Politics

EXCLUSIVE: DEI ‘Doomsday’ Policies Infected Biden-Era Climate Research

The White House/Wikimedia Commons

Under former President Joe Biden, staffers for a taxpayer-funded climate study were “required” to fervently embrace diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) when assembling a team in 2023, according to documents obtained by government watchdog group Democracy Restored.

Internal documents viewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation show that the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA 5) sent materials to staff on Nov. 7, 2023, noting that “social science is science” and they were “required to build diverse teams by considering a range of disciplines” that included “Indigenous Knowledge” and “science communication.” The documents showed that staffers were also directed to take into account physical characteristics like “race, ethnicity, [and] gender” as well as “diverse lived experiences and perspectives.”

The NCA 5, which assessed climate change, was released under Biden on Nov. 14, 2023. The assessment has been organized by the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) with periodic releases since 2000.

Notably, the USGCRP website went dark as the Trump administration has reportedly moved to shutter the office in early 2025, and the “Hard Q&A” internal notice viewed by the DCNF gives a glimpse into the office’s practices in recent years.

“Nothing screams scientific rigor than turning to pseudoscience to push a preferred narrative,” Democracy Restored Director Houston Keene told the DCNF. “The NCA as a document is already one rife with problems, but these new revelations show just how deep those problems run. Real science should not be stymied by draconian political interests that ultimately harm Americans. The NCA should be thrown out in its entirety.”

“All material in this document is embargoes until the NCA5 public release,” the documents read. “This document is intended for agency use only in an advisory capacity. You may use this as a reference as you develop the materials you feel are most appropriate or important.”

Democracy Restored has previously reported that ICF, a consulting firm, wrote much of the fourth NCA, citing a former government official speaking on background. The watchdog added that the official described how critical ICF’s “description” of climate data is in creating what Democracy Restored described as the NCA’s “alarmist narrative.”

ICF did not respond to a request for comment and the USGCRP could not be reached by the DCNF.

Notably, the documents did address one question on alarmism on its “Hard Q&A” fact sheet.

Under the question, “is this another doom and gloom report?” the sheet states that “the assessment does not sugarcoat the fact that climate change is serious and that we face dire consequences here in the U.S. if we fail to take action. However, there are many elements of the assessment that should give readers courage.”

The internal notice continues to argue that “recent legislation, particularly the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, is expected to increase deployment of low- and zero-carbon technology. How much more the world warms depends on the choices we make today — the future is in our hands.”

Other questions featured on the sheet asked “if NCA5 includes so much information on equity and justice, is it no longer a scientific assessment?” and “Why does the social science and justice chapter talk about colonialism, slavery, and racism?”

Answers to the questions argued that “social science is science … [and] understanding social systems is an integral part of climate science and climate solutions-making, including identifying links among adaptation, mitigation, and climate justice” and “NCA5 finds that some overburdened communities are at higher risk of climate impacts due to the cumulative effects of social and economic inequities caused by ongoing systemic discrimination, exclusion, and under- or disinvestment,” respectively.

“The authors of the NCA defend making a discriminatory ideology the center of a taxpayer-funded and impactful policy report claims that ‘social science is science’ and belongs in the American ‘crown jewel’ of climate science research,” Democracy Restored said in a release.