Why scientists fear a second Trump term, and what they are doing about it

Sat, 20 Jul 2024 12:17:43 +1000

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
https://archive.md/zITtG

"When the union representing nearly half of Environmental Protection Agency
employees approved a new contract with the federal government this month, it
included an unusual provision that had nothing to do with pay, benefits or
workplace flexibility: protections from political meddling into their work.

The protections, which ensure workers can report any meddling without fear of
“retribution, reprisal, or retaliation,” are “a way for us to get in front of a
second Trump administration and protect our workers,” said Marie Owens Powell,
an EPA gas station storage tank inspector and president of American Federation
of Government Employees (AFGE) Council 238.

The agreement signals the extent to which career employees and Biden
administration officials are racing to foil any efforts to interfere with
climate science or weaken environmental agencies should former president Donald
Trump win a second term. Trump and his allies, in contrast, argue that bloated
federal agencies have hurt economic development nationwide and that the Biden
administration has prioritized climate science at the expense of other
priorities.

“One of the things that is so bad for us is the environmental agencies. They
make it impossible to do anything,” the former president said in an interview
with “Fox & Friends” that aired June 2, claiming that “they’ve stopped you from
doing business in this country.”

The Trump administration sidelined, muted or forced out hundreds of scientists
and misrepresented research on the coronavirus, reproduction and hurricane
forecasting, environmental advocates said. Now as an example of what’s to come,
they point to a blueprint called “Project 2025,” a plan for the next
conservative administration drafted by right-wing think tanks in Washington.

The plan calls for a sweeping reorganization of the executive branch, one that
would concentrate more power in Trump’s hands. At the EPA, it recommends
eliminating the office of environmental justice, which was created in 2022 to
address the pollution that disproportionately harms poor and minority
communities."

Via Fix the News:
https://fixthenews.com/dawn-solar-age-same-sex-thailand-nature-europe/

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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