Inside Out | Opinion: Trump’s anti-science policies imperil the world

Donald Trump may be the US’ first “post-fact” president, but is he also the first “post-science” president? And should we be alarmed?

Ask many in the scientific community in the United States, and the answer is a deafening “Yes”.

Ask anyone looking for US leadership to constrain the environmental harm being done by climate change, and you would be deafened, too.

Scott Pruitt, Trump’s appointee as head of the Environmental Protection Agency, has sued the agency 13 times and repeatedly called for its dissolution. Its staff have created an “alt-site” to preserve data on global temperature trends in the face of threats to wipe government websites clean of such data.

Rick Perry, Trump’s new Energy Secretary, five years ago called for the Department of Energy to be disbanded. He is now tasked to head it.

The Office of Science and Technology Policy, which has coordinated US policy on development of the internet, driverless cars and clean energy, is adrift. It has no director. It has no chief technology officer. Three other top director positions are vacant.