PRESS

Lauren Kurtz, director of the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, discusses how people who care about climate science and climate action can fight back against myths, disinformation, and intimidation.

“Science is science and facts are facts."... Since taking office, however, President Trump has led a concerted effort to undermine federal scientific research, particularly in areas where research findings contradict his own views or undermine the basis of his deregulatory agenda.

Luckily, the Silencing Science Tracker, compiled by the Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, has been steadily chronicling the extent to which science is being attacked.

Lauren Kurtz, director of the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, which has a project tracking silencing of government scientists, says the Health and Human Services case is not unique.

“If top-level administrators issued a really clear public directive, there would be an uproar and a pushback, and it would be easier to combat,” said Lauren Kurtz, director of the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, which supports scientists. “This is a lot harder to fight.”

Lauren Kurtz, executive director of the New York-based Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, is not directly involved in Helmig's case, but said the circumstances sound familiar.

Along with the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, the Sabin Center has been tracking the erosion of climate science under Trump using their “Silencing Science Tracker.”

Kate Marvel, an associate research scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, recommended... the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, which combats “the war on science.”

The nonprofit Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (CSLDF) was created eight years ago to help climate scientists fight back against politically-motivated and industry-funded harassment.

Lauren Kurtz, executive director of the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, told Eos in a statement that the group supports the bill “because scientific integrity at federal agencies is a critical issue and presently, federal scientific integrity policies are piecemeal at best."

"Prohibiting people from speaking out about climate change, pressuring people not to study climate change, or terminating programs on climate—it's been a very holistic approach to silencing science," said Lauren Kurtz, executive director of the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund.

Lauren Kurtz, executive director of the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund in New York City, said what is happening at the CDC is part of a larger trend of Trump officials telling scientists and nonscientists that they shouldn’t refer to climate change.