More than 2,300 American scientists, including 22 Nobel Prize winners, issued an open letter to President-elect Donald Trump and Congress Wednesday, urging them to respect science.
They are especially worried about government interference in their work and about policies that could reject scientific fact — notably climate science.
“From disease outbreaks to climate change to national security to technology innovation, people benefit when our nation’s policies are informed by science unfettered by inappropriate political or corporate influence,” the researchers, who come from dozens of fields in all 50 states, wrote.
“Congress and the Trump administration should ensure our nation’s bedrock public health and environmental laws — such as the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act — retain a strong scientific foundation, and that agencies are able to freely collect and draw upon scientific data to effectively carry out statutory responsibilities established by these laws. They should also safeguard the independence of those outside the government who provide scientific advice.”
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The Orbital ATK Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard stands on launch Pad-0A during sunrise at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility Bill Ingalls/NASA / NASA via Getty Images
Donald Trump is seeking quick ways of withdrawing from a global agreement to limit climate change, a source on his transition team said, defying widening international backing for the plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Since the U.S. President-elect was chosen, governments ranging from China to small island states have reaffirmed support for the 2015 Paris Agreement at 200-nation climate talks running until Nov. 18 in Marrakesh, Morocco.
Trump, who has called global warming a hoax and has promised to quit the Paris Agreement, was considering ways to bypass a theoretical four-year procedure for leaving the accord, according to the source, who works on Trump’s transition team for international energy and climate policy.
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Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
As ash from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano continued to keep European airspace shut down over the weekend, affecting millions of travelers around the world, some government agencies and airlines clashed over the flight bans. Some restricted airspace is now beginning to open up and some limited flights are being allowed now as airlines are pushing for the ability to judge safety conditions for themselves. The volcano continues to rumble and hurl ash skyward, if at a slightly diminished rate now, as the dispersing ash plume has dropped closer to the ground, and the World Health Organization has issued a health warning to Europeans with respiratory conditions. Collected here are some images from Iceland over the past few days.(35 photos total)
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The volcano in southern Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull glacier sends ash into the air just prior to sunset ON Friday, April 16, 2010. Thick drifts of volcanic ash blanketed parts of rural Iceland on Friday as a vast, invisible plume of grit drifted over Europe, emptying the skies of planes and sending hundreds of thousands in search of hotel rooms, train tickets or rental cars. (AP Photo/Brynjar Gauti) #
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Hurricane Matthew’s eyewall whipped parts of Florida’s northeast coast Friday afternoon, marching up the southeastern United States after its deadly spree across the Caribbean.
Three deaths in Florida may be tied to the hurricane, officials said. The storm weakened to a Category 3 hurricane overnight after decimating Haiti, where the death toll rose Friday to more than 800, according to Reuters. NBC News could not immediately confirm that number.
The fiercest winds from Hurricane Matthew stayed off Florida’s coast as the storm raked the Atlantic shoreline Friday but predicted storm surges in Georgia and the Carlonias could cause “life-threatening” flooding, forecasters said.
Hurricane Matthew was packing sustained winds of 105 mph as it churned northwards towards Savannah Saturday, the National Hurricane Center said at 11 p.m.
Storm surges of up to 9 feet are possible from Flager Beach in Florida to Edisto Beach, S.C., and surges of up to 6 feet could occur on a stretch of coast that includes Charleston to Cape Fear, the hurricane center said.
The number of deaths in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, surged to at least 842 on Friday as information trickled in from remote areas previously cut off by the storm, according to a Reuters tally of death tolls given by officials.
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Saint Anne church lays totally destroyed by Hurricane Matthew in Camp Perrin, a district of Les Cayes, Haiti, on Oct. 6.
Florida authorities sounded alarms not heard in years as Hurricane Matthew weakened early Friday but stayed on a path for the state’s east coast.
In a 2 a.m. ET bulletin, the National Hurricane Center said it had been downgraded to a Category 3 storm but warned that the “eye of extremely dangerous” storm was moving closer to the east coast of Florida.
The first band of rain from Matthew arrived in Florida on Thursday, ahead of a projected landfall — or near-landfall — between West Palm Beach and Cape Canaveral that Gov. Rick Scott warned would be “catastrophic.”
“There is no reason not to leave,” Scott grimly warned as the storm, which killed at least 128 people across the Caribbean, moved ever closer.
As Florida prepares for Hurricane Matthew’s arrival, cities in Cuba and Haiti are already coping with the aftermath of what Reuters called the “fiercest Caribbean storm in nearly a decade.”
The hurricane made landfall in Les Anglais, Haiti, early Tuesday morning, bringing winds near 145 miles per hour and up to 40 inches of rain in certain parts of the country. These conditions resulted in the deaths of at least 69 people, according to Reuters.
“We’ve already seen deaths. People who were out at sea. There are people who are missing. They are people who didn’t respect the alerts. They’ve lost their lives,” Interim Haitian President Jocelerme Privert said at a press conference reported on by CNN.
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A woman surrounded by the remains of her home in Baracoa, CubaSource: Ramon Espinosa/AP
Hurricane Matthew, the fiercest Caribbean storm in nearly a decade, barreled toward the southeastern United States on Thursday after killing at least 69 people, mostly in Haiti, on its deadly northward march.
As Matthew blew through the northwestern Bahamas on Thursday, it was predicted to strengthen from a Category 3 to 4 storm en route to Florida’s Atlantic coast, the U.S. National HurricaneCenter said. The storm could either take direct aim at Florida or brush along the state’s coast on Thursday night.
Some 65 people were killed in Haiti and thousands were displaced after the storm smashed homes and inundated neighborhoods earlier in the week.
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Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
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The Orbital ATK Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard stands on launch Pad-0A during sunrise at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility Bill Ingalls/NASA / NASA via Getty Images
Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
Hurricane Matthew
Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
James' World 2 