On Friday, President Donald Trump announced mass layoffs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, one of the world’s premier centers for studying climate science. The announcement was the culmination of Trump’s longstanding campaign against climate science as a field. Over the last several months, Salon spoke with dozens of climate scientists, who warned that the ongoing purge of scientific experts will make it more difficult for the U.S. government to effectively face a growing set of environmental threats.
In just a few short weeks, the Trump administration has completely upended the scientific community, thoroughly dismantling agencies like USAID, the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency. At the EPA, Trump has already put more than 1,000 workers on notice that their jobs are in peril, and throughout the 2024 campaign he vowed to completely gut the agency. The president frames his policies as one-part economic stimulant, one-part war against a so-called “deep state” of bureaucrats that undermine his policies. The workers who spoke to Salon believe that Trump is inflicting devastating damage on our society’s ability to protect the rapidly changing environment.
Thousands of government workers in science-related fields have reason to believe they may soon be fired. As a number of government scientists on the frontlines have told Salon, the toll on both workers and the public interest is considerable, especially in an era of deadly pandemics, climate volatility and worsening pollution.
“We are sitting in front row seats to a coup,” said Terry, a highly-regarded scientist whose work directly addresses the impacts of climate change. (Terry is not this person’s real name; they requested anonymity to avoid reprisals.)
“While Donald Trump is technically our president, we are also dealing with a shadow president in Elon Musk, who now has installed a DOGE aide at EPA,” Terry explained. “So we are feeling a sense of dread, watching agencies like USAID get dismantled and wondering if we are next.”
"This time we are feeling under threat not only for the work we do, but simply as federal workers."
Speaking to Salon in December about conditions during Trump’s first term in office, EPA scientist Dan Costa recalled that government workers studying the health effects of air pollution ”had a bullseye on us” because of corporate opposition. Terry suggests that the situation has already gotten worse a month into Trump’s second term.
“While the last Trump presidency attacked our work, this time we are feeling under threat not only for the work we do, but simply as federal workers,” Terry said. “We’ve been made into a public enemy. Every day we are waiting for the next threatening, manipulative email from the Office of Personnel Management [which Musk now controls] or from the agency heads who are validating and reinforcing their messages. It is an atmosphere of psychological abuse.”
Dr. Kyla Bennett, the director of science policy for the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, is a professional advocate for workers facing exactly this type of mistreatment. Bennett previously worked at the EPA as wetlands enforcement coordinator in New England and says she is tuned into the work culture among environmental scientists. By her account, they are angry.
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“Career scientists at federal agencies are, first and foremost, pissed,” Bennett said. “Contrary to Trump and Musk's portrayal of government employees as lazy and low productivity, they are dedicated professionals who joined the government to protect the American people. Some of them are frightened because they are being attacked and targeted. But most of them are furious.”
Government workers also say that Trump’s recent appointees do not seem to understand the mission of the agencies they now steward.
Newly installed officials, Bennett said, “are removing climate data and references from federal web pages; revoking the U.S. International Climate Finance Plan; initiating a withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords; withdrawing proposed PFAS effluent limits; weakening the Endangered Species Act ; slashing federal agencies, including EPA, National Park Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and eliminating protection” for communities “already overburdened by pollution.”
“The future of our planet? Bleak,” Bennett concluded. “I don't think we can come back from this full-on assault on the environment. When ExxonMobil is lamenting leaving the Paris Agreement, you know it's bad.”
Terry has observed the effects of this anti-environmental attitude firsthand.
“I worked at the EPA through the first Trump administration, and they came out the gate in 2017 with a very ideological purge of climate-related information from our websites,” Terry said. “This time around, the administration’s ideology has shifted to hatred of marginalized communities, packaged in ‘anti-DEI’ rhetoric … We have been seeing an aggressive and merciless attack on employees across agencies doing work related to equity and justice. If climate justice is scrubbed from our work, communities will suffer.”
"Career scientists at federal agencies are, first and foremost, pissed."
This dim view of the Trump and Musk policies is not limited to scientists and government employees. Christine Todd Whitman is a former EPA administrator who served under a Republican president, George W. Bush, after two terms as the Republican governor of New Jersey. Whitman says current EPA employees are “dispirited and frustrated.”
For many workers, Whitman said, the question now is whether to accept the government buyout they’ve been offered by Musk and leave their jobs. “Should they trust they will actually be paid or risk getting fired?” she asked. “People who have given their careers to serve the American people are now between a rock and a hard place because an unelected, unappointed, unconfirmed rich man with no security clearance is dismantling the federal government.”
These traumatic changes come at a dangerous moment, Whitman added. Fossil fuel emissions caused average global temperatures to reach 1.5º C above pre-industrial levels for the first time ever. As of 2024, the carbon dioxide concentration in Earth’s atmosphere was 424.6 ppm, a jump of more than 50% from levels before our species began relying on fossil fuels less than three centuries ago.
“Look at the intensity of storms, fires, floods — this isn’t normal and it will only get worse,” Whitman said. Society faces unprecedented struggle as “the air and water will be dirtier, people will be getting sick, kids will be getting asthma — a key driver of missed school days. Combine this with leaving the World Health Organization, and the dismantling of research at the National Institutes of Health, and more people are going to die.”
Whitman added, “It should grieve anyone who is paying attention.”
Top scientists share her alarm. Dr. Mark Serreze, the director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, pointed to the recent reports that January 2025 was the hottest January in recorded history. Trump and his followers, Serreze said, are looking the other way.
“By failing to quickly address the growing problem of climate change, we are setting ourselves up for very tough times ahead,” Serreze said. “The number just came out for the January 2025 global average temperature and it's another record high. Will we ever wake up? Trump and his cohorts simply look at the short term and haven't even a vague grasp of the science. They choose to ignore the obvious.”
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Serreze urges citizens who want to make a difference to “do whatever you can do to make your voice heard. Our future is at stake.” His advice is echoed by Denae Ávila-Dickson, spokesperson for the climate change advocacy group Sunrise Movement.
“People have the power to fight back against Trump’s harmful policies by making it clear just how deeply unpopular they are,” Ávila-Dickson said. “It's critical to expose how his actions hurt ordinary people and the impact dismantling environmental protections or defunding essential services will have on their everyday lives. These cuts aren’t about putting money back in the hands of working families; they’re about lining the pockets of billionaires at our expense.”
Ávila-Dickson added, “Working people are the most powerful voices in this fight because they can speak to the real cost of Trump’s agenda.”
Whitman said that concerned citizens should “go to your elected representatives and don’t let them get away with ignoring it. Tell your representatives that you care, that your vote is going to matter and that you’ll be watching for the safety of your children and grandchildren. Officials who might act need to know they won’t be alone if they stand up to this nonsense.”
“EPA workers are vital to protecting our air and water resources, cleaning up after hurricanes and wildfires and working to build resilience against the next climate-caused disasters,” Terry said. “We protect you, and we need all hands on deck to protect us.”
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