EPA Scrubs Mention Of Human Caused Climate Change From Its Website

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. 

Once again, the Trump administration has wildly concluded that eliminating mention of human-caused climate change will somehow "prove" that it doesn't exist. 

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.  

Organizers Of New Website, Climate.us Hope To Replace Deleted, Politicized Government Climate Site

A new website, climate.us is being set up by 
to replace climate.gov the climate change 
information website all but destroyed by 
the Trump administration. Climate.us
plans to put up information erased from
the old web site, and add info. 

Before the Trump administration took over, the Climate.gov site was one of the most widely used places on the internet to find climate information. 

That site is now gutted. You can still access it, but most of the information has been removed or redirected to government websites more in line with Donald Trump's climate denial mindset.

Thanks to some volunteers, though, much of that missing information might be coming back. Welcome to climate.us

The website's mission statement says in part: "Our goal is to build an enduring, independent, and scientifically rigorous platform that the world can rely on for climate communication, education and engagement." 

Reports The Guardian:

"Now, a team of climate communications experts - including many members of the former climate.gov team - is working to resurrect its content into a new organization with an expanded mission.

Their effort's new website, climate.us, would not only offer public-facing interpretations of climate science, but could also begin got directly offer climate-related services, such as assisting local governments with mapping increased flooding risk due to climate change."

The climate.us web page is up, and its home page tells us the following:

"From climate.gov to the National Climate Assessment, climate information you can trust is being hidden, erased, and replaces with misinformation. We're not letting that happen. We're building Climate.us - independent, nonprofit and immune to politics. But we can't do it without you."

It is a non-profit, so they are asking us to donate. 

Climate.gov was a sort of clearinghouse for climate change information, helping the public interpret what the science meant for them. Now, under Trump, Climate.gov has essentially gone dark, redirecting users to a different NOAA website controlled by political appointees, Rebecca Lindsey told CNN. 

Lindsey is climate.gov's former managing editor. She was fired last winter along with other employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She is now among the group of former colleagues starting up climate.us. 

"The things that were most popular on climate.gov were things that basically just taught people about climate, both natural climate and climate change..... There is a need for content that helps people achieve basic climate literacy independent of an agency," Lindsey said. 

She went on with this good point: "This is information that the taxpayers already paid for... This administration is trying to hide it and take it away from us. It's an abuse of government. It's a waste of resources. People should be indignant. That's not the way the government should work."

The effort to establish climate.us is gaining support, including legal help and a short-term grant to help develop the overall vision for the website. 

Other organization are trying to preserve government data sets going dark because of the Trump administration. Climate.us is different because it plans to keep building on the old climate.gov content.