--- title: Antiscience Is an Existential Threat description: The ideologically-motivated assault on science threatens us all. canonical: https://time.com/7317436/science-threat-climate-change-public-health-rfk-jr/ author: Michael E. Mann article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-09-17T10:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-30T13:34:44.037Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Antiscience Is an Existential Threat og:description: The ideologically-motivated assault on science threatens us all. og:url: https://time.com/7317436/science-threat-climate-change-public-health-rfk-jr/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ff99cebf5f91184/6998c9c993610c2f9cc2ffb2/rfk-jr-trump-anti-science.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Trump Attends MAHA Commission Event At White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Antiscience Is an Existential Threat twitter:description: The ideologically-motivated assault on science threatens us all. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ff99cebf5f91184/6998c9c993610c2f9cc2ffb2/rfk-jr-trump-anti-science.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  IDEASTime ideas # Antiscience Is an Existential Threat by [Michael E. Mann](https://time.com/author/michael-e-mann/) and [Peter Hotez](https://time.com/author/peter-j-hotez/) Sep 17, 2025 10:00 AM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Education Secretary Linda McMahon hold an event for a new Make America Healthy Again Commission report on May 22, 2025 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Donald Trump, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Education Secretary Linda McMahon hold an event for a new Make America Healthy Again Commission report on May 22, 2025 in Washington, DC.Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images by [Michael E. Mann](https://time.com/author/michael-e-mann/) and [Peter Hotez](https://time.com/author/peter-j-hotez/) Sep 17, 2025 10:00 AM UTC Humanity now faces the existential threat of a [leviathan with three heads](https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/michael-e-mann/science-under-siege/9781541705517/): a steadily worsening climate crisis, increasingly deadly pandemics, and an unprecedented weaponization of antiscience that renders us helpless in our collective efforts to address anyof the great challenges we face. The ideologically-motivated assault on science threatens us all. Climate change is generating devastating heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, floods and superstorms. Last month, Philadelphia had [code orange air quality alerts](https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/weather/stories-weather/code-orange-pennsylvania-august-5-2025/4249141/) thanks to wildfires burning out of control in Canada. A month earlier, Texas experienced the [deadliest floods in a generation](https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/08/deadliest-in-generations-the-texas-floods-are-the-latest-in-a-disturbing-pattern/) thanks in substantial part to human-caused warming. And these were just two examples of the devastating weather extremes that are [being made more extreme](https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/extreme-summer-weather-patterns-have-tripled-1950s) by human-caused climate change. Then there’s the pandemics. Looking beyond COVID-19, we remain at imminent risk for catastrophic respiratory infections caused by avian or other zoonotic influenza viruses, Nipah and Hendra viruses, or new coronaviruses currently emerging in Asia. Lesser known is a significant expansion in South America of mosquito-transmitted viruses such as dengue and yellow fever, and what occurs in countries such as Brazil often winds up in Texas and Florida. **Read more:**[_How a War on Science Could Hurt the U.S.-and Its Citizens_](https://time.com/4657656/how-a-war-on-science-could-hurt-the-u-s-and-its-citizens/) Another force is lurking: a massive wave of social media weaponized by bots and troll armies, books, articles, podcasts, and cable news broadcasts which downplay or dismiss the warnings, portray the scientists as enemies or villains, harass them, and even make death threats. We know this because we’ve both been at the receiving end of threats against us and our families. An entire ecosystem of antisciencehas taken hold and turned deadly. COVID-19 killed an [estimated 21 million people](https://www.ncid.sg/News-Events/News/Pages/21-million-deaths---Over-7m-Covid-19-fatalities-recorded,-but-actual-number-may-be-3-times-higher-WHO.aspx), many needlessly because they refused life-saving vaccines, while climate impacts are killing [millions](https://www.weforum.org/press/2024/01/wef24-climate-crisis-health/). Too often, pandemic and climate denialism are ascribed to random misinformation or an “infodemic,” as though it arose by unforeseen or accidental circumstances. But it is far more pernicious. The Koch Brothers—perhaps the canonical example—fund various think tanks, front groups, and “astroturf” organizations (corporate organized and funded groups that purport to be organic, grassroots uprisings of the people) to spread climate denial disinformation. They also played an early role in undermining public health messaging on COVID-19, fearing that lockdowns and stay-home orders would decrease fossil fuel usage. As [Walker Bragman and Alex Kotch](https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2021/12/22/how-the-koch-network-hijacked-the-war-on-covid/) of the Center for Media and Democracy put it, “Groups funded by the Kochs and their colleagues … turned to a more insidious form of combat adapted from Tea Party strategies: building an academic and intellectual network that would create and promote its own ‘science’ to attack COVID mitigation policies.” Rupert Murdoch founded NewsCorp, which today includes Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, two of the most notorious spreaders of both COVID-19 and climate disinformation. Elon Musk, after his purchase of Twitter, turned the social media outlet into the much darker X, arguably today’s most formidable science denial operation. The site has been weaponized to magnify climate denial and vaccine denial messaging, while drowning out actual authoritative scientific sources and voices. In turn, the Koch brothers supported climate denial think tanks, while Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch’s Fox News nightly broadcasts worked overtime to convince Americans that both climate change and COVID-19 were hoaxes or that vaccines were ineffective or unsafe. Petrostates—state actors dependent on fossil fuels for their sovereign wealth, who also veer towards autocratic rule to maintain tight control of their population—play an equally important role in the manufacturing and spread of antiscience propaganda. Russia and Saudi Arabia, in particular, have engaged in online disinformation campaigns with bots and trolls to polarize the public and spread antiscience disinformation. Both have conspired to sabotage global climate agreements. Russia has also been a major promoter of online anti-vaccine rhetoric, seemingly in an effort to further destabilize western democracies. **Read more:** [_Medical and Scientific Research Makes America Great_](https://time.com/7286127/medical-scientific-research-makes-america-great/) Sadly, the U.S. itself must now be considered [an authoritarian petrostate](https://thebulletin.org/2024/11/welcome-to-the-american-petrostate/). The Trump Administration has worked with congressional Republicans who are currently in power to defund climate and vaccine science, while staffing various agencies with climate and vaccine deniers. Look no further than U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who appears to [relish his role](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/11/states-rfk-vaccine-access-cost-00556969) as antivaxxer-in-chief, or to Department of Energy secretary Chris Wright, who [parrots denialist rhetoric](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/10/opinion/trump-assault-offshore-wind/) about wind turbines, while promoting an energy agenda [that doubles down](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/trump-has-vowed-to-unleash-oil-and-gas-drilling-workers-in-oklahoma-hope-for-a-boom) on fossil fuel extraction. Antiscience has gone beyond U.S. borders to Europe, Australia, and Africa. Defeating it will require unprecedented commitment and international cooperation, not only between scientific organizations, but also their host governments. We can, and must, stop it. The stakes are literally the future of our civilization. [TIME Ideas](https://www.time.com/ideas) hosts the world's leading voices, providing commentary on events in news, society, and culture. 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