Dept of Agriculture censors use of "climate change"

[suffragette]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/aug/07/usda-climate-change-language-censorship-emails

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

A series of emails obtained by the Guardian between staff 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 staff and those that should replace them. “Climate change” is in the “avoid” category, to be replaced by “weather extremes”. Instead of “climate change adaption”, staff 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 efficiency”. Meanwhile, “sequester carbon” is ruled out and replaced by “build soil organic matter”.

If this is happening in that department, it's probably happening in other ones, too

[malaise]

1. Off to the greatest page

Fugg these lunatics.

[suffragette]

4. Thanks sis. I would bet there is pushback going on from the lower level civil servants

In these departments.

[malaise]

5. Of course most of them are professionals

Lock up the Lunatics - this is important information.

[suffragette]

9. Agree this is important. Best we are aware of the terms they using so we can recognize when

This language is being purposefully employed to minimize or negate impact of climate change.

I would bet it is already starting to creep into reporting about these topics without being addressed as the propaganda that it is.

[Achilleaze]

14. Not just USDA. The whole freaking KGOP government

Firehose of Falsehoods - This particular republican propaganda strategy is a direct copy of a classic russian technique for keeping citizens stupid and confused. Republicans are submissively following suit to drown American democracy with their ongoingly overflowing cesspool of falsehoods.

from the OP story:

"...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 ...”

[enough]

2. And none of this will change even if Trump is removed.

This is what Republicans want.

[suffragette]

6. Yes, this is their agenda in action. It was similar under Bush. Remember the minders at

NOAA and NASA?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x386633

[DK504]

3. Those farmers that are directly affected by climate change barely believe in climate change

will be in bigger trouble than they are already in. How exactly do these yah-hoos think they can grow food or make any money if they aren't the majority of people that are raising hell over the decimation of water and the ability to grow food?

[suffragette]

8. I remember quite a few years ago I saw an article about climate assessment that was being

done in Oregon to provide wine growers with data they needed to know what crops they should focus on due to the impact of climate change.

This is extra important for them given the longer time line needed for grape vines to be productive.

I would venture that those farmers who paid attention to these studies are in better shape today.

[HAB911]

7. It's all the rage with Rethuglicans

Fl Rick Scott's climate change denial is a joke — and not funny (from 2015)

Gov. Rick Scott turned Florida into a national laughingstock last week with reports that his administration had barred any official mention of "climate change." Raising the funny meter on late-night TV is one thing. It's another to live and work in a flat, low-lying coastal state where the chief executive is in such denial about the real-life impacts of rising sea levels, worsening air pollution and damage to water and fisheries from man-made carbon emissions. Scott is sticking his head in the sand instead of working to protect it, and it's time he was honest and proactive in addressing these threats.

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-scotts-climate-change-denial-is-a-joke-8212-and-not-funny/2221295

[suffragette]

11. Yep. It looks like there might be a split between local Repubs having to deal with the reality of

the impact of climate change and the national leaders of their party.

http://touch.sun-sentinel.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-92624963/

South Florida is taking more steps to protect against climate change and the rising seas that already are spilling over into neighborhoods.

This month, Broward County ordered that new flood maps be drawn using predictions of higher waters, the latest in a series of steps taken from Palm Beach County to the Keys.

Fort Lauderdale raised the required height of sea walls and the elevation of home sites; Delray Beach added valves to keep salt water out of the city drainage system; Broward County put a financing program in place for homeowners who want to tap solar energy.

That doesn’t mean Florida is all ready and set for the ill effects of rising global temperatures. A nationally recognized advocacy group that rated states on preparedness gave Florida a C- .

https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-04-14/south-florida-republicans-are-fed-their-party-leaders-climate-change
South Florida Republicans are fed up with their party leaders on climate change

Florida’s Republican Gov. Rick Scott’s office allegedly told state employees they couldn’t even use the terms “climate change” or “global warming.” Scott has denied this, but his office also denied a request to speak with him, or anybody else in his administration, about climate change.

At the federal level, Florida senator and former presidential candidate Marco Rubio is in line with many leading Republicans in dismissing or minimizing the threat of climate change. So are the party’s two leading remaining candidates for president, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

Trump has said global warming is a hoax created by the Chinese to make the US less competitive. Cruz calls it “pseudo-scientific theory.”

Add it all up, it’s creating a bit of an identity crisis for Mayor Cason.

“It’s making it harder to be a Republican when you have nobody in the party that wants to recognize it,” said Cason. “That’s why we’re hoping that we can get the candidates to take a closer look at the scientific evidence and tell us: if you don’t believe it, well why? Or you think it’s irrelevant because you don’t live along the coasts. We live along the coast.”

[HAB911]

13. What you refuse to acknowledge will bite you in the butt eventually

[suffragette]

16. Yes, or in this case flood you up your backside.

[Achilleaze]

10. Full-on fascism, republican style

the republicans digging in deeper, refusing to tell the truth. Their darkside pal, Satan, is gloating...

[suffragette]

12. Spot on!

[Solly Mack]

15. K&R

[suffragette]

17. Thanks Solly.

[chowder66]

18. Hey Gov't employees how about a little push back? Stop normalizing this shit! nt

[suffragette]

26. I think some are. That's why we know about

the emails directing this change.

[chowder66]

29. You're right and using your head. Me.. not so much lately. But I do wish we would see a bigger

push back.

[chaplain_M]

19. I once met someone named Moebius

I could only relate on a surface level.

[BigmanPigman]

20. Fortunately intelligent people still exist and are picking up some of

the pieces. From Richard Engel's report on climate change in China and India as well as the US and Al Gore making the rounds with his updated film the issue isn't fading away. Thankfully there are states that are still going through with their own plans and they are working with other countries too. Since the fake prez won't allow much for research or the release of the latest scientific data other scientists abroad are sharing their data with us.

[suffragette]

23. Glad for the push back. Do you have a link for Engels' report?

Haven't seen it yet and wod like to.

[BigmanPigman]

24. No I don't but he is replacing Rachel on Friday nights for the summer.

If you go to You Tube or google MSNBC you'll be able to watch it. It aired on August 4th at 6:00 PM.

[suffragette]

36. Thanks. I'll look for it.

[NRaleighLiberal]

21. "Weather extremes" are certainly screwing with my garden.

Been gardening here for 25 years...and it is so much harder to grow things well now when compared to 25 years ago.

Those damned weather extremes....

[suffragette]

32. So, according to their new directive, "build soil organic matter" will make all the difference.

Never mind that, oh yes, climate change may mean that your growing zone has changed, too.

I referred elsewhere to a climate assessment report I saw quite a few years back that was about the impact of the change in Oregon for wine grape growers to help them to assess which current crops might become unsuccessful and which new ones would thrive better with the coming change.

IIRC, that was being done during Bush years of denial, so it stood out as something knowledgeable civil servants were doing even as Bush admin was trying to suppress info.

[NRaleighLiberal]

33. their "full of shitness" is imperiling us all. And they don't care.

[suffragette]

34. "Full of shitness" is a perfect description. And yes, they don't care.

[gademocrat7]

22. These people are insane.

[ck4829]

25. Isn't this that whole "political correctness" thing righties are always throwing tantrums about?

Oh right, it just means "I can't black people n..."

[flibbitygiblets]

27. Well they'd better ban words like "worldwide famine", "underwater cities", and so on too

Otherwise it's gonna be hard to explain all the shit raining down.

[suffragette]

35. Well said!

[countryjake]

28. Here's a thread with some USDA contact info...take action!

Now!

Call Bianca Moebius-Clune at @USDA and tell her how you feel about climate science censorship. ~ posted by riversedge
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029427102

[suffragette]

30. Thank you for adding this - Very Important!

[greymattermom]

31. So, weather extremes are... extreme

which is never good, but climate change sounds better than all of those extremes to me. Warmer winters in the upper midwest and cooler summers in Arizona would be a change.

[dalton99a]

37. Kick.

[suffragette]

38. Thanks. Now they're trying to deny it, even though their own emails show the change.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/usda-says-they-never-told-staff-to-use-weather-extremes-instead-of-climate-change_us_5988a35be4b0ca8b1d49fbee

An exclusive report from The Guardian on Monday indicated that the staff in the Natural Resources Conservation Service unit at the United States Department of Agriculture were advised to refrain from using the phrase “climate change” in their research ― but the NRCS insists this never happened.

“The Natural Resources Conservation Service has not received direction from USDA or the Administration to modify its communications on climate change or any other topic,” Kaveh Sadeghzadeh, NRCS’s communications director, said in an email to HuffPost.
~~~
Sadeghzadeh told HuffPost that “these emails, sent in the first days of the new Administration, did not reflect the direction of senior agency leadership.”

However, mere days after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, deputy chief for programs at the NRCS, Jimmy Bramblett, said the following in the first email in The Guardian’s report:

“It has become clear one of the previous administration’s priority is not consistent with that of the incoming administration. Namely, that priority is climate change. Please visit with your staff and make them aware of this shift in perspective within the executive branch.”

[alfredo]

39. They should go ahead and use the banned words, but put a "censored" stamp over them.

[suffragette]

44. Good idea!

[bucolic_frolic]

40. Because CENSORSHIP works so well ... would you like some FREEDOM FRIES?

Economist Alfred Kahn famously refused to use the word recession in front of the Congress,
insisting on calling it a BANANA instead.

So EXTREME WEATHER CLIMATE CHANGE is what it is, no matter what they insist on calling it.

[suffragette]

45. I didn't know this. How absurd. And yes, them refusing to call it by the appropriate term

Doesn't change the reality of it. What it can impact - and that's why they do this - is some people's perception of the issue.

[Mendocino]

41. In other news

[link:

|

[suffragette]

46. Oh, yes.

[bucolic_frolic]

42. Shout it from the rooftops

Post it everywhere, write it in public places without defacing

Don't let the term "Climate Change" be a victim of stone cold government censorship

[neeksgeek]

43. This isn't just anti-climate science.

It's anti-evolution.

"Instead of “climate change adaption”, staff are asked to use “resilience to weather extremes”."

Stripping out "adaptation" and replacing it with "resilience" implies that species don't evolve.

[BobTheSubgenius]

47. Good thinking, whichever bright spark came up with this gem.

"Extreme" is so much more comforting than "change."

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

48. During the Bush Jr. years "global warming" was changed to "climate change"

I guess the next republican president will change it to, "Gosh, something might be happening."

[BigmanPigman]

49. FOR had government programs to HELP the farmser' crops grow better.

The GOP wants to kill anything that stands in the way of their getting richer.

[ck4829]

50. Kick