America's Data Blind Spot Is Real … and Getting Worse

One way to control the story about what's happening in the world is to remove any data that can prove otherwise. That seems to be the strategy at the heart of accelerating moves by the Trump administration to cancel surveys, cut staff and remove access to government data sets. Here's an example ​recently shared by NPR​:

"For years, the Environmental Protection Agency has assigned a dollar value to the lives saved and the health problems avoided through many of its environmental regulations. Now, that has changed. The EPA will no longer consider the economic cost of harm to human health from fine particles and ozone, two air pollutants that are known to affect human health. The change was written into a new rule recently published by the agency. It weakened air pollution rules on power plant turbines that burn fossil fuels, which are sources of air pollution of many types, including from fine particles, sometimes called soot."

Sadly, this is not an isolated case. As ​Bloomberg reports this week​, America's statistical system is breaking down. This so-called "​war on measurement​" is being countered by a ​variety of groups​ that are dedicating time to capture and sometimes save these terminated datasets. The pace by which they are disappearing, though, is making this difficult.

Still, for me the big story here isn't the moves from the administration to hide or defund data collection but rather the ​bravery and dedication​ of the scientists and government workers to preserve that data and wait for a future time when it can be resurrected and used once more.