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An investigation by the New York Times finds the Trump administration, and particularly the Interior Department, is waging a sustained war on climate science. Hundreds of agency employees have acknowledged they have been asked to avoid using the term "climate change," and hundreds of others have voluntarily steered clear to avoid controversy.
In the Interior Department, scientists have seen their work altered and delayed, and academic speaking invitations canceled. In one instance, the chief climate scientist for the National Park Service sought approval to publish a century of climate data from national parks, using the first sentence, "Anthropogenic climate change is altering ecological and human systems globally." His supervisor responded, "Without reading any more of the manuscript, I’m going to have to ask you to change that."
The dispersed nature of climate censorship in the administration has made pushback difficult. Laura Kurtz of the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund notes, “If top-level administrators issued a really clear public directive, there would be an uproar and a pushback, and it would be easier to combat. This is a lot harder to fight.” Adding insult to injury, the Interior Department intends to propose a "secret science" rule that would restrict scientific studies and data used to inform new policies.
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We’re very optimistic about getting everything back up and running and being able to garner and capture this new and sustained interest in outdoor recreation.”
