A growing number of National Academy of Science members sign a statement decrying the Trump administration’s “denigration of scientific expertise.”
BY JUDY FAHYS Inside Climate News
More than a thousand of the nation’s top scientists say it’s time to speak “science to power,” as Covid-19 deaths top 141,000 nationally and cases continue to rise in 43 states. The scientists are calling on policymakers to restore evidence-based decision-making—especially when it comes to managing life-and-death challenges like the global pandemic and climate change.
More than 1,240 National Academy of Science members have now registered their personal concern about the Trump administration’s denigration of science.
The effort began when 375 academy members signed an open letter in 2016 warning that then-candidate Trump’s threatened withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement would harm American credibility and leadership. Hundreds more added their signatures to a statement posted online in 2018, after President Trump set the withdrawal in motion.
And several hundreds more members have signed the statement in recent weeks, speaking out as public health experts warning about surging Covid-19 cases have been attacked for perpetrating a “hoax” and overstating the seriousness of the disease.
Climate scientist Benjamin D. Santer helped initiate the open letter in 2016 and fielded signatures this spring as the scientific community grew increasingly alarmed about the Trump administration’s handling of climate change and the pandemic.
At a time when a cohesive and science-based approach is crucial, Santer said, the Trump White House has doubled down on attacking the government’s most prominent infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, over his advice to respond more aggressively to Covid-19.
“It’s a teachable moment,” said Santer, who works at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, one of the nation’s 17 national laboratories. “And the hope is that the lesson learned from the last few months is that science matters. Ignore it at your peril.”
The “Statement to Restore Science-Based Policy in Government” was posted by NAS members calling themselves Scientists for Science-Based Policy in 2018. Now, the signatures represent 43 percent of academy members, all of whom emphasize they are speaking for themselves and not for NAS or their institutions.
The online statement notes that the United States is the only nation to have left the Paris Agreement.
“The decision to withdraw is symptomatic of a larger problem: the Trump Administration’s denigration of scientific expertise and harassment of scientists,” the statement says. “The dismissal of scientific evidence in policy formulation has affected wide areas of the social, biological, environmental and physical sciences.”
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