Science

The Trump EPA on Wednesday proposed a new ruling that heat-trapping carbon gas “emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants do not contribute significantly to dangerous air pollution. The Associated Press asked 30 different scientists, experts in climate, health and economics, about the scientific reality behind this proposal. Nineteen of them responded, all saying that the proposal was scientifically wrong and many of them called it disinformation.

"Last summer, Taylor Weckstein was driving around rural New Mexico in a van delivering medical care to the homeless in the sweltering heat. The Harvard Medical School graduate came across people with severe dehydration, kidney disease and third-degree burns from being seared by the pavement, she recalled."

"World leaders, scientists and officials gathered on Monday to open the third United Nations Ocean Conference and launch a global appeal to save the world's oceans, which scientists say are in bad health." "Glaringly absent are U.S. scientific agencies like NASA and NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Their scientists weren't allowed to attend the summit, say organizers."

"The Trump administration wants to unplug a high-powered U.S. Geological Survey research program whose scientists have helped protect wildlife, manage forests, thwart pests and illuminate nature for over three decades."

"Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Monday he was removing the entire membership of the influential vaccine advisory panel that makes immunization recommendations for the United States, an unprecedented move by Kennedy and escalation of his overhaul of federal vaccination policy."

"As severe storms once again soak, twist and pelt the nation’s midsection, a team of dozens of scientists is driving into them to study one of the nation’s costliest but least-appreciated weather dangers: Hail."

"Researchers have long warned that tiny air pollutants — 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair — are linked to preterm births. Now they’re one step closer to knowing why: Breathing in these tiny particles — largely caused by traffic, industry, burning fossil fuels and wildfire smoke — disrupts the molecules in pregnant women’s blood, raising the risk for preterm and early births, according to a new study from Emory University."

"President Trump has ordered what he called a restoration of a “gold standard science” across federal agencies and national laboratories. But the May 23 executive order puts his political appointees in charge of vetting scientific research and gives them the authority to “correct scientific information,” control the way it is communicated to the public and the power to “discipline” anyone who violates the way the administration views science."

"Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told a congressional committee that the US National Hurricane Center was fully staffed even though key positions are going unfilled as hurricane season begins."