Nancy is a soil scientist who used to work for the National Institute of Agriculture. Under the Trump Administration, Nancy felt that science was increasingly being pushed aside by political appointees. In 2019 the administration decided to take a controversial cost-saving measure and move the Institute to Kansas City. Consequently, 75% of staff left the department and it was massively diminished. Nancy also decided not to move as she felt that the treatment that the staff were receiving was so bad.
Chris worked for the US government Environmental Protection Agency for 38 years. Once Trump was elected he lasted for only one more year. He felt there was little he could do under an administration that wanted to sideline science and circumvent the mission of the EPA.
Jeff worked for 40 years at the Environmental Protection Agency and helped to create fuel efficiency standards to restrict emissions from SUVs. These standards were considered to be very successful, but people from the Trump Administration started to twist data in order to pull the standards apart. Jeff decided after a year of working under the new government that he could do more on the outside than the inside.
Brian used to work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US. He specialises in predicting hurricanes, major storms, and droughts. Brian also predicted that the Trump administration would put policy over science and slash NOAA’s budget so he left in 2018. Now he works for the private sector.
Rod was a senior intelligence analyst for the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He studied how climate change, scientific breakthroughs and emerging technologies would affect the security interests of the United States. However, he found the Tump Administration was so keen to suppress his work and fight mainstream climate science that he resigned in protest in July 2019. I photographed him in his basement which had been flood damaged while he was quarantining elsewhere during the pandemic.
Marcy used to work for the National Park Service leading efforts to understand how climate change would affect the national parks system’s cultural resources. However, while Trump was in power she saw career level officials taking steps that blocked action on climate change and in the end, out of frustration, left the service in 2018.
Maria worked for the National Parks Service modeling the effects of sea-level rise on coastal sites in the park system. Maria had been working on a big report but while she was on maternity leave her bosses removed all reference to human-caused climate change because of pressure from the Trump Administration. Maria objected, but in the end was forced out of her position.
Larry is a geologist who left his job at the US Geological Survey when an Interior Secretary tried to gain access to information about mining in Alaska that could potentially be used for profit. Government officials are never supposed to have advance notice of such data.