Native Plant Conservation Campaign ACTION ALERT: NPCC Joins Scientific Societies In Asking You to Contact Congress to Defend Science!

January 27, 2017

 

Today the Ecological Society of America (ESA) and the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) both spoke out against attacks on scientific integrity by Congress and the Trump Administration.

 

They also asked that the scientific community and public speak out to support transparency, integrity and independence in federal scientific programs that deal with climate change, land management, biological diversity conservation and other important issues.

 

In a special edition of ESA Policy News , the Society expressed concern about “tremendous disarray and confusion” and “muzzling” of federal agencies after “an apparent Administrative directive instructed several agencies….to halt release of any public facing documents, pending approval of "interim procedures" until new administrators are in place.”

 

The Ecological Society sent a letter to Mr. Trump asking him to support scientific independence, integrity and transparency in federal agencies and other institutions.

 

At the same time, AIBS released an Action Alert urging scientists and others to " Please write to your Senators and Representative to express your concern about the actions taken by federal agencies that impede the dissemination of scientific information." Clicking the link will take you to an AIBS site where entering your ZIP code will load an addressed e mail which you can use or customize and send to your federal representatives.

 

Meanwhile federal scientists are fighting back.

 

A “Scientists’ March on Washington” is being planned for March. Learn more at http://www.scientistsmarchonwashington.com/p/we-accept-following-as-provisionally.html

 

Further, as scientific data are removed from federal websites and agencies have been explicitly prohibited from communicating with the public about a range of scientific and other issues, federal scientists have taken to Social Media to continue to inform and interact with the public that they serve.

 

Nicknamed  “Twistance” to align with other Resistance projects that have sprung up since the 2016 election, one slogan is “You can take our official twitter, but you'll never take our free time!”

Learn more at:  https://twitter.com/StollmeyerEU/lists/twistance/members

 

For the Ecological Society of America analysis of the Trump Transition see ESA Policy News

 

Scientists need your help! Please write to your Senators and Representative to express your concern about the actions taken by federal agencies that impede the dissemination of scientific information.