Interesting piece. Monumental Diaster at the Department of the Interior. Suppression of science, ridicule of science, is not confined to the Department of the Interior. Adoptation of an attack on science as a means of learning is endemic to the Trump administration. In that respect, Trump can be seen as the leading proponent of a return to the Dark Ages. He still has not appointed a science advisor to the president, and he never will. Science has created problems as well as benefits over the course of its history since the Scientific Revolution, but this all out attack on science itself is one of the more astonishing traits of an administration led by an individual who would prefer conspiracy theory and irrationality above learning.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.co...l-disaster-at-the-department-of-the-interior/
"This is a tough time to be a federal scientist—or any civil servant in the federal government. The Trump administration is clamping down on science, denying dangerous climate change and hollowing out the workforces of the agencies charged with protecting American health, safety and natural resources.
At the Department of the Interior (DOI), with its mission to conserve and manage America’s natural and cultural resources, the Trump administration’s political appointees are stumbling over one another to earn accolades for disabling agency operations. I should know; I was one of dozens of senior executives targeted by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke for reassignment in a staff purge just six months into the new administration.
From that day onward, Zinke and his political staff have consistently sidelined scientists and experts while handing the agency’s keys over to oil, gas and mining interests. The only saving grace is that Zinke and his colleagues are not very good at it, and in many cases the courts are stopping them in their tracks. The effects on science, scientists and the federal workforce, however, will be long-lasting.
In a new report,
Science Under Siege at the Department of the Interior, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has documented some of the most egregious and anti-science policies and practices at the DOI under Secretary Zinke. The report describes suppression of science, denial of climate change, the silencing and intimidation of agency staff, and attacks on science-based laws that help protect our nation’s world-class wildlife and habitats.
It is a damning report and required reading for anyone who values public lands, wildlife, cultural heritage, and health and safety.
It would be impossible to cover everything this clumsy political wrecking crew is up to, but the report provides details on the most prominent actions that deserve greater scrutiny, such as: the largest reduction in public lands protection in our nation’s history; a systematic failure to acknowledge or act on climate change; unprecedented constraints on the funding and communication of science; and a blatant disregard for public health and safety.
Why is this administration so scared of science? Why cancel a study into the health effects of mountaintop removal coal mining so soon after lifting a moratorium on coal leasing on public lands? Why keep scientists from speaking with the press? Because, while science provides the best evidence we have for making policy decisions that serve the broader public, Ryan Zinke has been
very clear that he is in office to serve the oil, gas and mining industries, not the general public.