When Science Is Silenced, Communities Pay the Price
Texas floods, shuttered stream gages, and the rising cost of climate denial
In early 2025, the Environmental Justice Index website1 was forcibly restored following a court order, with a disturbing disclaimer. The message, shown prominently on the ATSDR website, denounces “gender ideology” in politically charged language, signaling a broader shift: science is being sidelined by ideology.
While federal agencies are being compelled to publish information they no longer support, the consequences of denying science are unfolding in real time. In Texas, historic floods have devastated communities, infrastructure, and livelihoods. Roads turned into rivers, homes were washed away, and emergency services were overwhelmed. In the face of this disaster, Texas leaders who long rejected the science of climate change quickly turned to the federal government for help. Their message: We need disaster relief.
But the irony runs deep.
Under the Trump administration, funding for critical scientific infrastructure, such as USGS stream gauges, was slashed. These gauges are essential tools that monitor river levels and provide early warnings for floods. Without them, emergency planners and residents are flying blind in the face of rising water. According to the USGS, hundreds of gauges were shut down due to funding instability, increasing risks for downstream communities.
In Texas, historic floods ravaged the Hill Country over the Fourth of July weekend, pushing the death toll to well over 100. Among the victims were at least 27 young campers and counselors from Camp Mystic, with more than 160 people still unaccounted for across the region. As a mother who has sent children off to summer camp, I can’t begin to imagine the heartbreak these families are experiencing. But what makes this tragedy even more devastating is that it wasn’t just a natural disaster; it was a political one.
When politics silences science and infrastructure is defunded, devastation can follow.
Under the Trump administration, hundreds of USGS stream gages, critical tools for monitoring river levels and issuing early flood warnings, were shut down due to unstable funding. At the same time, Texas lawmakers dismissed climate change as a hoax, blocked emissions-reduction policies, and underinvested in flood resilience. When the waters rose, communities were caught off guard, not because we lacked the knowledge, but because leaders chose to ignore it.
This flood is not just a force of nature; it’s the outcome of years of calculated political decisions that rejected science, dismantled safety systems, and left families defenseless. The death of those children is a national tragedy. But it is also a political failure.
Cognitive dissonance of our time: rejecting science until its absence becomes lethal.
The Environmental Justice Index, originally developed to identify communities most vulnerable to environmental harms, is a tool grounded in data, not ideology. Yet its reinstatement came with a political disclaimer that undermines the very concept of evidence-based policy. When facts become inconvenient, they are reframed as opinions.
But the truth is: the laws of nature don’t bend for ideology.
Climate change isn’t waiting for political consensus. It’s already here, in the form of record-breaking heat, biblical floods, wildfires, and rising seas. Gutting scientific programs, censoring public health tools, and attacking experts won’t stop it. What will help? Funding the science, listening to the data, and acting like the future depends on it, because it does.
We don’t need more denial.
We need functioning rain gauges, accurate flood models, climate-informed infrastructure, and leaders who respect science, especially when it's politically inconvenient. Not just in Texas. Across the country, communities are facing stronger hurricanes, rising sea levels, deadly heat waves, and extreme wildfires. When science is silenced, when public health is politicized, and when life-saving infrastructure is defunded, lives are lost, not by chance, but by choice. Disasters will continue to occur, with increasing severity. And no amount of spin, censorship, or disclaimers will protect us from the water, fire, and heat that are rising all around us.
Mindi Messmer, MS, PG, CG is an environmental and public health scientist and author of Female Disruptors: Stories of Mighty Female Scientists. The book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and through your local bookstore.
References
1- Environmental Justice Index. Place and Health - Geospatial Research, Analysis, and Services Program (GRASP). Published December 2, 2024. https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/place-health/php/eji/index.html
2- Programming USGSO of PA. U.S. Geological Survey Endangered, Discontinued and Rescued Streamgages Mapper. https://water.usgs.gov/networks/fundingstability/