Prescient in December

 

As we know now that science (particularly climate change science, but likely epidemiology, environment and pollution, and biomedical research) is under attack by the new and stupid Trump administration, this article from December is so future-predictive it's scary. But it's not like we didn't expect that this was going to happen. 

As Trump escalates war on facts, scientists warn “we are going to get screwed”

"Bennett [director of senior policy at the activist group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)] heard stories from EPA employees across the country during Trump’s first term, detailing how their contributions to scientific knowledge were politicized and ignored. She warned that “every single employee” at the EPA is “at risk” right now. Having worked at the EPA for almost 10 years as wetlands enforcement coordinator in New England, Bennett understands EPA workers’ plight viscerally as well as intellectually. Perhaps that’s why she is unapologetically frank when speaking on behalf of government scientists, especially about the millions of American voters who share Trump’s hostility to science."

And there's this:

"Another EPA official who left during Trump's first term, who requested to remain anonymous, experienced this hostility directly. The official explains that a lot of their work “pretty much stalled” during all four years when Trump was in office. Even though Trump, Musk, Kennedy and others in the MAGA camp characterize themselves as champions of free speech, this official noted a chilling effect against all references to climate change being caused by the fossil fuel industry.

“We kind of had to talk about the work differently,” they told Salon. “No one used the word ‘climate.’ Everybody kind of just talked about, ‘What are the outcomes of climate work?’ and not necessarily name ‘climate’ just as it is, if that makes sense.”

On a practical level, this made it essentially impossible for scientists to do their jobs, all of which require dispassionate analysis of empirical data without regard to any special interest groups their conclusions might offend. Many scientists, who entered the field out of passion for knowledge and a desire to protect nature, became demoralized and quit."

There's a war going on -- against science. As if we didn't know.

This book is slated for July -- if the current fascist government in the United States allows it to be published and distributed.