“The public, media, and Congressional reaction to these numbers is going to be huge.” ~ Trump White House aide, on water pollution in America
In 2018, the Trump administration suppressed a federal water pollution study, conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services, that showed that many American water supplies are laced with industrial waste chemicals which are toxic at levels far lower than the Environmental Protection Agency previously called safe. A Trump aide had warned that publishing the report would be a “public relations nightmare.” So, the report was quietly buried, and the mainstream press never covered the cover-up.
The water pollution report was just a single example of an concerted campaign to suppress public knowledge of the destructive impact of the market system and governmental failure to rein in its destructions. States helmed by Republicans are abetting the endeavor to blot out science and keep the public in the dark.
The most vigorous vector involves obliterating federal support for investigation into and reportage of climate change and pollution. Federal employees are silenced from expressing facts under threat of persecution. Expenditure for scientific endeavors of all kinds has been slashed, regardless of Congressional funding (an illegality that goes unenforced, as governmental oversight toward rectitude is a sham). This includes health research and science education. The Trump administration is even crippling the ability to detect and publish weather data.
Sources:
Silencing Science Tracker exposes the Republican science devastation campaign in detail.
Mark Fischetti, “Silencing science,” Scientific American 320(5): 88 (May 2019).