All US administrations ignore hard science if it hurts corporate interests: Analyst

US President Donald Trump's views on science are ridiculous, but all administrations ignore hard science if it hurts the corporate bottom line, according to Myles Hoenig, an American political analyst and activist. 

Hoenig, a former Green Party candidate for Congress, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Saturday after an American think-tank warned the treatment of science by the Trump administration has hit a “crisis point,” where research findings are manipulated for political gain.

Special interests are given improper influence over federal scientific agencies and scientists are targeted for ideological reasons, according to a report released on Thursday by the National Task Force on Rule of Law and Democracy.

Every US president over the past two decades has, to some degree, undermined research and injected politics into science, according to the task force, formed under the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law.

However, the mistreatment of science under recent administrations has reached a dangerous level under Trump. The study calls for stringent new standards to enshrine scientific independence.

PressTV-Trump’s abuse of science has hit 'crisis point': Study

An American think-tank has warned that interference in government research by the Trump administration has reached “a crisis point”.

“There’s no doubt that Trump’s administration has taken anti-science to an extreme. To him a sharpie is high tech and no one would notice. His actions may be ridiculous, but it’s only an extreme to what all administrations have done in the past, including the Obama administration,” said Hoenig.

“We don’t need to go much into the excesses of Trump’s attack on science as it’s the standard in which he operates. But let’s look at the President Obama. It’s not a stretch to say that his health care plan (the Americans with Disabilities Act) was an attack on science, as epidemiology, health care delivery, and cost analysis are often based on scientific facts and research. His administration was clearly in the pocket of the health insurance industry, as he made every effort possible to prevent single payer from even being at the table for discussion. The science is clear that universal health care is a positive net for all. All the scientific advancements are worthless, though, if tens of millions are still denied health care,” he added.

“On an issue much closer to hard science is the issue of fracking, always known to be a major cause of ground water pollution and even earthquakes, as the tremors in Ohio showed to be directly related to fracking. The science was there, but ignored. The Obama administration, especially through the office of Hillary Clinton’s Secretary of State, made fracking a world-wide phenomenon, and of course a cash cow for the industry,” he said.

“One of the greatest polluters in the world is the US military. Its toxic and nuclear waste, as well as its arsenal that is spread and released all over the word, are destroying the planet. Empire building has put science in its place behind the betterment of human and animal kind, and its science is used more for destructive purposes than for the good of all. This is regardless of which administration is in power,” the analyst noted.

“Trump might make a mockery of science, and outright ignore its findings. It’s just that previous administrations are more adept at hiding their contempt for it,” he concluded.

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