EPA Reportedly Ordered to Remove Climate Change Data While Under Gag Order

[Update: Looks like this will be staved off for now.]

[Update 2: But AP is now reporting that the EPA’s future scientific research must undergo review by Trump staff before public release. At this point, it’s a valid concern that this won’t remain limited to the EPA. More from the AP.]

Yesterday, word got out that a few federal agencies had been instructed not to talk to the public or the media for the time being. Since then, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has reversed course, but the Environmental Protection Agency is still silent, as it appears that they’ve been asked to remove climate change data from their website.

You may remember just a few days ago on Inauguration Day, when parts of the White House’s website went down and/or were replaced. Any incoming administration would want to update the website to reflect their incoming goals, but the specific sections that were removed without immediate replacements, as well as the replacements for some that were, wound up an uncomfortable reminder of our fears for events over the next four years.

One page that was removed was information on climate policy. We all know the Trump team has … alternative views on climate change, but going after the EPA’s publicly available scientific data is a whole different story. Removing objective data from the website of a federal agency can’t just be written off as updating the White House’s own policy goal pages. What makes it all the more unnerving is that it’s happening under the current media blackout of the agency, with anonymous members inside the agencies telling Reuters what they are being instructed to do without the public’s knowledge.

One of the staffers who spoke to Reuters told them, “If the website goes dark, years of work we have done on climate change will disappear.” There’s very real concern over what will happen to scientific data that the new administration finds to contradict its views, since they’ve got no problem “disagree[ing] with the facts.” Hopefully, if this data is removed from public view on the EPA website, these concerned staffers will at least make sure it’s preserved elsewhere.

In Trump world, the EPA is a pesky nuisance that keeps businesses from being able to work quickly, because of all the red tape from not wanting to ruin the only planet we can feasibly live on. What a bunch of job killers, amirite? Removing this data is an important step in making them seem like a bunch of whiners who hold up business projects just because they hate the economy, as opposed to trying to protect our planet or keep people from being poisoned.

Fittingly, the nation’s untainted park lands have been rising up against this kind of thing, tweeting out climate data, repercussions be damned, with a handy unofficial account popping up to keep the fight going. This is not normal.

(via Reuters, image via Wladimir Labeikovsky)

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