PRESS

Most state and local officials worked tirelessly — often at risk to their own health and lives — to protect the public. But as was true at the federal level, senior state and local officials repeatedly failed to live up to the trust the public placed in them. Across the country, state and local leaders meddled in research and data and retaliated against experts in order to improve their political standing and cover up mismanagement.

The first agency within the Biden administration to rewrite its policy to protect career federal scientists from political influence as required by the White House has taken some positive steps, according to a conglomerate of watchdog groups, but is still falling short of ensuring its workers do not face reprisal and bad actors are held accountable.

Recently, invasive open records requests, defamation lawsuits, and other misuses of the legal system threaten climate scientists’ ability to freely conduct research and openly share it with the public.

"Hacking is the most invasive risk, but it’s not the only way that scientists’ data, research, and emails may be released publicly. My colleagues and I have seen scientists targeted with legal methods, most notably by groups and individuals using open records laws to seek thousands of emails."

"[S]ocial media has been a tool to try to silence scientists. It can be a very powerful tool for public education, but the ways in which people can sign up for social media accounts anonymously, or use bots, can definitely create a very aggressive, nasty pile-on effect."

"The main thing I would note with the Biden administration is it has been much better than Trump administration, but it has not been as good as I might have hoped. There's been some real opportunities for reform that I think have been missed. And there have been some continuing problems that haven't been rectified."

“Open records laws have a vital role in government transparency but, in the specific realm  of higher education, they also can be exploited by bad actors to harass and intimidate scientists and academics whose research they dislike.”

"And while groups like the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund can offer some assistance for those experiencing legal harassment, the real responsibility here lies with Facebook and Twitter, the platforms on which most of the abuse happens."

“I think that’s a missed opportunity,” says Lauren Kurtz, executive director of the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, an advocacy group based in New York City. Although the policy seeks to strengthen scientific-integrity operations and create an independent panel that could provide consistency from administration to administration, Kurtz warns that these efforts aren’t guaranteed to withstand future political meddling.

"An astounding three quarters of litigators are failing to cite the most recent peer-reviewed findings in the climate change lawsuits."

“They make a point of going after the fact-checkers because, in addition to stopping regulation, they also want to prevent or discourage climate scientists from doing things that might educate the public" said Lauren Kurtz.

Our staff attorney Rachael Lyle says “a problem on the scale of climate change can never be solved without sustained public demand for forward-thinking policies – and that demand starts at the grassroots level.”