Troubling times

I was going to try my best to fill this blog with optimistic news. I was going to mention how excited I was with my new project and the fact that I am closer to finishing my masters but today I learned about the EPA being frozen. People say it's not really a big deal but I am here to tell you why it is.

Unfortunately a large amount of grant money that funds environmental research comes from the EPA and other federal foundations. The lack of funding means that a lot of research has been halted and alternative funding sources are going to get a lot more competitive in the future. This means that research that was vital may be sidetracked for something deemed to be more important by the funding agencies that still work. All of us in the research departments already know how competitive grants are and with a freeze this big it means a lot less research is going to be carried out.

The hiring freeze will also have a lasting impact. The  sector is highly competitive when it comes to jobs and this freezing means that people trying to work for the environment will have to take any job they get which means that less and less people will be hired and therefore will be proved to go into the private sector. While that's not necessarily bad, a lot of people that hoped to work in Government agencies(myself included) will have to compete twice as much.

It's hard to say exactly what's going to happen. However the record shows that the current administration will probably work more for money rather than the protection of the environment.  This isn't particularly encouraging when you consider that some of the chair positions don't believe in climate change which is deemed to be the most worrying subject in the research community. It isn't always gloom but these are the times we live in.  All we can really hope for is to fight for the environment and what it stands for.