Suppressed studies. Muzzled scientists. Disbanded scientific advisory committees. These are some examples of the gross violations of scientific integrity that the Trump administration has carried out during its 3½ years in power. At the Union of Concerned Scientists, we have been tracking these attacks on science since day one and our tracker has now hit a new, […]
A coalition of 20 organizations filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to block the Trump administration’s gutting of a law dubbed the “Magna Carta” of U.S. environmental legislation. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a five-decade old law, “embodies our nation’s environmental conscience” and “expressly commands the federal government to ‘fulfill the responsibilities of each generation as trustee […]
The Trump administration is working to weaken U.S. environmental regulations in many areas, from water and air pollution to energy development and land conservation. One of its most controversial proposals is known as the “secret science” rule because it would require scientists to disclose all of their raw data, including confidential medical records, in order […]
Back in March of 2018, Roger Pielke Jr. wrote in the Guardian that efforts like the March for Science and concern about the Trump administration censoring the CDC and other scientists were overblown, that Trump wasn’t actively anti-science, that “benign neglect under the Trump administration might be better than possible alternatives,” and that “there is no […]
It is FEMA’s job to warn homeowners about major flood risks, but its approach is notoriously limited. In Cook County alone, researchers found about six times as many properties in danger as FEMA estimated. At least 6 million households in the U.S. may not know they live in areas with a significant risk of flooding, […]
Wednesday, we talked about how complaints of controversial speech being censored is usually either little more than a request that the oppressed be quiet about their oppression, or a way for deniers to continue arguing against regulations. But there’s more to it than that, particularly when it comes to political correctness in science. For example, on […]
A nonpartisan congressional report released Tuesday reveals how the Trump administration manipulated data to justify deregulating carbon emissions by drastically understating the costs of allowing fossil fuel extraction—and the resulting climate crisis—to continue. By Julia Conley Common Dreams The Government Accountability Office, the nonpartisan investigative office of the U.S. Congress, shows in the report that the Trump administration revised […]
Environmental defenders on Wednesday accused the Trump administration of trampling the rights of frontline communities as it finalized plans to weaken the law known as “the Magna Carta of environmental legislation.” President Donald Trump was expected to announce at a campaign stop in Atlanta Wednesday the rollback of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which was signed into law by […]
If you were on Twitter last week, you were likely bombarded by takes on The Letter. If you weren’t on Twitter, good. Read this if you really want the context, otherwise forget about it. Because if you’ve been paying attention to climate deniers, the whole complaint about “cancel culture” should be immediately clear as not about any sort of real debate or free speech, […]
You have probably already heard a discourse of climate delay. Perhaps it came from a friend, a colleague, someone famous or someone powerful. This person did not deny that climate change is a problem, or even that it’s a serious problem. Nonetheless, they gave you the impression that solving climate change is not our job, that […]
In the early 1980s scientists and the fossil fuel industry came to understand the essential characteristics of the climate system and the implications for the energy industry. Governments decided that they preferred not to understand. The fossil fuel industry decided to go along with the gag. By Dr James Hansen Climate is characterized by a delayed […]
Anthony Watts is either a liar, or illiterate. And he’s just proven it. This shouldn’t be unexpected news to anyone at this point, but his latest post for Heartland, necessary to justify the paycheck he’s getting from that fossil-fuel-funded organization, makes it painfully obvious. Supposedly, “climate activists are increasingly calling for the imprisonment of climate realists,” which caught our attention because if anyone’s making that call, it’d […]
Great minds think alike. And you probably thought the only thing those two great minds had in common was their love of hydroxychloroquine and their enthusiastic support for using it to combat the coronavirus. As Trump explained some weeks ago, during the period he was taking the drug, he’d received lots of letters “from people who […]
We first mentioned nuclear power-lover and renewable-hating former environmentalist Michael Shellenberger back in 2015, when he accused the Pope of blasphemy (among other things). By 2018 his anti-renewable schtick was catching on with the paid-by-fossil-fuels denial crowd, for example in his embrace of pollution-publicist Steve Milloy’s argument that a little nuclear radiation is perfectly safe. By Climate Denier Roundup Now […]
The chief cultural signifier of our times is this: Wearing a mask. Or not. These low-tech, low-cost, high-impact coverings are simple and effective at helping reduce the COVID-19 infection rate. Our top political leaders’ failure to produce, distribute, and require them en masse when the pandemic first spread ranks somewhere between stupid and criminal. By Jim […]