The US Environmental Protection Agency has blocked three scheduled discussions of climate change by agency scientists at a conference on Monday in Rhode Island, according to reporting by the New York Times.
The last-minute cancellation was reported Sunday, the day before the start of the State of the Narragansett Bay and its Watershed Workshop in Providence, Rhode Island, where scientists are to gather to discuss the health of Narragansett Bay.
The conference’s hosting organization, the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program, is funded partly through the EPA’s National Estuary Program.
One of the scientists who was cut from the program was the appointed keynote speaker, and the Times reported that she was planning to speak about climate change “and other factors affecting the health of the estuary.” The other two scientists removed from the program were to speak about “The Present and Future Biological Implications of Climate Change.”
All three of the scientists contributed to a 500-page report on the state of the bay, which was issued Monday. The report concluded that climate change is causing air and water temperatures to warm, precipitation to change in “intensity and seasonality,” and sea levels to rise. “These stressors are already causing ecological responses,” the report reads.
The EPA has offered little explanation for the decision to prevent the scientists from participating, other than to say in a statement that they were allowed to attend the conference but not speak because “it is not an EPA conference.”
Endangered Scholars Worldwide deplores the administration’s decision to prevent scientists from presenting climate change-related research at a conference in Rhode Island and calls upon all national and international organizations, academic and professional associations, and other groups and individuals devoted to the promotion and defense of freedom and specially scholarly freedom to protest and condemn this decision. We believe that this type of political interference is ill-advised and does a disservice to the American public and its health.