Donald Trump threatens ‘the very future of our democracy’, top scientist warns

The former head of one the United States’ leading scientific agencies has said she fears for the “very future of our democracy” if scientists are “muzzled and intimidated” by Donald Trump’s administration.

Speaking to a packed house of about 250 people at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s (AAAS) annual meeting, former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) chief Professor Jane Lubchenco said she was even concerned for the “health and well-being of scientists” amid warning signs that she described as “very sobering”.

Since Mr Trump was elected he has appointed a string of climate change deniers to key positions in government, information about climate change has been deleted from federal websites and staff at the Environmental Protection Agency were told not to speak out publicly without approval.

This ‘gag order’ was described by Professor Barbara Schaal, president of the AAAS, as “chilling” when she opened the meeting.

An event organised by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) at the annual meeting saw emotions run high as some people in the crowd compared Mr Trump to the Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini and his administration to the Nazis in 1930s Germany.

However, one of the founders of the UCS, Kurt Gottfried, who was a child in Austria when the country was annexed by Germany in 1938, said such comparisons were “ridiculous” at the moment – but also warned they might not be in the future.

Ms Lubchenco, who was the NOAA administrator from 2009 to 2013, told the audience: “My biggest worry is about the consequences to society if scientists are muzzled and intimidated, if science is defunded, data deleted and scientific institutions are undermined.

“I fear for the health and well-being of scientists and the economy and the environment, indeed the very future of our democracy and our world.

“Why? We need science at the table for individuals and for institutions to make smart decisions. We need data to help citizens and businesses be smart about what they do, we need science to create the new knowledge that will help society solve many of the big problems that are facing us.”

She said it was unclear whether her worst fears would become reality but added “we have warning signs that are very sobering”.

“I fear that neither policymakers nor citizens will have access to the best available science because federal scientists are afraid or unable to do their best science and to share it with the public and policymakers,” Ms Lubchenco said.

“I fear that the scientific integrity policies that are essential for wise decision-making… will be either ignored or dismantled. I fear that science will seen increasingly as partisan and untrustworthy.”

Scientists could decide to quit Government jobs or not apply for them, affecting everything from the quality of weather forecasts to new sources of renewable energy and the safety of medicines, she said.

But Ms Lubchenco also appealed to people not to make science a partisan issue.

“It isn’t, it shouldn’t be and don’t buy into that framing of the debate,” she said.

The eminent physicist, Professor Lewis Branscomb, who has advised four US Presidents, echoed that point as he suggested some politicians in Mr Trump’s own party might prove to be allies.

“A great many of the leading Republicans are very nervous about where all this is going to lead,” he said.

“If there is a chance of having strong friends anywhere in the conservative community, then don’t put them in the pot with everything else we plan to cook.”

He appeared taken aback by the heady atmosphere of the meeting.

“The energy is right here in the room, look at it, we’ve never had a meeting like this,” Mr Branscomb said.

But some among the audience expressed fears that the dangers posed by Mr Trump were being underestimated.

Jeremy Grantham, the Boston-based investment strategist known for steering investors away from coming crashes and who set up the Grantham Foundation For the Protection of the Environment, accused scientists of having a lack of passion.

“I think scientists actually think passion is not scientific. They have enormous respect for the dignity of science,” he said.

“They understate their work on climate change and that is simply dangerous if it leads to a lack of understanding by senior politicians.

“This is a matter of real survivability for certainly our society as we know it and for many species – including our own.”

Mr Grantham said there was a need for scientists to speak out more strongly on such issues and “it shouldn’t take the second coming of Mussolini” to provoke such a response.

And Dr Phil Rice, of Harvard Medical School and an emergency doctor, went further.

“This is an authoritarian fascist government. All these institutions that people are hoping to rely upon to keep him and his group in check I think are just going to fold,” he said.

“This is a locomotive coming at us… just like they did in Germany, they will come for the scientists, this is just the first salvo.

“They will attack the scientists and they will imprison them. I think part of the response has to be that we are going to protect each and every one of us that gets attacked.

“Even if you just do your science and don’t speak out, you will get attacked. The universities are going to be gone after just as they are beginning to.”

However Mr Gottfried advised against comparing Mr Trump to the far-right leaders of 1930s Europe.

“I saw my school yard filled with tanks and my sky filled with German fighter planes,” he said.

“I’ve experienced what you are talking about and I want to warn you about over-stating the case.

“I think the US is not Germany or Austria in 1938. We have a lot of strengths we can rely on.

“We damage ourselves by exaggerating the threat. This country has strengths that Germany did not have, to equate the two is ridiculous.

“Unfortunately you may turn out to be right, but to talk now as if it is a forgone conclusion is a mistake.

“You may help the people who want [a] Hitler to come to power. I’ve seen what you are talking about and it’s not what we are facing. It may be, but we help it come about if we make exaggerations that are really way off.”

No one was available for comment at the White House on Saturday evening.