The Huffington Post, Business Insider and Inverse Science
have reported in the past few days that scientists are racing to protect and
save climate data stored at the Environmental Protection Agency and the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration prior to Trump’s inauguration
tomorrow. Trump, a devout climate
change-denier, has nominated another global warming denier Scott Pruitt to head
the EPA. Scientists fear this
administration could wipe out important data on environmental issues beyond
just climate data.
On January 12, 2017,
the Sierra Club filed Freedom of Information Act requests for information held
by the EPA and the Department of Energy, while similar efforts are being
undertaken elsewhere, such as DataRefuge, at University of Pennsylvania’s
Program in Environmental Humanities. PhD
students at Harvard have joined with other scientists and policymakers to form
Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, which is working to archive
publicly available information and monitor changes in government websites.
Data purges have been carried out by previous
administrations, such as W. for example.
During his regime, EPA shut down some of its research libraries and
reduced access to important data. A
Trump advisor has suggested NASA cease its climate research and focus on space
exploration. The Trump team has also
asked the Department of Energy to provide names of employees and contractors
who have participated in international climate talks and President Obama’s work
on regulating carbon emissions, a request the DoE has denied. Ronald Regan, whom the New York Times said
trees cause pollution, appointed two champions of industry, including Anne M.
Burford as Administrator for the EPA, but forced to resign after being
investigated by Congress in mismanaging toxic waste remediation.
There is no direct promise from the Trump group to purge
scientific data or make it vanish, but scientists are taking no chances.
No comments:
Post a Comment