Editorial: Colorado political leaders should protect laboratories, freedom of climate scientists

Climate scientists at federal laboratories in Boulder, Golden and around the country are suffering under a different type of climate: the climate of fear.

President Trump’s administration has done much to unsettle the very foundation of climate science. As Dallas Heltzell notes in an article in this edition of BizWest, several factors are contributing to uneasiness on the part of climate scientists:

• President Trump has labeled climate change a “hoax,” tweeting in 2012: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”

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• Trump transition team members threw the federal science community into a panic in December, when it asked the U.S. Department of Energy for names of employees involved in climate meetings. The request was denied, and transition officials later said the request was “not authorized.”

• The Trump administration has cautioned or banned employees at several federal agencies from posting on social media, leading to unauthorized, “rogue” social-media accounts.

Add to all of that the uncertainty over government funding for climate research, and lab officials and employees are understandably worried.

President Trump’s denial of climate change raises global concern, but it’s particular worrisome in Boulder and Jefferson counties, which house the lion’s share of the state’s federal laboratories, many of which are devoted to climate science or renewable-energy research and contribute billions to the Colorado economy.

President Trump has not yet pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, and he has said that he has an open mind on the issue. One hopes that that is true, as the science, indeed, is settled. NASA itself refers to that settled status on its website:

“Multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals show that 97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree: Climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities,” the website states.

That’s higher, obviously than the oft-cited 84 percent figure. But will it be enough for President Trump to end the climate of fear?

Time will tell. In the meantime, Colorado’s congressional delegation — including Sen. Cory Gardner, who has waffled on whether humans contribute to climate change — should stand united in protecting the ability of climate scientists to speak out on the issue, and protect them from political witch hunts.