EPA takes down climate change site for kids
It’s no surprise that the Trump administration is changing course on federal action to mitigate climate change, but analysts have been surprised how quickly and drastically the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has “updated” its website to reflect the outlook of its new leader. The information purge began within just two weeks of Donald Trump taking office.
Researchers from the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, a group of scientists tracking federal environmental and energy websites and data, first noticed changes Jan. 22, when a page formerly called Federal Partner Collaboration was updated with new content and renamed EPA Adaptation Collaboration. A few days later, the EPA changed the content of climate and water pages to reflect the new administration’s interest in freeing real estate developers from restrictions and its international cooperation page pledging to stand with other countries in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Interestingly, these changes were made three weeks prior to the confirmation of climate change denier Scott Pruitt as EPA administrator.
The next big round of changes came almost two months later, on the eve of the People’s Climate March in Washington, when the EPA removed several subpages under its climate section containing detailed climate data. These pages had been published during President Barack Obama’s tenure to help the public understand the magnitude of the global warming threat and to provide researchers with information for their models that predict how climate change will affect the environment and human health.
According to The Washington Post, one of the recently removed sections challenged statements made by Pruitt, while another provided detailed information on the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan (a rule the Trump administration is working to undo).
Another removed section, “A Student’s Guide to Global Climate Change,” featured some 50 pages of content tailored to students studying environment and climate, leaving thousands of teachers who had incorporated the data into curricula high and dry for the rest of the school year. (Luckily for teachers, the city of Chicago has republished an archived version of this section on its own website.)
“At a time when Americans are increasingly experiencing climate impacts in their daily lives, the administration has seemingly buried its head in the sand,” says Astrid Caldas, climate scientist at the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists. “The facts about climate change have not changed, however, and politics are not a valid reason to archive basic explanations of science.”
For its part, the EPA dismisses the critique as partisan quibbling. “As EPA renews its commitment to human health and clean air, land, and water, our website needs to reflect the views of the leadership of the agency,” says J.P. Freire, agency spokesman. “We want to eliminate confusion by removing outdated language first and making room to discuss how we’re protecting the environment and human health by partnering with states and working within the law.”
Contacts:
EDGI, Environmental Data and Governance Initiative
Chicago’s EPA Climate Change Archive
UCS, Union of Concerned Scientists
Related:
What has the EPA done for the environment?
What is meant by environmental justice?
This column was reprinted with permission. EarthTalk is produced by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of the nonprofit Earth Action Network. To donate, visit www.earthtalk.org. Send questions to: question@earthtalk.org.
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