| The EPA in recent weeks has scrubbed their websites of pretty much any information that climate change is caused by humans. It's denial, and a way to help the fossil fuel industry. |
Never mind that anybody with half a brain understands that by far the main driving force behind our warming world is us humans.
The latest censorship and anti-science move is on an EPA website, on the page that explains the causes of climate change. Though it no longer accurately does that.
Oh, on this page, climate can change, alright, the EPA admits. But whoever revised it is Mr. or Ms. Excuse coming up with all kinds of reasons the climate changes. Like these:
The Earth's orbit and rotation can change.
There's variations if solar activity.
The Earth's reflectivity changes.
Volcanoes can blow up and the stuff they belch into the atmosphere changes the climate
There might be natural changes in carbon dioxide concentrations.
They're so, so, close on that last one. As everybody except the Keystone Kops of the Trump administration know, humans are increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide, and that's making the world warm up.
There's even a chart, right there, under their reasons for climate change list, that shows atmospheric carbon dioxide rocketing upward like mad since the Industrial Revolution started.
On the social media site Bluesky, climatologist Daniel Swain wrote how he was able to compare the EPA web site that was up on October 8 with the current iteration.
Human-caused warming was removed from the causes of climate change page that I described above. Swain also noted that there used to be "indicators of climate change" pages on the EPA website that have been scrubbed entirely. "The pages no longer exist; there are numerous dead links on the current/live EPA site, and no indications they have been moved to a new URL" Swain said.
Other pages that describe how climate change can affect children's health and low income populations are also now gone, as the Washington Post notes.
Not only is climate information deleted from the EPA sites, the web pages out and out lie. Earlier versions of the web site say the buildup of greenhouse gases have resulted in "dangerous effects" to humans and the ecosystem. Now, the pages say the greenhouse effect "is natural and necessary to support life."
Sure. unless you let the greenhouse effect spiral out of control via all us humans belching fossil fuel emissions.
Swain, wearing his Captain Obvious hat, had this to say:
"...it is still profoundly alarming that the primary regulatory body for environmental protection and pollution control in this country is not actively ignoring scientific evidence. This will end poorly."
The response at the EPA of these questions raised by Swain, the Washington Post and others is typically juvenile and nonsensical of the Trump administration.
Hold your nose as you read this missive from EPA press secretary Brigit Hirsch. :
"Unlike the previous administration, the Trump EPA is focused on protecting human health and the environment while Powering the Great American Comeback, not left-wing political agendas.... As such. this agency no longer takes marching orders from the climate cult."
It's always a projection from Trump and MAGA, isn't it? Our minion Brigit describes solid science as a cult. Meanwhile, MAGA seems to be like the ultimate cult.
The recent revisions on the EPA site might well be an effort to tee up a move to get rid of something called the endangerment finding.
That's a legal and scientific foundation for standards and rules put in place back in 2009 that serves as a legal basis for regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.
That's because Trump, and by extension EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, want to gift the oil and gas industry with more ways to make money atop their already record profits.
The EPA, at Trump's behest. also wants to roll back controls enacted in 1990 that limited sulfur dioxide pollution. Sulfur dioxide in the air causes smog and acid rain.
By the way, I did see little "oopsie" they left in at the top of their "climate change causes' page:
"Natural processes are always influencing the earth's climate and can explain climate changes prior to the Industrial Revolution of the 1700s. However, recent climate changes cannot be explained by natural causes alone."
Looks like one of the climate deniers over the EPA didn't proofread as much as Trump might have hoped.
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