Remember how we were talking a few days ago about Trump and his sharpie, and how, instead of just owning up to his misstatement about the path of Hurricane Dorian, he’d doubled down, restating the lie that he’d been told that the hurricane was headed for Alabama, and holding up a crudely doctored weather map to bolster his case? Well, a few things have happened since then that I think are worthy of discussion, as they demonstrate the extent to which science has been politicized under the rule of of Donald Trump.
First, it’s being reported by the Washington Post today that administrators within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued an internal directive on September 1, warning members of their staff not to contradict President Trump. This, for those of you might not remember the sequence of events, would have happened immediately after the National Weather Service office in Birmingham, Alabama, issued a statement saying that, contrary to what the people of Alabama may have heard, their state would “not see any impacts from Dorian”, as the hurricane would remain on the east coast.
As you’ll recall, Trump started all of this in motion last Sunday morning when he tweeted out that Alabama would “most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated” by Dorian, even though no forecasts at the time showed the storm system moving in that direction. And then he continued to talk about the threat posed to Alabama throughout the day, both online and in comments to the press. This, as you might expect, led several people to contact the National Weather Service office in Birmingham, which, in turn, led to the statement being issued about how Alabama would “not see any impacts from Dorian”. And that led to the NOAA internal missive being sent to about how our all-knowing leader should not be contradicted.
A NOAA meteorologist, who spoke with the Washington Post on the condition of anonymity, said, “This is the first time I’ve felt pressure from above to not say what truly is the forecast.” This meteorologist then added, “It’s hard for me to wrap my head around. One of the things we train on is to dispel inaccurate rumors, and ultimately that is what was occurring — ultimately what the Alabama office did is provide a forecast with their tweet. That is what they get paid to do.”
So, now we know that, after all of this transpired, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration instructed employees of the National Weather Service to remain silent in instances where the President might be wrong about forecasts… a policy which could, if you think about it, theoretically lead to the loss of life.
And, second, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a public statement this past Friday, disavowing the National Weather Service tweet from earlier in the week, which told the people of Alabama that they were not in the path of the hurricane… Here’s that statement.
While the above document wasn’t credited to any one person at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, it would appear to have been authored by the agency’s Director of Communications, Julie Kay Roberts, who just happens to have served on Trump’s Inaugural Committee before securing the job at NOAA.
And that’s where we are today. Our weather agencies are being told by Trump appointees within their organizations not to share facts with the American people when they contradict statements made by Donald Trump. And those that do are being attacked.
Here are three of the best quotes I’ve found on this situation thus far.
“This looks like classic politically motivated obfuscation to justify inaccurate statements made by the boss. It is truly sad to see political appointees undermining the superb, lifesaving work of NOAA’s talented and dedicated career servant.” -Jane Lubchenco, NOAA administrator under President Barack Obama
“It makes me speechless that the leadership would put [Trump’s] feelings and ego ahead of putting out weather information accurately. If we’re politicizing the weather, what is there left to politicize? We’re seeing this kind of clamp down of scientists across the government, and it’s been an escalating trend.” – Michael Halpern, Union of Concerned Scientists deputy director
“I have never been so embarrassed by NOAA. What they did is just disgusting. Let me assure you the hard working employees of the NWS had nothing to do with the utterly disgusting and disingenuous tweet sent out by NOAA management tonight.” – Dan Sobien, president of the National Weather Service’s labor union
Is any of this surprising? Not really… We’ve known that Trumpism was having a corrosive effect on reality. And we’ve known that science, under the Trump administration, was being politicized. [If you’ll recall, in 2018, there was a survey of scientists working within 16 federal agencies, and it demonstrated, the words of the Washington Post, “a culture of fear and self-censorship in an administration that has sidelined scientific evidence, especially as it related to climate change, in favor of political expediency.”] But this, at least in so far as I can remember, is the first really tangible example we have of federal scientists being ordered en masse to stand down as the President of the United States lies about non-existent threats, and that, I think, deserves to be noted… And the fact that all of this happened just because President Trump couldn’t accept responsibility for making mistake, is absolutely insane.
Oh, and it should be noted that, if this is happening to meteorologists, you can be damn sure it’s also happening to government economists.
Now imagine the same thing happening to the agencies that produce employment, inflation, and growth statistics. It's not hard to see it happening — and just like that, we're a Third World nation https://t.co/ZTrMPuBzbY
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) September 9, 2019
One more thing… While many of us here in America are understandably obsessed by Sharpiegate, and what it tells us about both Trump’s incredibly fragile ego and the stranglehold he has on our government, the bigger story today is that thousands of human beings have lost their lives in the Bahamas. If you’re in a position to make a contribution, to help in the recovery efforts, here is a link to the America Red Cross.
