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  • From: Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] War on Science: Here Are Some of the Banned Words at Trump’s Ag Department – Mother Jones
  • Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2017 10:35:51 -0400

War on Science: Here Are Some of the Banned Words at Trump’s Ag Department
– Mother Jones
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/08/climatedesk-war-on-science-here-are-some-of-the-banned-words-at-trumps-ag-department/

War on Science: Here Are Some of the Banned Words at Trump’s Ag
Department“Active
censorship…in the name of his political agenda.”

Oliver Milman <http://www.motherjones.com/author/oliver-milman/>Aug. 7,
2017 1:54 PM

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<http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/08/climatedesk-war-on-science-here-are-some-of-the-banned-words-at-trumps-ag-department/#>

RapidEye/Getty

*This story was originally published by* the Guardian
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/aug/07/usda-climate-change-language-censorship-emails?CMP=share_btn_tw>
*and appears here as part of the *Climate Desk <http://climatedesk.org/>
* collaboration. *

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
<https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/about/>, 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.”
“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.”

In her email to staff, dated 16 February this year, Moebius-Clune said the
new language was given to her staff and suggests it be passed on. She
writes that “we won’t change the modeling, just how we talk about it—there
are a lot of benefits to putting carbon back in the sail [sic], climate
mitigation is just one of them,” and that a colleague from public affairs
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
Trump’s inauguration, Jimmy Bramblett, deputy chief for programs at the
NRCS, said: “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.”

Bramblett added that “prudence” should be used when discussing greenhouse
gases and said the agency’s work on air quality regarding these gases could
be discontinued.

Other emails show the often agonized discussions between staff unsure of
what is forbidden. On 16 February, a staffer 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 staff 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 staff weren’t 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 “scientific integrity of the work.”

The USDA has been contacted for comment.

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
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/07/trump-climate-change-officials-worried>,
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
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/12/public-lands-wildlife-corridors-migration-routes>
.

The nomenclature of the federal government has also shifted
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/14/donald-trump-climate-change-mentions-government-websites>
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 reflect the approach of new leadership.”

“These records reveal Trump’s 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 staff who report about the air, water and
soil that sustains the health of our nation must conform their reporting
with the Trump administration’s 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 staff
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
country’s emissions deriving from farming practices. A USDA plan to address
the “far reaching” impacts of climate change is still online
<https://www.usda.gov/oce/climate_change/adaptation.htm>.

However, Sam Clovis, Trump’s nomination to be the USDA’s chief scientist,
has labeled climate research “junk science.”

Last week it was revealed that Clovis
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/02/donald-trump-sam-clovis-old-blog-progressives-obama>,
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”



  • [permaculture] War on Science: Here Are Some of the Banned Words at Trump’s Ag Department – Mother Jones, Lawrence London, 08/14/2017

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