Boulder Climate Scientist Sues Trump Administration Over Matter of 'Scientific Integrity'

[bronxiteforever]

Colorado Public Radio
By Alex Scoville
July 29, 2019

Maria Caffrey alleges she lost her job with the National Park Service because she refused to eliminate mentions of human-caused climate change from a report. Now, she is suing the Trump administration, and she also testified before Congress last Thursday.

It started with Caffrey’s study on the impact of climate change on coastal National Parks. “North Carolina, Cape Hatteras, Wright Brothers, all of those. And then I also wanted to flag ... some areas that you may not even think of as being terribly vulnerable. But Washington, D.C., for example, could be really vulnerable to a storm surge if that ever made its way up the river,” she said.

The three-year project had wrapped and Caffrey was on maternity leave in early 2018 when a colleague tipped her off in an email that her coastal parks report was being edited without her permission or knowledge. The target of the edits? All mentions of human-caused climate change. Earlier drafts showed that a Park Service official had crossed out the word “anthropogenic” — which means related to people — in five places, and three references to human activity causing climate change were also removed.


More here
https://www.cpr.org/2019/07/29/boulder-climate-scientist-sues-trump-administration-over-matter-of-scientific-integrity/

[Bayard]

1. Whistleblowers in the job place

Wouldn't these folks be covered under those laws? Especially if they are fired.

[Lulu KC]

2. She was not an actual employee of the NPS

She called herself a partner, which is different from a contract employee. Rep Bishop from Utah was very rude about this and many other things. In fact, no surprise, all GOP members of committee were. It was painful to watch, but here it is. (also posted it in a separate thread earlier, unthinkingly.)

Argh.

https://naturalresources.house.gov/hearings/when-science-gets-trumped-scientific-integrity-at-the-department-of-the-interior