Is the Age of Scientific Censure Imminent?

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SUMMARY

The forum discussion centers on the implications of the Trump administration's transition team questioning the Department of Energy (DOE) regarding climate change research and its employees. Participants express concerns about potential censorship and the marginalization of sustainability advocates. The conversation highlights the need for transparency in government reports, particularly those influencing energy policy, and emphasizes the importance of continued research in climate science despite political pressures. The discussion concludes that while the questions posed by the transition team may seem reasonable, they reflect a broader trend of politicization in environmental policy.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of U.S. energy policy and its political implications
  • Familiarity with the Department of Energy's role in climate research
  • Knowledge of the scientific method and peer review processes in climate science
  • Awareness of historical instances of political interference in scientific research
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the impact of political transitions on environmental policy changes
  • Explore the methodologies used in climate change reports by the IPCC
  • Investigate the role of transparency in government-funded research
  • Learn about the current state and future of nuclear energy policy in the U.S.
USEFUL FOR

Climate scientists, policymakers, environmental advocates, and anyone interested in the intersection of science and politics will benefit from reading this discussion.

  • #31
From yesterday's Washington Post:

Scientists are frantically copying U.S. climate data, fearing it might vanish under Trump

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...under-trump/?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.1c6889832524

Alarmed that decades of crucial climate measurements could vanish under a hostile Trump administration, scientists have begun a feverish attempt to copy reams of government data onto independent servers in hopes of safeguarding it from any political interference.

The efforts include a “https://ischool.utoronto.ca/content/guerrilla-archiving-event-saving-environmental-data-trump ” event in Toronto, where experts will copy irreplaceable public data, meetings at the University of Pennsylvania focused on how to download as much federal data as possible in the coming weeks, and a collaboration of scientists and database experts who are compiling an online site to harbor scientific information...

But today's surprise development is:

Donald Trump's transition team is backing away from a controversial questionnaire sent to the Department of Energy demanding names of employees who assisted in the Obama administration's climate policy efforts.

ABC News obtained last week the 74-point memo, which asks for names of staff members who worked on climate-related projects.

The Department of Energy hit back on Tuesday with a statement saying that the memo "left many in our workforce unsettled" and that it would not comply with questions asking for names of individuals.

DOE officials "respect the professional and scientific integrity and independence of our employees at our labs and across our department," agency spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder said in a statement.

The Trump transition team has repeatedly declined to respond to ABC News' requests for comment, but in a statement to ABC News today, an official said, "The questionnaire was not authorized or part of our standard protocol. The person who sent it has been properly counseled." ...

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trum...tionnaire-energy-department/story?id=44190652

Which leaves me extremely curious about the identity of the transition team member who went rogue and issued an unauthorized questionnaire to the DOE.
 
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  • #32
"experts will copy irreplaceable public data, "
Oxymoron.
 
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  • #33
Bystander said:
"experts will copy irreplaceable public data, "
Oxymoron.

How so? I think you way over state.
These are big database sets, but just a couple of books someone might have laying around.
Maybe you have no respect for the data.
 

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