EXAMPLE #1:
Mid-July 2019:
The Trump regime is PREVENTING the US Geological Survey from studying climate effects past the year 2040.
Major scientific trends — such as the climate crisis — emerge and develop OVER A PERIOD OF TIME.
If you want to PREVENT scientists from understanding those hard realities, you can SHORTEN THE TIME PERIOD they are allowed to study.
This is what the Trump regime is doing to the U.S. Geological Survey. He is PREVENTING the USGS from looking for effects after the year 2040.
This is a DELIBERATELY STUPID way to ENFORCE IGNORANCE AND CLIMATE DENIALISM.
It VIOLATES one of the USGS’s stated goals: “Provide science about the natural hazards that threaten lives and livelihoods… and the impacts of climate.”
This article provides more information about this: https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-science-trump-administration-2638304951.html?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=4f49a062f1-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-4f49a062f1-85369701
EXAMPLE #2:
Mid-July 2019:
Trump issued an executive order that could terminate as many as HALF of the science advisory committees at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). On July 15, 2019, www.314action.org reported that this radically unprecedented attack on science could hurt the EPA’s efforts for years or decades into the future. I think only a sociopath or a corrupt person would propose abolishing the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee and other useful efforts. Shortly before that, the non-partisan Government Accountability Office had “blasted Trump and his top officials for violating federal guidelines by replacing scientists with fossil fuel lobbyists and insiders at the EPA,” according to www.314action.org, an advocacy organization that works to protect the integrity of science at the federal level.
EXAMPLE #3:
Late June 2019:
The Trump regime is suppressing even more serious peer-reviewed scientific studies about the climate crisis. See this article: https://www.ecowatch.com/usda-studies-climate-change-2638968584.html?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2
EXAMPLE #4:
Late May 2019:
Trump’s war against science and against the climate keep escalating. He rolled back vehicle emission standards and the Clean Power Plan. He took the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement. He appointed a former coal lobbyist to lead the EPA. He aggressively promoted drilling on sensitive federal lands and waters.
In late May 2019 the Trump regime started changing the methodology of the National Climate Assessment, a government-funded climate change document published every four years, to omit any worst-case scenario projections. He is changing the scientific methodology in ways that will prevent reaching the most meaningful scientific findings. In any situation, if you change the rules, you can change the outcomes. Trump is enforcing climate denialism and official ignorance. This is a 1984-kind of abuse.
EXAMPLE #5:
Spring 2019:
Big business increasingly owns the knowledge about planet earth. Should scientific knowledge about Planet Earth be owned by Big Business — or by the public?
You’ve probably seen “Harper’s Index” listings of facts. I saw this pair from 2019:
- Percentage of Earth observation satellites that are operated by private corporations: 18
- Estimated percentage that will be operated by private corporations by 2027: 56
Does it matter that instead of the government observing Planet Earth (and, we hope, making scientific knowledge public), a growing amount of knowledge about Planet Earth will be controlled by giant business corporations (who will presumably use it for their own selfish interests)?
Furthermore, how much of the government’s observations of Planet Earth are for scientific purposes, versus how much is for surveillance, spying, military targeting, etc.?
