Caricature of Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy in 2009. Graphic: Ian Murphy

14 Most Heinous Climate Villains

By Mike Roddy and Ian Murphy 29 December 2009 (The Buffalo Beast) – The science of climate change is pretty basic: humans dig up fossilized carbon to fuel power plants and internal combustion machines, releasing CO2 into the atmosphere. Result: greenhouse effect global heating. Around 50% of all the species on the planet are predicted […]

Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, shown here on Capitol Hill in April 2019, announced in June 2019 that most staff from two USDA research agencies were being relocated to the Kansas City region. The American Federation of Government Employees said of the move, “Evidence suggests that the relocation of these agencies is an attempt to hollow out and dismantle USDA science that helps farmers and protects our food supply.” Photo: J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Scientists desert USDA as Trump admin relocates agency to Kansas City area – “The relocation of these agencies is an attempt to hollow out and dismantle USDA science that helps farmers and protects our food supply”

By Merrit Kennedy 17 July 2019 (NPR) – Two vital research agencies at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are hemorrhaging staff as less than two-thirds of the researchers asked to relocate from Washington to the Kansas City area have agreed to do so. When U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the planned new location […]

President Jair Bolsonaro is framed by the national flag of Brazil. Recently, his “popularity is falling because people feel baffled by the things he is doing and saying”, according to one conservative columnist. Photo: Mauro Pimentel / AFP / Getty Images

Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro declares “the Amazon is ours” and accuses scientists of lying about deforestation data

By Dom Phillips 19 July 2019 BRASÍLIA (The Guardian) – The Amazon belongs to Brazil and European countries can mind their own business because they have already destroyed their own environment, said Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who also described his own government’s satellite data showing an alarming rise in deforestation as “lies”. “You have to understand […]

Coverage of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV3) vaccine, in the high income group, 2008-2018. Data: WHO/UNICEF national immunization coverage estimates, 2018 revision. Graphic: WHO/UNICEF

Global vaccination rates stalled in 2018 due to conflict, inequality, and complacency – Measles cases more than doubled to almost 350,000 – 20 million children missed out on lifesaving measles, diphtheria, and tetanus vaccines

NEW YORK/GENEVA, 15 July 2019 (UNICEF) – 20 million children worldwide – more than 1 in 10 – missed out on lifesaving vaccines such as measles, diphtheria and tetanus in 2018, according to new data from WHO and UNICEF. Globally, since 2010, vaccination coverage with three doses of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP3) and one […]

Example of coastal flooding in Alamitos Bay, California with 0.25 m of sea level rise and storms. This example illustrate that there are locations with significant flood risks for small amounts of sea level rise when storms are considered. Graphic: Barnard, et al., 2019 / Scientific Reports

Trump officials deleting mentions of “climate change” from U.S. Geological Survey press releases – “It’s an insult to the science”

By Scott Waldman 8 July 2019 (Science) – A March news release from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) touted a new study that could be useful for infrastructure planning along the California coastline. At least that’s how President Donald Trump’s administration conveyed it. The news release hardly stood out. It focused on the methodology of […]

Trump EPA official William Wehrum announced his resignation as the EPA's top air policy official on 26 June 2019, after the Energy and Commerce Committee launched an ethics inquiry. Wehrum served as one of the chief architects of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the ambition and reach of the EPA, and to retreat from President Obama’s push to slash emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. He oversaw efforts to ease regulation of the coal industry, slow requirements that cars and trucks become more fuel efficient and overhaul how the agency calculates costs and benefits to favor industry. Photo: Eric Vance / USEPA

Trump EPA official resigns amid scrutiny over possible ethics violations – “William Wehrum was emblematic of the administration’s struggles to remain ethical”

By Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis 26 June 2019 (The Washington Post) – Bill Wehrum spent only a year and a half as the Environmental Protection Agency’s top air official before announcing plans to resign Wednesday amid scrutiny over possible violations of federal ethics rules. But during that time, Wehrum served as one of the […]

Share of people who believe vaccines are safe in 2018. Data: Gallup World Poll 2018. Graphic: Wellcome

France, Russia top list of anti-vaccine nations – Social media the vector for “real infection of misinformation”

By Michael Skapinker 26 June 2019 (Financial Times) – The richer countries are, the less their citizens believe that vaccines are safe. In the US and Canada, only 72 per cent believe vaccines are safe. In the northern European arc from Ireland and the UK through the Nordic countries, the figure is about 73 per […]

Donald Trump, Scott Pruitt, James Hackett, Larry Kudlow. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting on 11 May 2018 with automotive executives in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, a few months before the administration rolled back Obama-era fuel-efficiency standards, one of a number of giveaways to the fossil-fuel industry. From left, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt, Ford CEO James Hackett, Trump, and White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow. Photo: Evan Vucci / AP / REX / Shutterstock (9668793i)

The shadow cabinet: How a group of powerful business leaders drove Trump’s agenda – “Just about any safeguard to protect the country’s air, water and climate is up for sale”

By Andy Krol 19 June 2019 (Rolling Stone) – It could have been an episode of The Apprentice. On a summer day in 2016, a group of businessmen and women descended on Trump Tower in Manhattan. They exited their black SUVs and rode the golden elevators to the 26th floor, where they assembled in a […]

Trump participates in a roundtable discussion on the administration's efforts to combat the opioid epidemic, in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on 12 June 2019 in Washington, DC. Photo: Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Trump directs agencies to cut science advisory boards by “at least” one-third – “It’s no longer death by a thousand cuts. It’s taking a knife to the jugular.”

By Miranda Green and Rebecca Beitsch 14 June 19 (The Hill) – President Trump is directing all agencies to cut their advisory boards by “at least” one third. The executive order issued Friday evening directs all federal agencies to “evaluate the need” for each of their current advisory committees. The order gives agencies until 30 […]

William Happer, who serves on the National Security Council, is pushing to create a climate review panel that would question the overwhelming scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming. Photo: Albin Lohr-Jones

White House tried to stop climate science testimony, documents show – “I have never heard of basic facts being deleted from or blocked from testimony”

By Lisa Friedman 8 June 2019 WASHINGTON (The New York Times) – The White House tried to stop a State Department senior intelligence analyst from discussing climate science in congressional testimony this week, internal emails and documents show. The State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research declined to make changes to the proposed testimony and […]

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