Ever since Donald Trump stepped into the White House, he has changed by all means how the U.S. handles Science and currently, he has given little importance to this field.
Terminated research
It has been noticed that a lot of studies have ended during Donald Trump’s regimen. The Interior Department has requested to end the continuation of a study about the common health risks of different mining techniques based in Appalachia to the National Academies of Sciences last Friday.
Rep. Raul Grijalva strongly opposes this decision as he believes that mountaintop mining causes cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and other non-communicable illnesses.
“The administration is clearly trying to stop National Academies of Sciences from discovering the effects and risks the people can get from continuing the practice,” Grijalva added. More than 200 commissions and subcommittees have also been removed just this May.
The stream protection rule had also ended, signifying the government does not consider environmental problems as a serious threat. It is also unsure if the climate change updates will still be continued.
It is a mistake to think that “if you don’t measure it, you don’t have to worry about it,” said Andrew Rosenberg, director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. These examples give a description of how Donald Trump gives importance to the National Academies of Sciences.
Deregulations
Just last week, the Interior Department ordered the removal of 15 committee members of the federal advisory on climate change. The department also prevented the meeting between the Environmental Protection Agency and agriculture lobbyists regarding on the banning of chlorpyrifos, a toxic pesticide used to control insect pests.
The former environmental committee professionals removed by the Internal Department informed the public that without them, the climate change reports will be incomprehensible, lacking consideration for those people who are not really familiar with the scientific jargon.
The National Climate Assessment, an association that focuses on climate change data, provides concise findings of the forecasted climate to government institutions.
The data they have collected is provided every four years, but now they are not sure if they still can provide the information the way they did before as for fears that the administration will dump their reports.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has expressed his goal in the modification of Science's committees in the United States. Along with this is bringing back the fossil fuel industry by listening to the voices of their companies.
He also added that the public just lacks trust over the Environmental Protection Agency and they just need to give the agency a chance.
Even with these controversial changes of plans, some environmentalists view these orders as techniques of the government to understand future environmental risks by understudying them.
