National Nature Assessment Cancelled

A first-of-its-kind report on the state of nature in the United States authorized by President Joe Biden has been canceled by order of President Donald Trump. A Feb. 10 New York Times article covered the coverup.

The “National Nature Assessment,” is the work of over 150 scientists and other experts - both government and private sector — who had spent thousands of hours working on the report. Now some members of the team are intent on finishing and publishing the work outside the government.

The project’s director, environmental scientist Dr. Phil Levin, wrote in an email to the report’s authors, “This work is too important to die. The country needs what we are producing.”

Non-partisan Congressional journal The Hill quoted a co-author of the report: “This is really not a political or ideological topic,” said Howard Frumkin, a University of Washington emeritus professor of environmental science. “We know that across the country in red states and blue states, in red counties and blue counties, people love the nation’s natural heritage.”

The study is intended to measure how America’s land, water and wildlife are faring, how they are expected to change, and what that means for people. There has never before been such a comprehensive evaluation on the state of nature within our borders.

Some authors have known for a long time that we are headed in the wrong direction in our management of nature. Almost half a century ago, Herman Daly wrote that “The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment, not the reverse.” Daly also noted that “There is something fundamentally wrong in treating the Earth as if it were a business in liquidation.”

Given that Trump’s economic expertise is embarrassingly limited to declaring bankruptcy, it’s no surprise that he wants to squelch the truth about our selling off the Earth for parts.

That theme is echoed now in a chapter of the new report. Dr. Rajat Panwar, a professor of responsible and sustainable business at Oregon State University said, “The dependence of the economy on nature is understated and understudied and underappreciated.”

Gratitude has become a rare trait in our attitude toward nature. It has become the vogue to express our good fortune to have our health, our friends and family, but where is the gratitude for the Earth which has provided us with every cell in our bodies? Not to mention every cell in our cell phones, which we’re far more focused on than taking a walk in the woods.

Of course, these problems aren’t limited to the United States. Worldwide biodiversity, the variety of life on Earth, is declining faster than at any time in human history, according to a monumental United Nations study back in 2019. The National Nature Assessment is intended to provide a much more thorough update on the state of nature in the U.S.

Danielle Ignace, an associate professor of forest resources at the University of Minnesota, is a lead author on the chapter of drivers of change in nature. She said her team felt the importance of the work more strongly than ever.

“It’s a calling to this cause to see this through,” said Dr. Ignace. “We’re not going to stop.”

So it looks like the National Nature Assessment will be published with public access somehow without the auspices of government sponsorship, as originally intended. The question is, will we take heed from its warnings about the dangers of extending our extractive economy, or will we make use of already available sustainable solutions that can both protect the planet and preserve our prosperity?

Frank Lingo, based in Lawrence, Kansas, is a former columnist for the Kansas City Star and author of the novel “Earth Vote.”

Email: lingofrank@gmail.com.

See his website: Greenbeat.world