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Climate change research funding cuts under Trump’s administration have sparked intense reactions from the scientific community. The move threatens to disrupt projects previously supported by the Democrat-backed Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
“What it looks like to me is an absolute full-on brakes moment for any further climate advances at least in the short term,” said Gabriel Filippelli, the executive director of the Environmental Resilience Institute at Indiana University, whose $5 million federal grant has been suspended.
“But I think what people don’t fully recognize is that if you disrupt funding on a wide scale, even for a short time, the hangover effect lasts for a long time,” he added.
Democrats didn't bat an eye when President Biden forced federal workers to get the COVID vaccine or brazenly attempted to cancel student loan debt.
President Trump and Elon Musk are exactly right to cut every woke program funded by the Biden administration. pic.twitter.com/efbympToTh
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) February 12, 2025
The scientific community has expressed strong concerns about these funding changes. “These are clear attempts to undermine the scientific community,” lamented Richard Ostfeld, a scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies who researches the effects of climate change on tick-borne illnesses.
“Somehow science and scientists, information and facts, are perceived as the enemy,” he contended. “The casualties of all this, in addition to the scientists, are the American people.”
Some observers point to potential funding bias in government-sponsored climate research. Economist Stephen Moore argues, “[T]he tidal wave of funding does reveal a powerful financial motive for scientists to conclude that the apocalypse is upon us.”
Never Forget when Matt Gaetz wanted Congress to reduce USAID’s funding by $4.5 Billion dollars
MAGA has wanted to cut USAID for a while
Trump is delivering on that promise pic.twitter.com/kGuVrucZVd
— MAGA Voice (@MAGAVoice) February 9, 2025
“No one hires a fireman if there are no fires. No one hires a climate scientist (there are thousands of them now) if there is no catastrophic change in the weather,” he added.
The contrast with the Biden administration’s approach is stark. As reported by NPR, “Biden left office having put in place the most ambitious climate agenda of any previous president.” Biden himself characterized the Inflation Reduction Act as “the most significant action ever on climate in the history of the world.”
These recent funding cuts have created uncertainty among researchers who previously relied on federal climate research grants.
