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An interview with Lauren Kurtz, director of the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, where she discusses the politicization of science and the parallels between climate change and COVID-19.

The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University and the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund jointly maintain the Silencing Science Tracker, which keeps a running tally of instances of federal and state government attempts to censor or otherwise inhibit scientific processes or the use of scientific information since the 2016 election.

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.