By ARIANNA SKIBELL
The Trump administration is unraveling the federal government’s capacity to understand and respond to climate change at a remarkable clip. And it’s just getting started, writes Scott Waldman.
Since returning to the White House five months ago, President Donald Trump has dismissed hundreds of climate and weather scientists — and cut government ties to hundreds more in the private sector and academia.
The administration has gutted major climate programs, frozen or eliminated grants for climate research, and moved to terminate a federal program that requires industries to track their planet-warming pollution. It has gummed up operations within agencies that work on climate issues, including by slow-walking contracts to service two polar weather satellites. And it’s declining to participate in an increasing number of international climate initiatives.
The administration has defended its actions as necessary to cut costs and shrink the size of government. But scientists say the end result will likely be a nation unprepared to handle the surge of climate-fueled disasters already roiling the economy — from monthslong heat waves, fires, storms and floods to disruptions in agricultural growing seasons and the insurance industry.
Scientists also warn that administration actions are making it harder for the United States and the world to track the major sources of heat-trapping gases, including through the burning of fossil fuels.
“This isn’t being done to cut costs,” one of the country’s best-known climate scientists, the University of Pennsylvania’s Michael Mann, told Scott. “It’s being done because climate science — and simply measuring our climate — has proven inconvenient to certain special interests who hold sway today in Washington.”
He added: “It’s humiliating and it debilitates our standing in the world community.”
And it’s likely just the beginning. Trump’s budget proposal calls for even deeper cuts, including to research programs at NOAA and NASA, widely considered two of the world’s top science agencies.
The long-term damage is part of the goal.
“If Democrats ever get back in power, there will be a lot to rebuild,” said Steve Milloy, a member of Trump’s first-term transition team who has spent decades battling federal climate science and regulations.
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