The second component of that, how they're suppressing the public input process, is they're only going to hold this kind of public meeting in one location in each of the 23 states, at the state capitol. So let's say you're coastal community in California or any of the states. The public meeting will take place in Sacramento, but you are hundreds of miles away. Or let's say in Alaska. The meeting will take place in Anchorage, whereas the indigenous people, who are living literally like close to a thousand miles away, how are they going to come to this meeting in such a short notice?
So, two things have to happen. I would encourage senators and governors across the country to slow down this process and understand what they are doing with regard to the public participation. They are undermining the public participation.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, I also wanted to ask you, Professor Banerjee, about the threats faced by environmental scientists under the Trump administration. In August, Democracy Now! interviewed Interior Department whistleblower Joel Clement, a senior official at the Interior Department who had focused on the dangers that climate change poses to Alaska Native communities in the Arctic. We spoke with Clement after he was transferred to an unrelated job within the Interior Department where he was tasked with collecting royalty checks from oil and gas companies.
*JOEL CLEMENT: There's been a long pattern, since the administration took over, of suppressing science, muzzling scientists, sidelining subject matter experts. The biggest concern is that doing so has huge consequences for Americans -- and, particularly in my case, those Alaska Natives. I mean, that permafrost is melting. They're fully exposed to storms now that the sea ice has receded. And that concern is not going to be limited to Alaska Natives for long.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: So that's Interior Department whistleblower Joel Clement speaking in August. He has since, of course, resigned. So, Professor Banerjee, can you talk about the threats faced by environmental scientists under the Trump administration?
SUBHANKAR BANERJEE: This is -- thank you for bringing this up. This is not only the Trump administration, but previous administrations have done this, is there is -- any scientist working on path-breaking work on Arctic offshore, or offshore at large, that somehow gets entangled with oil and gas issues, are being silenced and punished. So, Joel Clement is the latest of this. I'll give you two more examples. And Joel Clement's work is, again, path-breaking, because the coastal erosion is an extremely significant issue for indigenous communities all across Arctic Alaska, both -- all across Arctic Alaska. And he was trying to highlight that. And so, as we are speaking right now, the Department of Interior is actually hosting what they call some sort of a symposium to do a massive overhaul or reorganization of their senior staff members. And Joel Clement got caught up in that, but he's extremely courageous, so he went and blew the whistle. Democracy Now! covered it.
Now let me give you a couple of more examples. Charles Monnett was a leading federal Arctic biologist who studied the polar bear biology and the first scientist to bring attention to the plight of polar bears from climate change. His research was published, and that research he did in the Beaufort Sea, where Trump administration will try to open up to oil drilling. He did the research in 2004, when polar bears were drowning in the Beaufort Sea because of melting sea ice. The research was published in the peer-reviewed journal Polar Biology in 2006, which actually inspired the animation in Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, and brought worldwide attention to the plight of polar bears from climate change. Fast-forward, the Bush administration then went after Charles Monnett and his studies. Again, they demoted him, and they did all sorts of things to cover his funding and so on and so forth. But Obama administration went one step further, because Obama administration was also really pushing for oil and gas development in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. The Obama administration Department of Interior actually put Charles Monnett under house arrest in 2012 for six weeks, after which he was released without any charges being leveled against him.
Then there's a third example of Professor Richard Steiner of University of Alaska Fairbanks, who spoke out against oil and gas issues in the Bering Sea. The University of Alaska took away all his federal funding, from agencies like National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He protested. Democracy Now! did the coverage. Amy, you spoke with Rick Steiner also. And he protested and filed a lawsuit, and then he resigned.
So, to draw attention to all of these issues, I am convening a major conference called "The Last Oil" at the University of New Mexico, that will take place from February 21 to 23rd, to bring attention to this form of silencing, punishing, as well as marginalization of indigenous people all across the Arctic.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally --
SUBHANKAR BANERJEE: So, we are in a time they are doing everything to undermine the public process. They're silencing scientists. They're marginalizing and silencing indigenous communities. We need an all-out antiwar movement, antiwar-style movement now.
AMY GOODMAN: Professor Banerjee, we just have a few seconds, but I wanted you to comment on this latest news, far from you, here in New York City, the mayor, de Blasio, and the city announcing that the city will sue five fossil fuel giants over their contributions to global warming, the suit targeting BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, this coming as Mayor de Blasio announced plans to divest some $5 billion in fossil fuel investments from the city's public employee pension fund, leading 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben to tweet, "One of the biggest days in 30 years of the climate fight. Earth's mightiest city now in full-on fight with its richest, most irresponsible industry." We just have 10 seconds. But as you see all of this happening, this movement that you're talking about, do you take hope in this?
SUBHANKAR BANERJEE: There is hope in this. And we are deeply grateful to the mayor of New York City for taking the lead. Believe it or not, the small Inupiat community of Kivalina actually filed a lawsuit against 23 fossil fuel companies. That was thrown out in court, but a very famous history. So, now, the mayor of New York City highlighting this and bringing it is extremely important. And at a year when we just saw such extreme climate change events -- three Category 4, Category 5 hurricanes, Harvey, Irma, Maria, the extreme wildfire, out-of-season wildfire in California in December, now the flood and the mudslide that is taking place -- we need to transition away from fossil fuels, not enmesh ourselves in projects that will lock us in for five decades of fossil fuels development. So we really --
AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you so much for being with us.
SUBHANKAR BANERJEE: --welcome and grateful to the New York City mayor.
AMY GOODMAN: Subhankar Banerjee, professor of art and ecology at University of New Mexico, speaking to us from the university, from New Mexico Public Television. Professor Banerjee is author of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land and editor of Arctic Voices: Resistance at the Tipping Point. An exhibition of his Arctic work, Long Environmentalism in the Near North, is on display at the University of New Mexico Art Museum.
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