In case you sleep under a rock (can’t blame you) or eschew social media (good on ya), tariffs aren’t the only lunacy being promulgated by the chaotic grifter in Washington. Trump 2.0 is also taking a wrecking ball to science and international institutions.
Everything from the world-leading medical research of the NIH and CDC to the life-saving work of USAID and the EPA, from the education-funding of NSF to the interpretive work of the NPS, and from the critical weather and ocean data of NOAA to the natural disaster relief provided by FEMA. Orwellian restrictions on research, tens of thousands—many early career scientists trained specifically for these jobs—out of work under demonstrably false pretenses for the most craven of political reasons. Thousands of eager graduate students left out in the cold. All perpetrated by the most callous, unqualified individual to ever wield a literal and figurative chainsaw.
An assault on science anywhere is an assault on science everywhere, as the venerable British journal Nature put it.
Whether science-aware or not, we benefit from it every minute. The table I’m writing at? An early scientific trope of physics + materials. As a practice so ubiquitous to both human progress and everyday life, gov’t’s only role here should be to enthusiastically support and fund the greater quest for understanding in all areas and get TF out of the way. Until theocratic conservatives waded in under Ronald Reagan, it had mostly managed to stay this way.
Science requires independence to work best. I’d no sooner suggest defunding the engineering advancements of bitumen extraction or fracking—both of which are impressive but underlie industries I don’t happen to support—than I would new methods for ageing fossils or calculating long-term temperature anomalies in the Arctic. Science doesn’t work on the “preferred outcome” model theo-cons have shown themselves ready to adopt; it works on discovery, understanding through experimentation and study, and knowledge sharing. Neither gov’t nor the public should choose the direction of science, which remains society’s only true peer-regulating institution.
But now America’s vaunted science sector is under unparalleled attack. Not piecemeal incursions, but a siege of the entire institution by the country’s most powerful—and ignorant—individuals. An attack on science of this scale is indeed an attack on everyone and everything, on both future and present, and one that will already take a generation to fully reverse. Clearly something this ham-fisted was never about efficiency but ideology, the predicted, full-on Christo-fascist politicization of science following the odious Project 25 blueprint.
Though terrifying to watch this happen to friends and neighbours, we can’t be smug. Canada’s own scientists once told politicians that data they were paid to collect indicated the Atlantic cod quota should be severely reduced, not increased. No one listened, cod crashed, moratorium was declared, thousands were out of work overnight, and mass emigration from Newfoundland ensued.
Yet, despite such costly errors, conservatives have become more and more ideologically entrenched against science-based policymaking, opting instead for policy-based science making that won’t tell them things they (and industry) don’t want to hear. Former PM Stephen Harper’s own attempt involved scrubbing federal websites, emptying libraries and archives into dumpsters, hobbling key data organizations like StatsCan, preventing scientists from public comment or attending conferences (this affected me personally), and inviting the criminal oil and gas industry to rewrite environmental laws they saw as problematic (for which we should never, ever forgive either).
This sorry chapter of Canadian history is summed in Chris Turner’s well-researched 2013 book The War on Science: Muzzled Scientists and Wilful Blindness in Stephen Harper’s Canada. We were fortunate the HarperCons couldn’t go as far as they wanted, that institutions withstood the onslaught, and that public outcry was widespread, visible—including a labcoat-clad-pall-bearer Death of Science march on Parliament Hill—and birthed lasting science-advocacy groups like Evidence for Democracy.
We shouldn’t forget this because when it comes to science, Canada’s current conservative louts are far worse, courting the anti-vax trucker convoy and climate-denying shills like Jordan Peterson, being endorsed by the absolute worst-of-the-worst Trumpsters while eager to enact much of his agenda, including the dismantling of Canadian science, conservation and environmental law. Taking the “we-can’t-handle-paper-straws” rhetoric of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and B.C. Con-man John Rustad as trial balloons, a vote for the federal CPC would be a vote to send us back to the scientific Stone Age.
Meanwhile, pushback is coming in the U.S., albeit hampered by the speed and savageness of the attack. Many who may have spoken out from within the scientific establishment have either been fired or put on notice to keep silent. This isn’t speculation; email receipts are all over the Internet. Though more than 100 court cases have been filed against the administration, it’s a glacial process in a time of urgency.
So, once again, the energy of youth must carry the torch. Launched by five early-career scientists, Stand Up for Science has quickly transformed into a national movement to defend science as a public good and central pillar of social progress. On March 7 it will host official protests in Washington, D.C. and 31 other U.S. cities; those unable to attend can participate in nationwide campus-and-workplace noon walkouts. Long-term science-policy goals include restoration of federal funding, reinstatement of wrongfully terminated employees, an end to interference and censorship, and a renewed commitment to DEIA.
The success of this endeavour, unfortunately, lies in the shadow of an ominous March 4 tweet from the President Rapist in Chief, an attempt to cow any potential uprising: “All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Like I said, this is war.
Leslie Anthony is a science/environment writer and author who holds a doctorate in reversing political spin.
