President Donald Trump’s early orders on climate change are sparking fears of a White House war on science, The Hill reports.
Scientists and researchers are getting set for even more battles ahead, according to the website.
„We asked some environmental employees and one said, ‚We’re in the clown car to crazy town,'“ said Jeff Ruch, the executive director of the group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
„We view this as sort of the opening act of what’s going to be a long and bloody drama. “
Trump was criticized by scientists when the new White House website launched and didn’t have a page on climate change and was missing other environmental pages, as well, The Hill reported.
And critics noted the Environmental Protection Agency’s climate change website is missing articles. Also gone from the website, according to The Hill, is a key passage, that reads: „All major scientific agencies of the United States…agree that climate change is occurring and that humans are contributing to it. “
„Everything is up for review“ and work on the website is centered on „scrubbing it up a bit, putting a little freshener on it, and getting it back up to the public,“ an EPA spokesman told The Hill.
But Rush Holt, a former Democratic congressman and the CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), said efforts at the EPA are reason for concern.
„We’re trying to stand up to it because I can’t be sure this isn’t a trial balloon, and if it’s a trial balloon, I don’t want to exaggerate it right now and say that this is the worst thing that ever happened,“ Holt said.
„But I don’t want a trial balloon to go uncommented upon and become permanent policy.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported multiple climate-related reports are also missing from the State Department’s website.
Those reports have disappeared from the State Department’s website within the past few days, according to the newspaper.