10/08/2017 US federal department is censoring use of term 'climate change', emails reveal | Environment | The Guardian

US federal department is censoring use of term

'climate change', emails reveal
Exclusive: series of emails show staff at Department of Agricultures Natural Resources Conservation
Service advised to reference weather extremes instead

Oliver Milman in New York

Tuesday 8 August 2017 01.43 AEST

Sta at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have been told to avoid using the term
climate change in their work, with the ocials instructed to reference weather extremes
instead.

A series of emails obtained by the Guardian between sta at the Natural Resources
Conservation Service (NRCS), a USDA unit that oversees farmers land conservation, show that
the incoming Trump administration has had a stark impact on the language used by some
federal employees around climate change.

A missive from Bianca Moebius-Clune, director of soil health, lists terms that should be
avoided by sta and those that should replace them. Climate change is in the avoid
category, to be replaced by weather extremes. Instead of climate change adaption, sta are
asked to use resilience to weather extremes.

The primary cause of human-driven climate change is also targeted, with the term reduce
greenhouse gases blacklisted in favor of build soil organic matter, increase nutrient use

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eciency. Meanwhile, sequester carbon is ruled out and replaced by build soil organic
matter.

Fireghters battle a wildre in California. Photograph: Noah

Berger/AP

In her email to sta, dated 16 February this year, Moebius-Clune said the new language was
given to her sta and suggests it be passed on. She writes that we wont change the modeling,
just how we talk about it there are a lot of benets to putting carbon back in the sail [sic],
climate mitigation is just one of them, and that a colleague from USDAs public aairs team
gave advice to tamp down on discretionary messaging right now.

In contrast to these newly contentious climate terms, Moebius-Clune wrote that references to
economic growth, emerging business opportunities in the rural US, agro-tourism and
improved aesthetics should be tolerated if not appreciated by all.

In a separate email to senior employees on 24 January, just days after Trumps inauguration,
Jimmy Bramblett, deputy chief for programs at the NRCS, said: It has become clear one of the
previous administrations priority is not consistent with that of the incoming administration.
Namely, that priority is climate change. Please visit with your sta and make them aware of
this shift in perspective within the executive branch.

Bramblett added that prudence should be used when discussing greenhouse gases and said
the agencys work on air quality regarding these gases could be discontinued.

Other emails show the often agonized discussions between sta unsure of what is forbidden.
On 16 February, a staer named Tim Hafner write to Bramblett: I would like to know correct
terms I should use instead of climate changes and anything to do with carbon ... I want to
ensure to incorporate correct terminology that the agency has approved to use.

On 5 April, Suzanne Baker, a New York-based NRCS employee, emailed a query as to whether
sta are allowed to publish work from outside the USDA that use climate change. A
colleague advises that the issue be determined in a phone call.

Some sta werent enamored with the new regime, with one employee stating on an email on 5
July that we would prefer to keep the language as is and stressing the need to maintain the
scientic integrity of the work.

In a statement, USDA said that on 23 January it had issued interim operating procedures
outlining procedures to ensure the new policy team has an opportunity to review policy-
related statements, legislation, budgets and regulations prior to issuance.

The statement added: This guidance, similar to procedures issued by previous

administrations, was misinterpreted by some to cover data and scientic publications. This
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was never the case and USDA interim procedures will allow complete, objective information for
the new policy sta reviewing policy decisions.

Kaveh Sadeghzadeh of the Natural Resources Conservation Service added that his organisation
has not received direction from USDA or the administration to modify its communications on
climate change or any other topic.

Trump has repeatedly questioned the veracity of climate change research, infamously
suggesting that it is part of an elaborate Chinese hoax. The president has started the process of
withdrawing the US from the Paris climate agreement, has instructed the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to scrap or amend various regulations aimed at cutting greenhouse
gases, and has moved to open up more public land and waters to fossil fuel activity.

The nomenclature of the federal government has also shifted as these new priorities have
taken hold. Mentions of the dangers of climate change have been removed from the websites of
the White House and the Department of the Interior, while the EPA scrapped its entire online
climate section in April pending a review that will be updating language to reect the
approach of new leadership.

These records reveal Trumps active censorship of science in the name of his political agenda,
said Meg Townsend, open government attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.

To think that federal agency sta who report about the air, water and soil that sustains the
health of our nation must conform their reporting with the Trump administrations anti-
science rhetoric is appalling and dangerous for America and the greater global community.

The Center for Biological Diversity is currently suing several government agencies, including
the EPA and state department, to force them to release information on the censoring of
climate change verbiage.

While some of the changes to government websites may have occurred anyway, the emails
from within the USDA are the clearest indication yet that sta have been instructed to steer
clear of acknowledging climate change or its myriad consequences.

US agriculture is a major source of heat-trapping gases, with 15% of the countrys emissions
deriving from farming practices. A USDA plan to address the far reaching impacts of climate
change is still online.

However, Sam Clovis, Trumps nomination to be the USDAs chief scientist, has labeled climate
research junk science.

Last week it was revealed that Clovis, who is not a scientist, once ran a blog where he called
progressives race traders and race traitors and likened Barack Obama to a communist.

Topics
Climate change scepticism
Trump administration
US politics
Climate change (Science)
Climate change (Environment)
news

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