In January 2018, the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund and Sabin Center for Climate Change Law created a searchable public database, the Silencing Science Tracker, which has now documented more than 400 attacks on science by federal, state, and local governments since the November 2016 elections. Tracker entries are grouped into seven categories: government censorship, self-censorship, budget cuts, personnel changes, research hindrance, bias/misrepresentation, and interference with education. These anti-science actions pertain to a range of ecological science topics, and impact the federal agencies that fund this research. Actions range from censoring climate reports to ignoring sound science when creating policies that touch on issues important to ecologists such as pesticide regulations and endangered species listings, as well as issues of general concern to all researchers such as data sharing.
The data we’ve collected in the Tracker sheds light on how frequently the federal government attacks science, the forms those attacks take, what parts of the government they are happening in, and the types of science being targeted. It shows how pervasive attacks on science are and reveals trends and changes in these attacks over time. This data enables scientists, journalists, and the public to understand how science is threatened in the United States and, crucially, how scientists can best protect themselves and their work.
Results/Conclusions
In this talk, we’ll explain the Tracker data and anti-science trends we’ve observed, including how attempts to restrict science have changed over the last two years. For example, the Trump administration’s early pushes to censor science, scrub climate change from government websites and reports, and cut funding for climate-related projects may have paved the way for the recent growth in the bias and misrepresentation categories. We’ll discuss how federal agencies have been affected—most federal entries document actions at the EPA but many other agencies are represented in the Tracker—and the types of science most impacted by these actions. We’ll also talk about the implications for scientists and science policy.