The Donald Trump War on Science: Week 1: How bad could it be?

How bad could it be? On so may fronts, the first week or so of the Donald Trump administration was the shit show to end all shit shows.

But we're only going to talk about the science stuff here.

As the more astute observers among my readership will observe, I still haven't updated the Pre-Inauguration Edition of this post. Nor should this post really be considered a true beginning to tracking the post-inauguration devastation that the Trump administration will wreck on science, technology, the environment and public health. I'm hitting the high lights here with a more complete accounting to come with the first real chronology post. As well, some of the actions I list below may have been reversed in the days after they were suggested or inacted, but I still include them because the intention to do something negative still counts.

But it's a start. It's a wake-up call.

Note: This post will eventually be rolled into the first real chronology of the Trump presidency and science, which I expect to post probably in February or March sometime. My plan is also to disconnect lists of commentary from lists of incidents. In the pre-inauguration post, there are together, which is partly the reason why it's taking me so long to update. What I will be doing is bare bones lists of commentary fairly frequently and updating the list of incidents only occasionally. Or at least that's the plan.

Here is a list of the damage done during the first week of the Donald Trump presidency.

 

As usual with these posts, I rely on you, my readership, to catch the things I'm missing. Please let me know in the comments or via email at dupuisj at gmail dot com. Any incidents I report need to be documented in some form on the open web, either a media report or some sort of blog post or something. Suggestions to beef up the "more" sections of each item will definitely be welcomed, especially the ones where I haven't added to much additional information.

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I think virtually all the readers here should join you in Canada.

I say "Farewell" to them all.

By See Noevo (not verified) on 30 Jan 2017 #permalink

The amazing thing is the swallowing of the statements made by the administration that 30 seconds of research show to be false, either because
- they contradict documented history
- they contradict previous statements by the current president
- they contradict basic science, math and/or statistical evidence

they only people who buy into them are those without moral compass and intellectual ability - like the fascist see noevo at post 1

Would it be feasible for you to include policies regarding the humanities in your list? Axing NEA and NEH surly has an impact beyond narrow fields, and also for science in general?

As I did with my Canadian lists, I'm considering the humanities and social sciences out of scope for this project. Not I don't think the impacts of the Trump government on them aren't vitally important to track, it's just that I need to keep my project's scope a bit narrower for my own sanity and time constraints.

Thanks! I'll add it to the next list.

Reply to See Noevo:

We would love the readers of this blog to join us in canada; they're more than welcome. You may not find that losing your intellectual capital improves life in the US

What about the pipelines? I view disregard of the environment to be in the realm of anti-science.

Good point. I'll add that when I update the list.