Climate scientists who have had their research held up this year are pointing to the Interior Department, which added an additional step in the review process for approving funding grants, as the reason they have been hamstrung in their efforts to study the climate crisis and its effects on the Earth.
The additional review was put in place by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to ensure research “better align[s] with the administration’s priorities”—and he appointed an old high school friend with no experience in scientific research or environmental work, to make that call.
Steve Howke was named senior adviser to the Interior Department’s policy, management, and budget official last fall, after years of working in credit unions. His highest level of education is a Bachelor’s degree in business administration, which he earned after playing with Zinke on Whitefish High School’s football team as a teenager.
“If you were going to design a way to bog things down so not much could happen, you might do it like this,” a scientist whose work at the Climate Adaptation Science Centers has been delayed due to the lack of funding from the Interior Department—which controls $5.5 billion for research, conservation and land acquisition—told the Guardian.
The Centers conduct research on the climate crisis and how it has been linked to numerous disasters like the destructive wildfires tearing through parts of California and Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, which caused billions of dollars in damage and killed thousands of people last year, mainly in Puerto Rico.
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