NOAA's chief scientist fired after asking new political officers to acknowledge agency's scientific-integrity policy

The Trump administration fired the chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and "installed new political staff who have questioned accepted facts about climate change and imposed stricter controls on communications at the agency," The New York Times reports. "The moves threaten to stifle a major source of objective United States government information about climate change that underpins federal rules on greenhouse gas emissions and offer an indication of the direction the agency will take if President Trump wins re-election."

When NOAA's acting chief scientist "sent some of the new political appointees a message that asked them to acknowledge the agency’s scientific integrity policy, which prohibits manipulating research or presenting ideologically driven findings," he was fired by "a former White House policy adviser who had just been appointed NOAA’s chief of staff," Christopher Flavelle and Lisa Friedman report.

Charlotte Klein reports for Vanity Fair, "The Trump administration is also placing restrictions on internal and external messages at the agency. The policy change requires all communications—from social media posts to press releases to agency-wide emails—to be approved by political staff at the Commerce Department at least three days before they are released, a move meant to ensure communications 'serve the needs of your employees and mission while aligning with the over-arching guidance from the White House and Department,' a memo issued by the department said. The new limits underscore the environmental implications of next week’s vote—and offer a grim preview of what a second Trump term would look like for climate research."