The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) removed “outdated language” from its website the night before activists planned protests targeting the Trump administration’s climate policies.
EPA spokesman J.P Freire told reporters the content was nixed because the website “needs to reflect the views of the leadership of the agency.” It has maintained records of the archived portions of the Obama-era pages it scrubbed.
Nearly all the information related to climate change has been scuttled, according to a Monday report from Politico. Activists and labor unions lambasted the EPA’s decision.
“The book burning has commenced!” John O’Grady, head of the agency’s top employee union, said in a statement. “Something appears to be very wrong with this Administration’s position on global climate change, and this impacts all Americans, especially the poor and marginalized.”
President Donald Trump directed the agency to scrub its global warming webpage in January, less than a week after the former real estate tycoon assumed office. The page contained links to EPA’s data on carbon dioxide as well as other greenhouse gas emissions. It also listed effects activists believe global warming causes.
The Trump administration asked the EPA to stop handing out grants for projects and research, air quality monitoring, and education, during Trump’s first full month in the White House. EPA also instructed employees not to discuss the spending freeze outside the agency, according to anonymous leaks to multiple media outlets.
Activists have spent the first 100 days of Trump’s term worried the administration will censor scientists or delete government data about global warming. They even tried create back-ups of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration temperature data to prevent the president’s incursions.
There has been scant evidence that Trump intends on deleting government data.
EPA’s decision to eliminate the portions came a few hours before nearly 200,000 demonstrators marched down Pennsylvania Avenue Saturday chanting “water is life” and “keep it in the soil, can’t drink oil!”
Environmentalist groups such as 350.org and Sierra Club helped organize the massive event, which drew eco-celebrities like actor Leonardo DiCaprio and former vice president Al Gore.
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