Top climate change scientist quits USDA, says Trump administration tried to bury his study
Source: The Hill
By Chris Mills Rodrigo - 08/05/19 08:56 AM EDT
.......................................
Lewis Ziska, a 62-year-old plant physiologist who has worked at the USDA for over 20 years, told the outlet that department officials not only questioned the findings of the study but also tried to suppress press coverage of it.
“You get the sense that things have changed, that this is not a place for you to be exploring things that don't agree with someone's political views,” he said in an interview. “That's so sad. I can't even begin to tell you how sad that is.”
Ziska is not the first administration official to resign over concerns about the administration's alleged censorship of climate science.
Last week, an intelligence analyst at the State Department said he left his post after officials blocked his Congressional testimony about the national security implications of climate change.
A National Park Service employee had stepped forward just a week before, alleging she lost her job after refusing to remove mentions of human-caused climate change from a peer-reviewed paper before it was published..................................
Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/456153-top-climate-change-scientist-quits-usda-saying-trump-administration
So shameful that this is happening. damn.
'It feels like something out of a bad sci-fi movie' https://politi.co/2yCQdYD A top climate scientist quit #Trump's @USDA, following others who say Trump has politicized science.
Lewis Ziska has researched plants at USDA across five administrations, contributing significantly to the country’s understanding of how climate change affects agriculture. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO
agriculture
'It feels like something out of a bad sci-fi movie'
A top climate scientist quit USDA, following others who say Trump has politicized science.
By HELENA BOTTEMILLER EVICH
08/05/2019 05:14 AM EDT
One of the nation’s leading climate change scientists is quitting the Agriculture Department in protest over the Trump administration’s efforts to bury his groundbreaking study about how rice loses nutrients due to rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Lewis Ziska, a 62-year-old plant physiologist who’s worked at USDA’s Agricultural Research Service for more than two decades, told POLITICO he was alarmed when department officials not only questioned the findings of the study — which raised potentially serious concerns for the 600 million people who depend on rice for most of their calories — but also tried to minimize press coverage of the paper, which was published in the journal Science Advances last year.
“You get the sense that things have changed, that this is not a place for you to be exploring things that don't agree with someone's political views,” Ziska said in a wide-ranging interview. “That's so sad. I can't even begin to tell you how sad that is.”
The departure follows several other government officials recently resigning from their posts over accusations that the administration is censoring climate science — reports that have raised alarm about scientific integrity in the federal government.
Last week, an intelligence analyst at the State Department said he left his post after administration officials blocked his testimony to Congress about the wide-ranging national security implications of climate change. A National Park Service employee also stepped forward, alleging she lost her job after refusing to scrub mentions of human-caused climate change from a peer-reviewed paper that was set to publish.
A POLITICO investigation revealed last month that USDA has routinely buried its own climate-related science and other work on climate change that continues. POLITICO also recently reported USDA suppressed the release of its own plan for studying and responding to climate change.............................................................
= new reply since forum marked as read
By weird circumstance, I'd actually read his paper earlier, not long after it first came out, and had found it an excellent paper with important implications.
Chilling stuff.
MF 45 seems to determined to destroy our historic preeminence in science, as well as our economy, our environment, our natural resources, the health and welfare of our people, our international reputation, our democracy, and civil society. He is a greater threat to our national security than any external agent. We are in danger every minute he is in office.
