Trump Killed a Major Report on Nature.
They’re Trying to Publish It Anyway.
The first full draft of the assessment, on the state of America’s land, water and wildlife, was weeks from completion. The project leader called the study “too important to die.”
The draft was almost ready for submission, due in less than a month. More than 150 scientists and other experts had collectively spent thousands of hours working on the report, a first-of-its-kind assessment of nature across the United States.
But President Trump ended the effort, started under the Biden administration, by executive order. So, on Jan. 30, the project’s director, an environmental scientist named Phil Levin, sent an email telling members of his team that their work had been discontinued.
The article reports that Levin wrote to other authors, asserting that “the country needs what we are producing.” The key experts who worked on the report, called the National Nature Assessment, are planning to finish and publish without government involvement. One can only assumed that Levin IS FIRED!! for such insubordination.
Authoritarian and kleptocratic intent roam free, wild and
butt naked within the confines of our democracy and the rule of law
Hiding inconvenient fact, true truth and sound reasoning from the public is a key indicator of authoritarian and kleptocratic (A&K) intent. Just because A&K rhetoric and action are legal under existing laws, does not negate blatantly anti-democratic A&K intent. A&K intent here cannot be much clearer.
What about A&K motive? There's plenty of motive to stop all federal efforts to deal with global warning and all public communications related to it. First, there the cash, a/k/a, free speech. For example, Politico wrote last Sept., Trump pressed oil executives to give $1 billion for his campaign, people in industry say. It was legal, if the fact that there was and will be no prosecution for that request for a bribe.
Also, there is plenty of motive to keep the public as ignorant, disinformed and deceived as possible about the seriousness of global warming. As a rule, As&Ks routinely try to hide as much inconvenient fact, true truth and sound reasoning from the public as their power and circumstances permit. They capture and manipulate government institutions to kill their independence and convert them to propaganda operations. The overarching strategy is to establish and maintain asymmetry of information. They control what the public knows, how they perceive it, and what they can discuss. They do this by a combination of censorship, disinformation, repression, and the manipulation of both domestic and international perceptions.
Poll data makes it clear that most Americans are concerned about global warming. A Gallup poll from December 2024 indicated that nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults (61%) are concerned about global warming or climate change, with 40% worrying about it "a great deal" and 21% "a fair amount". 34% of Americans believe that government climate policies help the economy, 34% think they hurt it. Among Republicans, 56% believe climate policies usually hurt the economy, while 52% of Democrats think they help. Analyses suggest that despite a significant amount of ambiguity, the economic benefits of climate action might be undervalued due to uncertainty.
The bottom line: American As&Ks are highly motivated to hide, deny and distort all inconvenient climate science. They are equally motivated to use demagoguery and deceptive propaganda to deceive, divide and sow confusion among the public. That is crucial to keep public opposition to climate science denial manageable.
What's next?
This is what's next, Phase 2:
We've been warned.
