Scientists are essential to the future of mankind
Letter to the Editor by Joel Clement, Washington Post, July 19, 2017
NOTE: Joel Clement was director of the Office of Policy Analysis at the U.S. Interior Department until last week. He is now a senior adviser at the department’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue.
I am not a member of the deep state. I am not big government.
I am a scientist, a policy expert, a civil servant and a worried citizen. Reluctantly, as of today, I am also a whistleblower on an administration that chooses silence over science.
Nearly seven years ago, I came to work for the Interior Department, where, among other things, I’ve helped endangered communities in Alaska prepare for and adapt to a changing climate. But on June 15, I was one of about 50 senior department employees who received letters informing us of involuntary reassignments. Citing a need to “improve talent development, mission delivery and collaboration,” the letter informed me that I was reassigned to an unrelated job in the accounting office that collects royalty checks from fossil fuel companies.
I am not an accountant — but you don’t have to be one to see that the administration’s excuse for a reassignment such as mine doesn’t add up. A few days after my reassignment, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke testified before Congress that the department would use reassignments as part of its effort to eliminate employees; the only reasonable inference from that testimony is that he expects people to quit in response to undesirable transfers. Some of my colleagues are being relocated across the country, at taxpayer expense, to serve in equally ill-fitting jobs.
I believe I was retaliated against for speaking out publicly about the dangers that climate change poses to Alaska Native communities. During the months preceding my reassignment, I raised the issue with White House officials, senior Interior officials and the international community, most recently at a U.N. conference in June. It is clear to me that the administration was so uncomfortable with this work, and my disclosures, that I was reassigned with the intent to coerce me into leaving the federal government.
On Wednesday, I filed two forms — a complaint and a disclosure of information — with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. I filed the disclosure because eliminating my role coordinating federal engagement and leaving my former position empty exacerbate the already significant threat to the health and the safety of certain Alaska Native communities. I filed the complaint because the Trump administration clearly retaliated against me for raising awareness of this danger. Our country values the safety of our citizens, and federal employees who disclose threats to health and safety are protected from reprisal by the Whistleblower Protection Act and Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act.
Removing a civil servant from his area of expertise and putting him in a job where he’s not needed and his experience is not relevant is a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars. Much more distressing, though, is what this charade means for American livelihoods. The Alaska Native villages of Kivalina, Shishmaref and Shaktoolik are perilously close to melting into the Arctic Ocean. In a region that is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, the land upon which citizens’ homes and schools stand is newly vulnerable to storms, floods and waves. As permafrost melts and protective sea ice recedes, these Alaska Native villages are one superstorm from being washed away, displacing hundreds of Americans and potentially costing lives. The members of these communities could soon become refugees in their own country.
Alaska’s elected officials know climate change presents a real risk to these communities. Gov. Bill Walker (I) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) have been sounding the alarm and scrambling for resources to help these villages. But to stave off a life-threatening situation, Alaska needs the help of a fully engaged federal government. Washington cannot turn its back.
While I have given small amounts to Democratic candidates in the past, I have no problem whatsoever working for a Republican administration. I believe that every president, regardless of party, has the right and responsibility to implement his policies. But that is not what is happening here. Putting citizens in harm’s way isn’t the president’s right. Silencing civil servants, stifling science, squandering taxpayer money and spurning communities in the face of imminent danger have never made America great.
Now that I have filed with the Office of Special Counsel, it is my hope that it will do a thorough investigation into the Interior Department’s actions. Our country protects those who seek to inform others about dangers to American lives. The threat to these Alaska Native communities is not theoretical. This is not a policy debate. Retaliation against me for those disclosures is unlawful.
Let’s be honest: The Trump administration didn’t think my years of science and policy experience were better suited to accounts receivable. It sidelined me in the hope that I would be quiet or quit. Born and raised in Maine, I was taught to work hard and speak truth to power. Trump and Zinke might kick me out of my office, but they can’t keep me from speaking out. They might refuse to respond to the reality of climate change, but their abuse of power cannot go unanswered.
Read more:
Letters to the Editor: Interior Department cuts represent an assault on our public lands
Jacquelyn Gill: The ‘war on science’ doesn’t just hurt scientists. It hurts everyone.
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Dear Friends, Date: July 22, 2017
RE: The Future of the March for Science
It’s hard to believe that it’s been three months since more than 1 million people joined together around the world to march for science.
But in those three short months, you have helped make important progress in giving science the voice it deserves in policy-making. In just 90 days you have:
>>> Marched for Science in more than 600 communities around the world.
>>> Participated in a Week of Action by contacting your elected officials in all 50 states.
>>> Sent thousands of letters to your Governors asking them to listen to science and take action on climate change.
>>> Made yourselves heard by sharing your opposition to anti-science policies and nominees on social media, in petitions, and in calls to your elected officials.
>>> Shared your stories of how science impacts the world around us and how people of all backgrounds contribute to the scientific community.
We’ve been working over the past three months to evolve the March for Science from a day of action into a lasting movement. But we need your help.
You can help grow this momentum into a movement by donating to the March for Science.
As the March for Science grows, we plan to work with our more than 270 partner organizations, organizers of the more than 600 satellite marches, and grassroots activists like you to:
Advocate for science-based policies by providing our supporters with resources and tools to connect with their political leaders.
Empower public engagement with science by creating toolkits and programs to make science and science advocacy accessible to all.
Foster a diverse and inclusive scientific community through focused outreach and mentorship programs.
Build a thriving, diverse, and uniquely interdisciplinary community of scientists and science supporters working towards a shared goal: championing science for the common good.
But we can’t get there without YOUR support.
Take a stake in the future of the organization by letting us know what kind of efforts you’d like to see us undertake in support of science. Help sustain the movement by supporting the March for Science today!
Thanks and #KeepMarching! https://ActionNetwork.org
— The March for Science Team
More BS! Can’t call it anything else.
Totally right: whistle-blowers should be protected. However, this is not Trump’s doing, it’s internal policy implemented by some over zealous idiot, or team of idiots, that think it’s ok to shove people around.
These Alaskan communities are at risk, because of climate change? They need help? Lives may be lost? Sure. So find a way to help them. However, the issue here is not if they are at risk, but if climate change is man-made. It is not. The science is indeed out there that proves it is not. Some say the science is out that that proves it is. So, is it or isn’t it?
That is the issue. There is no conclusive science that proves it. Some scientists think it is, some that it isn’t.
Who is right? Pick a side, but don’t try to shove it down everyone’s’ throats.
What about families that are at risk, because the globalist green agenda is taking away their livelihoods? Those don’t count? So much hypocrisy is sickening.
Yes, JC is obviously being pushed out of the way, and that is wrong, but that does not make his opinions, or his “science” right – the only thing that is right is that there is a need to resolve some issues these Alaskan communities face. That is all.
As for the greenies who believe climate change is man-made, enjoy yourselves, shout all you want, but don’t shove around those who do not stand with you. And I wonder, how many of you walk, bike of ride horses, rather than cars, SUVs, airplanes?
Personally, I don’t believe climate change is man-made. I am more worried about pollution that results from fracking, with property rights when oil and natural gas companies use eminent domain to take away people’s land, or run high-risk pipelines close to schools, less that 20 or 30 feet from my neighbor’s and my home, through communities, etc.
Climate change has been a reality since the beginning of the world, and will always be, even if people where to disappear. No such thing as man-made climate change.
Pat
Trump officially nominates climate-denying conservative talk radio host as USDA’s top scientist
From an Article by Natasha Geiling, Think Progress, July 20, 2017
The Trump administration’s war on science continues apace.
Sam Clovis, a former Trump campaign adviser and one-time conservative talk radio host, has no background in the hard sciences, nor any policy experience with food or agriculture. Still, that did not stop President Donald Trump from officially nominating Clovis to the position of the United States Department of Agriculture’s undersecretary of research, education, and economics, the agency’s top science position.
In the past, the undersecretary of research, education, and economics has brought years of experience in science, public health, or food policy. Previous undersecretaries have been biochemists, plant physiologists, or food nutrition experts. The most recent undersecretary, Catherine Woteki, came to the position from Mars, Inc., where she helped manage the company’s scientific research on health, nutrition, and public safety.
Clovis, on the other hand, comes to the position after serving as national co-chair for the Trump campaign, which he joined in 2015. Before that, Clovis was a professor of economics at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa. He has a doctorate in public administration, and unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 2014.
“Dr. Clovis was one of the first people through the door at USDA in January and has become a trusted advisor and steady hand as we continue to work for the people of agriculture,” USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a statement on Wednesday. “He looks at every problem with a critical eye, relying on sound science and data, and will be the facilitator and integrator we need. Dr. Clovis has served this nation proudly since he was a very young man, and I am happy he is continuing to serve.”
He has served as the administration’s top USDA policy adviser since January, signing off on a memo sent to USDA scientists telling them to cease publishing “outward facing” documents, like press releases or fact sheets.
Clovis, like so many of the Trump administration’s top policy officials, does not accept the scientific consensus on climate change. In 2014, he told Iowa Public Radio that climate science is “junk science” and “not proven.” He also said in an interview with E&E News in October that the Trump administration would not prioritize climate change or climate science at the USDA — a sharp break from the Obama administration, which made a point of trying to better prepare farmers and the food system for imminent climate-fueled changes like droughts or heavier storms.
“Whether or not Clovis acknowledges climate change, it is happening, and agriculture has to deal with that,” Patty Lovera, assistant director of Food and Water Watch, told ThinkProgress. “They have to come up with techniques to grow crops in tough weather conditions, and there are always research needs for how you grow crops in changing climate more efficiently with less resources.”
Clovis would not be the only senior official at USDA to question established climate science. Secretary Perdue called climate science “obviously disconnected from reality” and “a running joke among the public” in a 2014 op-ed published in the National Review.
As undersecretary, Clovis will be responsible for administering policies to ensure USDA’s scientists conform to “scientific integrity.” It’s unclear how Clovis will administer those programs, or whether he will specifically seek to undermine climate science, as EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is doing with his “red team/blue team” initiative aimed at questioning mainstream climate science.
For Lovera, Clovis’ nomination simply underscores the Trump administration’s disdain for science, from the dismissal of dozens of EPA advisory board scientists to the deletion of climate information from government websites.
“It’s a sad continuation of that trend that we were seeing with EPA and science advisory boards, and shutting down different websites,” Lovera said. “It’s just another sad example of the Trump administration putting politics first, and inside USDA, the politics of Big Agriculture.”
Source: https://thinkprogress.org/sam-clovis-officially-nominated-still-not-a-scientist-d47be4ffb1a8
Science division of White House office left empty as last staffers depart
By Jacqueline Alemany, CBS News, June 30, 2017
WASHINGTON — The science division of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) was unstaffed as of Friday as the three remaining employees departed this week, sources tell CBS News.
All three employees were holdovers from the Obama administration. The departures from the division — one of four subdivisions within the OSTP — highlight the different commitment to scientific research under Presidents Obama and Trump.
Under Mr. Obama, the science division was staffed with nine employees who led the charge on policy issues such as STEM education, biotechnology and crisis response. It’s possible that the White House will handle these issues through staff in other divisions within the OSTP.
On Friday afternoon, Eleanor Celeste, the assistant director for biomedical and forensic sciences at the OSTP, tweeted, “Science division out. Mic drop” before leaving the office for the last time.
Kumar Garg, a former OSTP staffer under Mr. Obama, also tweeted, “By COB today, number of staffers in White House OSTP’s Science Division = 0.”
“All of the work that we have been doing is still being done,” a White House official familiar with the matter told CBS News, adding that 35 staffers currently work across the OSTP.
“Under the previous administration, OSTP had grown exponentially over what it had been before,” the official said. “Before the Obama administration, it had usually held 50 to 60 or so policy experts, director-level people, for all of OSTP.”
The Obama administration staffed the OSTP with more than 100 employees.
Garg, the Obama-era OSTP staffer who tweeted Friday, said the size of the office under the Obama administration reflected Mr. Obama’s “strong belief in science, the growing intersection of science and technology in a range of policy issues, and as showcased in the OSTP exit memo, in a sweeping range of [science and technology] accomplishments by the Obama science team.”
The Trump administration hasn’t demonstrated the same commitment to science to date, most notably by naming climate change skeptic Scott Pruitt to run the Environmental Protection Agency and announcing the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.
But the Trump White House has decided to continue the tradition of hosting a White House science fair, an event started during the Obama years, CBS News reported in April. On Friday, Mr. Trump signed an executive order re-establishing a National Space Council.
SOURCE: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/science-division-of-white-house-office-now-empty-as-last-staffers-depart/
No talking climate change to Zuckerberg, White House tells scientist.
By Kate Yoder, Grist Magazine, July 2017
As part of his “not running for president” cross-country tour, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg took a trip to Montana’s rapidly melting Glacier National Park last weekend.
But a few days before his visit, according to a report in Mic, the Interior Department canceled his plans to chat climate change with Daniel Fagre, a research ecologist and climate specialist at the United States Geological Survey.
“I literally was told I would no longer be participating,” Fagre told the Washington Post, adding that he received little explanation for the cancellation. The move prompted speculation that the Interior Department wanted to avoid drawing attention to *whispers* climate change.
If that was the intention, Zuckerberg wasn’t playing along. “The impact of climate change is very clear at Glacier,” he wrote on his Facebook page alongside photos from his visit. “In the last hundred years, the average global temperature has risen 1.5 degrees. But in the high elevations of Montana where Glacier is the temperature is warming at three times the global average — enough to melt glaciers.”
Glacier is not the only national park facing an identity crisis over climate change. But is Zuckerberg facing an identity crisis over trying to appear human? TBD.
Source: http://grist.org/briefly/one-of-the-biggest-wind-farms-in-the-u-s-is-coming-to-oklahoma/
Most members of the National Park Service Advisory Board got so frustrated they quit.
From Zoya Teirstein, Grist, January 17, 2018
“quitting time arrives for NPS advisory board members”
On Tuesday, 10 out of 12 advisory board members resigned, leaving the board crippled. “We understand the complexity of transition but our requests to engage have been ignored and the matters on which we wanted to brief the new Department team are clearly not part of its agenda,” former Alaska Governor Tony Knowles wrote in a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Monday.
Zinke didn’t meet with the committee at all last year. The advisory board, which was established to help him designate historic or natural landmarks, has technically been suspended since May 2017.
In 1935, Congress chartered the advisory board to help the National Park Service preserve American heritage. Now, board members are worried that the Trump administration has set that original mission aside indefinitely. “I hope that future actions of the Department of Interior demonstrate that this is not the case,” board member Carolyn Hessler Radelet wrote in a separate resignation letter on Wednesday.
But Zinke’s recent decisions, like disbanding the Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council and the Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resource Science, indicate that expert input is pretty low on his list of priorities.
Source: https://grist.org/briefly/peak-oil-is-back-and-better-than-ever/