Interior Simultaneously Hiring 5 Climate Scientists For Eight Regional Positions - Why?
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According to at least one university program director who is waiting for USGS to fill a position at her host school, the University of Washington, there's been no shortage of interest. "I have to say that I've been getting quite a lot of inquiries from folks who want to know what the job is about, but I don't know how many have applied," said Amy Snover, university director of the Northwest CASC and an affiliate associate professor at UW's College of the Environment.
Snover will not make the hiring decision. That will be left to USGS, whose director, James Reilly, promised during his Senate confirmation last April to keep politics out of the agency's scientific work. The same can't be said of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, the former Montana congressman who has openly challenged climate science. In August, he said California's devastating wildfires "have nothing to do with climate change," even though studies have demonstrated the link between massive wildfires and California's warmer, drier climate.
Independent scientists felt a collective chill when Zinke issued a directive in December 2017 requiring discretionary grants of $50,000 or more to undergo political screening to ensure federal spending is better aligned with administration policy positions. Zinke appointed Steve Howke, a personal friend from Montana, to oversee the screening for funds going to universities, nonprofit organizations and conservation groups. It's unclear how many projects from the adaptation centers have been subject to screenings, but Snover said the political vetting of science is a concern among many scientists. She noted that most grants going to the adaptation centers would meet the $50,000 review threshold.
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Emailed questions to the Interior press office about the CASC vacancies — including why five of eight positions are being filled simultaneously — were not answered by deadline. But a person with knowledge about the program said "there was nothing nefarious" about the departures of the former directors. Andrew Rosenberg, director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said: "It's telling that you have so many vacancies. It means that senior officials have left the program." And although government-sponsored science remains integral to exploring the causes and effects of climate change, Rosenberg said the Trump administration's dismissal of human-caused warming has placed many government scientists in an untenable position. "I think any academic taking on one of these positions would need to think very carefully about whether they could do the work they want to do under this administration," he said. "This is the kind of Faustian bargain that a lot of scientists have to figure out right now."
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https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060103923
