Category «Environmental Law»

The Trump Administration’s Continued War Against Science, Research and Public Health – Part 5

The fifth in a series by Sabrina I. Pacifici focuses once again on government resources, data and datasets that been taken offline, censored or otherwise altered to block access. As these data are no longer updated, the value and relevance to researchers decreases rapidly. These data operationalize critical work performed by federal government agencies and in concert with academic institutions and research institutions. The scope of this censorship has wiped out taxpayer funded research across across all subject matters, which until this administration, was openly posted on e-government sites for further exploration and enhancement by both the public and private sectors.

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Education, Energy, Environmental Law, Government Resources, Healthcare, KM, Legal Research

The remarkable rise of eBird – the world’s biggest citizen science project

eBird is the flagship program of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, located in Ithaca, New York state. Everyone uses eBird. Program Manager Darryl Jones describes why.

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law

FEMA buyouts vs. risky real estate: New maps reveal post-flood migration patterns across the US

Prof. James R. Elliott and Research Analyst Debolina Banerjee study flood resilience and have been mapping the results of government buyout programs across the U.S. that purchase damaged homes after disasters to turn them into open space. Their new national maps of who relocates and where they go after a flood shows that most Americans who move from buyout areas stay local. However, they also found that the majority of them give up their home to someone else, either selling it or leaving a rental home, rather than taking a government buyout offer. That transfers the risk to a new resident, leaving the community still facing future costly risks.

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Environmental Law, Financial System, Legal Research

The Trump Administration’s Continued War Against Science, Research and Public Health Part 3

This is a follow up to two previous articles by Sabrina I. Pacifici on the Trump administration’s relentless attacks against science, medicine and public health, government sponsored data collection and reporting, climate science, free speech, and the censorship of federally funded academic research and scholarship. The rapid fire assault against the heart of our democracy stunningly continues to escalate, per the Project 2025 roadmap operationalized under the direction of Russell Vought and Stephen Miller, fracturing our public policy, governance, the economy, muzzling the education system, and eradicating our foreign policy and diplomacy. Pacifici’s article focuses on the administration’s new actions in September 2025, documenting censorship in all sectors, across agencies, universities, corporate activities and the economy.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Climate Change, Constitutional Law, Energy, Environmental Law, Government Contracts, Health, Healthcare, Legal Research, United States Law

How to Get AI Out of Your Google Search Results

John R. Platt, Editor of the The Revelator, a news and ideas initiative of the Center for Biological Diversity, reports on how three simple keystrokes will deliver search results that consume less energy and water — and probably contain better information.

Subjects: AI, Climate Change, Energy, Environmental Law, Legal Research, Search Engines, Search Strategies, Technology Trends

Trump Administration Looking to Slash Environmental Protection Rules for Rocket Launches

A draft executive order viewed by ProPublica’s Heather Vogell and Topher Sanders directs the secretary of transportation to “use all available authorities to eliminate or expedite” environmental reviews for launch licenses — a change Elon Musk’s SpaceX and others have long sought.

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law, Healthcare

Can you trust climate information? How and why powerful players are misleading the public

Professors Klaus Bruhn Jensen and Semahat Ece Elbeyi are media and communication researchers focusing on environmental communication. Recently, they joined a team of 14 researchers who investigated misinformation about climate change for the International Panel on the Information Environment. Our team carried out the most comprehensive review to date of scientific research on climate misinformation and disinformation. Climate misinformation is when people make mistaken claims about climate change and spread incorrect information. Climate disinformation is where false information is spread deliberately – for example, corporations that “greenwash” their products so that they can sell more. (Greenwashing is where false claims are made that products or services are environmentally friendly when they aren’t). They reviewed 300 studies published between 2015 and 2025, all of which centred on climate misinformation. Our study found that the human response to the climate crisis is being obstructed and delayed by the production and circulation of misleading information. They found that this is being done by powerful economic and political interests, such as fossil fuel companies, populist political parties, and some nation states.

Subjects: Climate Change, Energy, Environmental Law, Legal Research

How redefining just one word could strip the Endangered Species Act’s ability to protect vital habitat

Dr. Mariah Meek asserts that it wouldn’t make much sense to prohibit people from shooting a threatened woodpecker while allowing its forest to be cut down, or to bar killing endangered salmon while allowing a dam to dry out their habitat. But that’s exactly what the Trump administration is proposing to do by changing how one word in the Endangered Species Act is interpreted: harm. The definition change is a quiet way to gut the Endangered Species Act.

Subjects: Animals and the Law, Climate Change, Environmental Law, Government Resources, Legal Research, Legislative

How to find climate data and science the Trump administration doesn’t want you to see

Research librarian Alejandro Paz and policy scholar Eric Nost, who belong to a network called the Public Environmental Data Partners, a coalition of nonprofits, archivists and researchers who rely on federal data in our analysis, advocacy and litigation, are working to ensure that data remains available to the public.

Subjects: Climate Change, Energy, Environmental Law, Government Resources, Legal Research

NOAA’s vast public weather data powers the local forecasts on your phone and TV – a private company alone couldn’t match it

Atmospheric scientists Christine Wiedinmyer and Kari Bowen, who is a former National Weather Service forecaster, explain NOAA’s central role in most U.S. weather forecasts. They underscore why the Trump/DOGE plan to eliminate these two critical agencies and replace them with one private company to provide comprehensive weather data in a reliable way that is also accessible to the entire public, is not a reasonable plan.

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law, Government Resources