Scientists worldwide react to Trump's choice: ready for a new era!
Scientists worldwide react to Trump's choice: ready for a new era!
scientists worldwide expressed disappointment and concern when Republican Donald Trump won the last necessary votes in the early morning hours of November 6th to secure the US presidency. Based on Trump's anti-scientific rhetoric and actions during his last term of office Many are now preparing for four years of attacks on scientists inside and outside the government.
"In my long life of 82 years ... there was hardly a day on which I felt sadter," says Fraser Stoddart, Nobel Prize winner, who left the United States last year and now hold the Chair of Chemistry at the University of Hong Kong. "I have witnessed something that I think is extremely bad, not only for the United States, but for all of us in the world."
"I'm speechless," says Sheila Jasanoff, social scientist at the Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The vote count is still in progress in many places, but Trump has already won enough US states to win over an overwhelming victory over his opponent, Vice President and Democrat Kamala Harris. Trump turned to his followers early this morning and explained his coalition to "the greatest political movement ever".
The Republicans also seem to be ready to win the Upper Chamber of the US Congress-the Senate-and to turn around at least three democratic seats, even though there are five other competitive fights whose outcome is not for any of the parties. It could take days or weeks for the final results for the sub-chamber, the US representative house, to be present, but it is likely that the Republicans will keep control. This would give Trump and his party complete control over the government in Washington DC.
"We have to be prepared for a new world," says Grazyna Jasienska, researcher for durability at the Jagiellone University in Krakow, Poland. "I try to be optimistic, but it is difficult to find positive aspects for global science and public health when the Republicans take over."
Trump has described climate change as a dizziness in the past and The country withdrawn from the Paris climate protection agreement ; He said that he would give Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a political figure that denied the effectiveness of vaccines, a "major role" in his government. In addition, promised to make it easier to discontinue specialists and scientists from the US government who oppose its political agenda.
The concerns that were expressed this morning coincide with those of the majority of the readers who Last month in a survey of nature . Eight and eighty percent of the more than 2,000 participants stated that they prefer Harris due to concerns about climate change, public health and the state of US democracy. Some even said they would consider changing their place of residence or study if Trump was to win.
expressions of this concern came quickly. Tulio de Oliveira, a prominent virologist at the Center for Epidemic Reaction and Innovation of the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, posted on X (the social media platform previously known as Twitter): "With the changes around the world, you may want to be one of the best universities in [South Africa] Spend the most beautiful regions in the world! ”, He said, linked to job advertisements for postgraduate and post-doctoral positions.
Another reason for concern for researchers is that a second presidency of Trump could be "another nail in the coffin of trust in science" in view of his anti-scientific rhetoric, says Lisa Schipper, geographer, who specializes in vulnerability due to climate change at the University of Bonn in Germany. According to A survey of USA Research Center in Washington DC has the percentage of those who say that science had a positive impact on society since 2019.
This is a current news report and will be updated during the day.