The Trump administration has released a report whitewashing science that is being properly blasted by 85 scientists.

The science group’s 439-page, peer-reviewed rebuttal, submitted at the conclusion of the government’s official comment period, is three times longer than the Energy Department’s report on climate change. Many of the scientists are especially indignant because their work is being cited in the misleading Energy Department report, written by five individuals who Energy Secretary Chris Wright handpicked. The official report, which was not peer-reviewed, essentially states that climate change is “less damaging economically than commonly believed.”

The rebuttal’s principal author, Texas A&M Atmospheric Sciences Professor Andrew Dessler, points out that the government report employs the strategy of using a “kernel of truth” taken out of context. Case Western Reserve Physics Professor Cyrus C. Taylor cites “graphical sleight of hand” and other scientists reveal that the Energy Department report cites a paper that doesn’t even exist.

Bizarrely, Secretary Wright told the New York Times that climate change is “a scientific, economic issue and people treat it too often as a religious issue.” Come again? The fact is that the Trump administration’s war on our environment and work to sabotage and undo climate mitigation efforts is blessed by Christian nationalism. The White House is taking a page from historic autocrats, repressive church leaders and despots. Evangelicals are most apt to deny climate change while “Nones” are most likely to accept it and want to combat it.

Notable among the Christian nationalist drive against climate change science is the Heritage Foundation Project 2025, which, according to an analysis by of Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, calls for:
• Dismantling the administrative state, especially the EPA.
• De-emphasizing efforts to address climate change.
• Freeing private activities from regulatory constraints.
• Promoting American energy and science dominance (and fossil fuels).
• And grabbing the reins of government.

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency is already using the Energy Department’s analysis to promote the repeal of the 2009 endangerment finding, which declared climate change a danger to human health. That finding has till now permitted regulations of greenhouse gas emissions, such as from cars.

The doctored Energy Department report is but a small part of Trump’s war on science. The assaults include an executive order (“Restoring Gold Standard Science”) condemned by Nobel laureates, as well as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s war on medical science, the elimination or downsizing of multiple scientific advisory panels, and the massive drop in federal support for basic science research.

A recent New York Times lengthy analysis, “Historians see autocratic playbook in Trump’s attacks on science,” reminds us of the prominent role of religion in the war with science: “The war on science began four centuries ago when the Roman Catholic Church outlawed books that reimagined the heavens. Subsequent regimes shot or jailed thousands of scientists. Today, in such places as China and Hungary, a less fearsome type of strongman relies on budget cuts, intimidation and high-tech surveillance to cow scientists into submission.”

Paul R. Josephson, emeritus professor of history at Colby College and author of a book on totalitarian science, is quoted in the article, noting: “Despots want science that has practical results. They’re afraid that basic knowledge will expose their false claims. Trump once said he wanted the generals that Hitler had. He’s certainly working on getting the science that Hitler and Stalin had.”

Comments FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor, “Authoritarian regimes, which often tout religion to buttress their authority, need to sow distrust of contrary authorities, such as scientists. But the truth matters. We salute the 85 scientists speaking out and providing a true report on climate change, because not only our democracy but our planet’s future is at stake.”

FFRF urges its members and the public to continue to demand truth, not disinformation, from the federal government.

Pictured: A statue dedicated to monk Giordano Bruno, placed by freethinkers in 1889 at the Campo Dei Fiori in Rome. Bruno was burned at the stake in the year 1600 for the crime of defending the Copernican theory of heliocentrism. (Photo by Annie Laurie Gaylor)

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters of nontheism. With more than 42,000 members, FFRF advocates for freethinkers’ rights across the globe. For more information, visit ffrf.org.

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