PRESS

Climate scientist Virginia Burkett was awarded the 2025 John Maddox Prize which honors those who have shown courage in defending science and evidence-based policy, especially in the face of public hostility.

“Climate” has become almost a taboo realm... And YET - There are many real-life heroes who are still finding ways to keep their critical work alive.

When Virginia Burkett was targeted by political appointees during President Trump’s first term for her climate and land use research at the US Geological Survey, she fought back.

So widespread has been the harassment against scientists that an organisation was set up to counter it: the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund.

One needs a scorecard to track the devastation wreaked on scientific efforts by the current administration. As it happens, one exists: the Silencing Science Tracker, co-managed by CSLDF and the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.

Lauren Kurtz (CSLDF) joins Court Accountability Action’s Lisa Graves to talk about CSLDF’s work to protect scientists against all kinds of attacks, how their work has changed since the first Trump administration, and just how difficult it has become in the second.

A law firm with ties to the conservative movement has asked for the retraction of research on opposition to offshore wind, saying it is preparing to escalate the matter to the Trump administration.

A law firm with ties to the conservative moment has demanded that Brown University retract research linking the fossil fuel industry to anti-wind groups. “It definitely struck me that they were dangling the possibility of getting the Trump administration involved,” Lauren Kurtz said.

Although cloud-seeding has been practiced quietly across several states, it is now becoming tangled up in bad faith and worse science by conspiracy theorists like Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Researchers should not have to endure death threats or public attacks when they engage publicly and try to combat misinformation.

Scientists like me are not trained in legal warfare. So when the notice arrived that I was being sued for defamation, it just did not compute.

Climate scientist Kate Marvel joined a group of special guests, including CSLDF Director Lauren Kurtz, to share insights, data, and stories that reflect how it feels to live in a changing world.