Just days after taking power last month, the Trump administration reportedly issued gag orders on federal scientists, preventing them from discussing their work with the public. The communications director for Donald Trump's transition team at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) confirmed that political appointees were reviewing scientific material before publication. In the following weeks, journalists and researchers noted that direct references to climate change were removed from the EPA website.
A widespread ban on scientific communication is an unprecedented move for any modern US administration, but to Canadian scientists who faced nearly a decade of restrictions, political meddling, and funding cuts, the situation is familiar, and extremely worrying.
"It's a very scary situation when a government turns its back on evidenced-based decision making," a Canadian government scientist who was prevented from talking to the media under the Stephen Harper government, which was defeated in 2015, told me.
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