsensical’”
Before Donald Trump came along, George W. Bush’s administration posed the biggest threat to public health and safety, with a documented 98 attacks on science, according to our count. But while those attacks happened over eight years, the Trump administration topped them in a mere two and a half years. The Bush administration was no friend to federal scientists or their work. Indeed, for a long period of time, it was widely regarded by many to be the most antagonistic administration toward science and science policy in modern history.
from “The Trump Administration Has Attacked Science 100 Times … and Counting.”
“The Trump-appointed head of the U.S. Geological Survey recently announced an internal directive to only use climate projections up to the year 2040 in its assessments, instead of the traditional end-of-century reporting. This measure will reduce the usefulness of the agency’s climate science reporting and obscure the extent of the threat, since projected warming rates remain more or less the same until 2050, after which rates of change show dramatic increases and differ significantly depending on the mitigation scenario.
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to alter how it estimates the impacts of air pollution on human health, which would affect the cost-benefit calculation of important climate change-related regulations and could possibly be used to defend further rollbacks. This would include the administration’s proposed replacement rule for the Clean Power Plan; under the rule, the plan would calculate a significantly reduced number of premature deaths resulting from climate change.
The White House National Security Council reportedly blocked long-established scientific data from a State Department scientist’s congressional testimony from entry into the congressional record—after the council failed to prevent his attendance at the hearing before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence—calling it “climate alarm propaganda” and attempting unprecedented redaction of a written testimony.”
from “Congress Must Do More to Counter Trump Administration’s Assault on Climate Science”
“Take the recent directive from the Department of Health and Human Services to the communications staffers at the nation’s premier health research institutions. After two mass shootings this month, they were told not to post anything on social media regarding mental health, violence or mass shootings without prior approval from the government, The Post reported Tuesday.”
from “Who does President Trump treat worse than anyone else? Scientists.”
