Trump climate data purge risks Americans' health, more

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By Mark Gongloff / Bloomberg Opinion

Compared with President Trump’s many attacks on science so far in his second term, his affront to climate science feels like a mere flesh wound at the moment. Delaying cancer research, depriving HIV and AIDS patients of life-saving medicine and divorcing from the World Health Organization in the middle of a bird-flu outbreak all feel like more urgent emergencies.

But Trump has already started erasing web tools that scientists and policymakers use to study climate change and its impact on vulnerable people, hinting at a further-reaching purge that could have long-term impacts on the health of millions of Americans.

When Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida makes the words “climate change” disappear from government websites, it has local impacts, including but not limited to making DeSantis look ridiculous whenever a supercharged hurricane slams into his state. But when a U.S. president tries to do a Joseph Stalin to the very concept of global warming, the effects are broader-reaching.

That’s because the federal government gathers, stores and analyzes mountains of climate-related data, which helps scientists everywhere study what’s happening to the planet and helps people, businesses and policymakers prepare society for a hotter, riskier future. The data it collects is so important that several experts and nonprofit groups have set aside other, more constructive work to desperately archive as much federal climate information as they can, like a Dunkirk of data.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-trump-climate-data-purge-risks-americans-health-more/