Aquatic science orgs oppose changing WOTUS

The Trump administration is expected to announce reductions to the waters protected by the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule in a couple of hours. The change is expected to remove at least some wetlands, ephemeral streams, and headwaters streams from the waters covered by the rule.

According to MSNBC,

Mark Ryan, a lawyer at Ryan & Kuehler PLLC who spent 24 years as a clean water expert and litigator at the EPA, said water systems called headwaters in high regions of the country could lose protections under the new definitions being proposed by the Trump administration.

“I think the mining is going to benefit from this because mines tend to be up in the mountains near headwater systems,” Ryan said.

Miners may no longer need to apply for a permit before pushing waste from operations, such as rubble from mountain-top coal mining in the eastern United States, into some streams.

Howe Brook

Headwater stream in Baxter State Park, Maine.

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This is how you do it

I’m pretty annoyed with CNN these days. I have called them “recklessly irresponsible” for failing to apply the slightest skepticism to the administration’s absurd claims of sonic weapon attacks in Cuba. Then there’s their website’s autoplay videos, which shrink, move to the sidebar, and keep playing if you scroll past them. Because obviously, when you scroll past a video to read a story, what you want is to see the video.

But Brianna Keilar nails it in this interview with Georgia State Senator Michael Williams:

That’s right, she asked the exact question I’ve criticized CNN for failing to ask: how do you know that? And Senator Williams dances a beautiful little jig in his effort to dodge her question.

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The pitiful cowardice of “fake news”

Donald Trump’s accusations of ‘fake news’ aren’t just disingenuous, they’re cowardly. Some of those accusations are specific, and those are usually smacked down, hard:

Those aren’t the ones I’m talking about. At least, in those cases, he’s making a claim that can be fact-checked. More often, it’s just poisoning the well against (essentially all) legitimate news organizations:

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Tell me more about the “very, very unified” Republican Party

My list of Republican criticisms of President (in a few cases candidate) Trump just got a bit longer. David Weigel at the Washington Post has some zingers from members of the “Meeting of the Concerned”:

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Pandorina(?) in The Atlantic

In The Atlantic, not in the Atlantic. A new article in The Atlantic is making the rounds on social media, “Scientists Brace for a Lost Generation in American Research.” The article speculates on the likely long-term effects of President Trump’s proposed ~20% cut to the NIH budget. Which is fine, because what has the NIH ever done for us? Okay, there was the whole genetic code thing, plus

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Friday Golden Fleece: America [already] COMPETES

Rep. Lamar Smith

That’s right, he’s the Chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology

Imagine (or remember): you’re a grad student; you’ve struggled through your first two years juggling classes, teaching and research; you managed to get your committee together so that you could contend with three weeks of written then three hours of oral comprehensive exams. You synthesized your dissertation proposal and your written comps into something coherent, passed a dozen drafts back and forth with your advisor, and finally managed to navigate the FastLane website to get it submitted to the NSF before the deadline. In all likelihood, it was rejected, so you tried again the following year. One day you’re working at your computer when the lab phone rings, and you’re stunned to find that it’s your program officer telling you that your Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant has been funded. $20,000 over two years to support your field work in Bolivia! Some time later, you learn that the Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology is telling the world that your research in particular is a waste of taxpayer money.

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