Trump administration has never been shy of its dislike of science in the federal making. In just three years, they have cut funding to scientific research, disrupted research projects nationwide and even firing experts who have previously put the government in check.
The administration has also used its political appointees to shut down government studies and also reduced the role scientists used to have in policymaking. This was done in a bid to deregulate the policy which Trump administration has always argued was holding business. The government has also challenged a lot of scientific findings, especially those that relate to the environment.
Despite a global scientific consensus that climate change is human-driven, the trump administration has opposed these findings. The administration has also rolled back on usage of the coal industry and increased production of oil in the US. Although steps are still being made to ensure that scientific studies take a back seat, the administration has successfully been able to implement a lot of their policies without being regulated by the previous scientific findings.
Trump’s administration policies on environment and scientific works
The fight against science, however, has not been only for environment and climate. The administration has also defunded projects such as the study of the effects of chemicals on pregnant women in San Francisco. The results of this have been a win for companies polluting the environment which are now going unpunished.
In Washington, D.C, a committee of experts that advised previous governments on invasive insects have been disbanded. The same situation is happening in Kansas City, Mo., where two agricultural agencies responsible for funding crop science were relocated, and this has meant a delay in hundreds of millions of dollars in research money. Employees have also been transferred from this city, resulting in inadequate staffing.
Some scientists have vowed to stop this rollback of the policies they had created. Hundreds of scientists are already departing their positions due to these reversals among them Matthew Davis, a biologist who worked on the effect of mercury on children. Davis is now fighting outside the administration and highlighting what the Trump administration is doing to reverse his work and other scientific works that had been used to create regulations. Davis said,
I am now part of defending this darker, dirtier future.
The Whitehouse, however, has been on the defensive saying they are doing everything right and unburdening the businesses of tedious regulations. In a statement released by Whitehouse last year, it read in part,
Businesses are finally being freed of Washington’s overreach, and the American economy is flourishing as a result.
Conservatives have also praised Trump’s policies calling them business-oriented and good for the country. They have argued that, in the past, scientists have had a lot of say in policymaking. This should not be the case according to them because some research goes against the interests of the US.
The Trump administration will continue on its push to restrict some scientific research from being admitted while making environmental policies. There is no hope that these policies being implemented now will be changed any time soon. This is causing experts to worry about the future and how these reversals will impact future generations.
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