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EPA Website Removes Climate Science Site From Public View After Two Decades (washingtonpost.com)

Posted by msmash on from the end-of-road dept.

Last week there were reports that the EPA climate change website was set to be taken down, though later the EPA denied that. On Friday evening, however, the Environmental Protection Agency announced its website would be "undergoing changes" to better represent the new direction the agency is taking, triggering the removal of several agency websites containing detailed climate data and scientific information (paywalled; alternative source). From a report on The Washington Post: One of the websites that appeared to be gone had been cited to challenge statements made by the EPA's new administrator, Scott Pruitt. Another provided detailed information on the previous administration's Clean Power Plan, including fact sheets about greenhouse gas emissions on the state and local levels and how different demographic groups were affected by such emissions. The changes came less than 24 hours before thousands of protesters were set to march in Washington and around the country in support of political action to push back against the Trump administration's rollbacks of former president Barack Obama's climate policies.

10 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. Not surprising by quonset · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Trumper has flip flopped and lied about everything which has come out of his mouth so this shouldn't surprise anyone. Here's what he said only a week ago:

    "Rigorous science is critical to my administration's efforts to achieve the twin goals of economic growth and environmental protection."

    "My administration is committed to advancing scientific research that leads to a better understanding of our environment and of environmental risks," Trump said. "As we do so, we should remember that rigorous science depends not on ideology, but on a spirit of honest inquiry and robust debate.

    What better way to advance scientific research and allow for honest inquiry and robust debate than to wipe from the record, the very research one claims to support.

    P.S. He had no problem claiming climate change as the reason he needed to build a sea wall around his Irish golf course:

    "If the predictions of an increase in sea level rise as a result of global warming prove correct, however, it is likely that there will be a corresponding increase in coastal erosion rates not just in Doughmore Bay but around much of the coastline of Ireland. In our view, it could reasonably be expected that the rate of sea level rise might become twice of that presently occurring. ... As a result, we would expect the rate of dune recession to increase."

    1. Re:Not surprising by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I guess he means alternative science.

      Every American should be worried about this. Aside from the health damage at a time when healthcare is threatened, and aside from the environmental damage, it's going to make it hard for America to do trade deals and export goods.

      Just because Trump thinks it's a Chinese conspiracy, doesn't mean that, for example, the EU will just ignore it. If the US emits more pollution, low tariff trade deals will be impossible.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:Not surprising by Patent+Lover · · Score: 5, Informative

      Said he was going to have the US withdraw from NAFTA: didn't do it. Said he was going have the US withdraw from NATO: didn't do it. Said he was going to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it: now he wants US taxpayers to pay for it. Said he was going to repeal and replace the ACA with something better that covers everybody: didn't do it. Said he's going to bring back coal jobs: simply can't happen, though he did sign an executive order allowing coal to pollute streams, hurray. Said he wasn't going to have time to play golf like Obama: already played 16 days worth. Said he was going to destroy ISIS in the first 30 days: didn't do it. Said he wasn't going to settle the Trump University lawsuit: settled. Said he was going to cancel the Paris Climate Agreement: didn't do it. I'm sure there are more.

    3. Re:Not surprising by sir-gold · · Score: 4, Funny

      Nothing he says is inconsistent, you just have to read between the lines.

      For example, when he says "a better understanding of our environment and of environmental risks", what he really means is "the 'current' understanding disagrees with my personal beliefs and desires, therefore, the problem must be the 'current' understanding, so we need a 'better' one"

    4. Re:Not surprising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      If I had a dollar for every time Trump said "Only I can / understand X!" where X is anything that is a current social, economic, or political problem, I would be very rich indeed.

      Now Trump is saying "X is harder than I thought" more often than not. It seems that items he understood better than the rest of the world are actually hard, and he's just finding out.

      There is a scientific basis for this, it is called the Dunning Kruger effect. The short version is, "if you don't know anything about it, your confidence in your statements and actions are high". So we have a President that goes in swinging his fists, and winds up making the situation worse.

      The EPA measurements are not privately funded, they are paid for with your tax dollars. As they are not part of a national security agenda, withholding that data is denying your the fruits of your tax payments.

      An analogy would be if Trump decided to close a the National Parks permanently for public visitation, only permitting his hand-picked cadre visitation rights. Another analogy would be him "withholding tax preparation information" from tax payers that didn't agree with his agenda (but of course, not withholding on tax prosecution).

      We are going to live with the impact of global warming, whether that impact is better or worse than our projected expectations. By pulling this information offline, Trump's directives are for us to live with the impact in the blind. It is as if to "solve the traffic problem" we banned all radio broadcast of traffic accidents and freeway slowdowns.

      I hope Trump supporters realize that they are losing access to the science they have purchased. Science can be a tricky field, where one can make mistakes in understanding what is behind an observation; but, closing one's eyes to observation is not going to advance any field. What did Trump give in return for taking your paid-for observations away from you?

  2. Liberal Censorship! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Those pesky liberals *want* you to think CO2 is rising, they *want* you to believe the earth if getting hotter, they even dare to suggest it's man-made!

    But this is all a theory. Respect my alternative facts!

    Fact, it's getting colder, due to the lack of CO2 caused by too many trees eating all our CO2!

    There's more ice than ever before! Look at all that ice off Newfoundland, more icebergs than ever before! How is that possible if it isn't colder? Fact!

    President elected by biggest majority ever, Donald J Trump, will make America great again!

  3. Mirrors by hackertourist · · Score: 5, Informative

    we're lucky this got announced early, so there have been efforts to save this data:

    Github repo

    list of mirrors

    another one

    more

    even more

  4. Re:I hear we may get a data dump by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    A list of people directed to disclose the datasets they have been refusing FOIA on under the Obama administration.

    The datasets are public and downloadable. The FOIA thing was when Lamar Smith went on a witch hunt and demanded the emails of all scientists at the agency. Smith machine gunned NOAA with a flood of FOIA requests, which can be effectively used in denial of service attacks on government agencies. http://harvardpolitics.com/cul...

  5. Re:CO2 levels are falling by peragrin · · Score: 4, Funny

    true, but then again 100 million years ago the average temperature was significantly hotter, and the ocean levels were higher too.

    as the northern artic passages open up think how much the sea level will rise. a mere 6 feet floods, New york, Boston, New orleans (again) Washington Dc, Atlanta, etc.

    All those liberal will then have to move someplace dry and once conservative areas will suddenly become liberal.

    What will conservatives do then? Protect the climate now to prevent the flood of liberals into your area. /s

    --
    i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
  6. They removed it because it's useless by quantaman · · Score: 4, Interesting

    After all, who needs data when you have ideology?

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