The Trump administration already plans to excise NASA’s Earth Science Division in an effort to deprive scientists of data critical to the study of climate change. Now BuzzFeed has learned that the USDA has forbidden Agricultural Research Services (ARS) scientists from sharing publicly funded research findings with the public:
“Starting immediately and until further notice, ARS will not release any public-facing documents,” Sharon Drumm, chief of staff for ARS, wrote in a department-wide email shared with BuzzFeed News.
“This includes, but is not limited to, news releases, photos, fact sheets, news feeds, and social media content,” she added.
ARS scientists apparently may still present research at conferences and publish articles in scientific journals, but media interviews are now subject to approval by administration apparatchiks. Astute readers will see the mad cow in the barn: science journalists can simply study ARS research findings in published journal articles and then enlighten the public. It’s almost like these Trump staffers aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed.
This is likely part of an administration wide purge of climate change research. Greenhouse gas production isn’t limited to fossil fuels. Buzzfeed describes the USDA climate change research under Obama:
But under the Obama administration, the Agriculture Department funneled research money into finding ways of cutting down the release of methane, a pungent and potent greenhouse gas, from cows.
As a greenhouse gas, methane is 84 times more potent than CO2, and agricultural methane production is immense:
In 2011, methane from livestock accounted for 39 percent of all the greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, according to a report that United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization released Friday. That's more than synthetic fertilizer or deforestation. Methane from livestock rose 11 percent between 2001 and 2011.
The EPA’s soon to be scrubbed website helpfully provides the data to put this in context. USDA research isn’t the main front in the battle against global climate change, but for an administration of oil barons and religious fundamentalists, any science and all knowledge is considered to be an existential threat until proven otherwise.