Thread by @tolyrinberg

Here's your reminder that, 2 years under Trump, state-sponsored censorship of climate info is still ongoing and pervasive across fed agencies (@EPA, @StateDept, @Interior, @USDOT, …)

Check out @andmbergman & my @NYTopinion piece and examples in THREAD: nytimes.com/2017/11/22/opi…

In Oct 2018, @USDOT, which oversees transportation, one of the largest sectors contributing to anthropogenic U.S. GHG emissions, obfuscated climate info by removing its "Climate Change Clearinghouse" page, among several others

@CNN's @Rene_MarshCNN broke: cnn.com/2018/12/14/pol…

.@EPA's removal of epa.gov/climatechange is still the largest case of online climate change censorship by a fed agency

The small amount of the site that was returned censored info about climate change. @NYTclimate's @LFFriedman on our @EnviroDGI report: nytimes.com/2017/10/20/cli…

Elsewhere at @EPA, mentions of "carbon" were removed and "reducing climate impacts" was replaced with "improving sustainability" on the SmartWay program website.

@washingtonpost's @dino_grandoni on our @EnviroDGI report: washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost…

We know that not all of these website changes were ordered by Trump's political appointees.

@washingtonpost's @chriscmooney revealed that career staff dropped the word "clean" from @ENERGY's "Clean Energy Investment Center" to "keep-their-head-down." washingtonpost.com/news/energy-en…

Within a week of Trump's inauguration, @StateDept removed climate action reports (produced for the UN), along with pages about the Montreal Protocol and potent GHGs, hydrofluorocarbons, from its site.

@businessinsider's @dgvarins on @EnviroDGI findings: businessinsider.com/climate-action…

The independent energy agency, @EIAgov, downplayed the harms of GHGs by removing graphs and sentences like: "Burning coal produces emissions that adversely affect the environment and human health."

@ProPublica's @patrickglee covered our @EnviroDGI report: propublica.org/article/childs…

.@Interior's @BLMNational removed its main webpage on climate change. The page stated that “BLM is adopting a landscape approach to more effectively manage the public lands during times of change”

@NYTimes' @CoralMDavenport on our @EnviroDGI report: nytimes.com/2018/01/10/cli…

Need more examples? Check out our extensive @EnviroDGI assessment of how climate information was censored during the first year under Trump: 100days.envirodatagov.org/changing-digit…

@NYTclimate's @CoralMDavenport did an excellent overview: nytimes.com/2018/01/10/cli…

Meanwhile, @NASA's and @NOAA's climate resources remain robust.

The reason? Both NASA and NOAA focus on research and are not regulatory agencies, like @EPA (with some minor exceptions, such as NMFS).

@mashable's @SkepticalRanger makes that point: mashable.com/article/epa-na…

There are bright spots: @NBCNews' @RaineyTime points out that Climate.gov and CLEANet.org are expanding: nbcnews.com/news/us-news/t…

And @FiveThirtyEight's @maggiekb1 spotlights the @theNASEM's Climate Communications Initiative: fivethirtyeight.com/features/clima…

The fed gov't did release a major climate report, with input from 13 agencies, a years-long effort. It was rushed out on Black Friday, getting less attention, but authors, like @KHayhoe, said there was little other admin interference. @yayitsrob writes: theatlantic.com/science/archiv…

The current backdrop of all this? Trump's manufactured #GovernmentShutdown is stifling US and international scientists from accessing federal climate and other scientific resources online.

See @LizBorkowski's great thread for examples:

https://twitter.com/LizBorkowski/status/1084916420666896385

More backdrop: Knowing there was more, I founded @SunWebIntegrity with @rachelkbergman & @andmbergman. We've documented censorship across other fed agencies pertaining to women's health, LGBT rights, immigration, healthcare, and, unfortunately, much more: sunlightfoundation.com/web-integrity-…

Oh, and this thread wouldn't be complete without a shout-out to the @InternetArchive and its @WaybackMachine, which served as a verified source backing up all of our @EnviroDGI work & allowed the journalistic community to conduct all this research and hold the gov't accountable.

Lest it needs to be said once more: climate change is real, it has & will have significant implications for human well-being, and it's caused by us.

@NYTimes' @CoralMDavenport from the @NYTclimate desk on @IPCC_CH's 1.5C report (ipcc.ch/sr15/): nytimes.com/2018/10/07/cli…

At a time when US emissions are on the rise and the looming harms of climate change are being understood better & better, climate censorship is not the answer. What's needed is more awareness of climate change, more resources to solve problems, & the collective willpower to act.

We also need strong oversight from our new Congress & climate leaders like @SenWhitehouse, @SenJeffMerkley, @SenSanders, & @AOC.

Once again, see our @EnviroDGI report on climate censorship during Trump's first year: 100days.envirodatagov.org/changing-digit… END

In my frenzy, I forgot to add: The work identifying these website changes could not have been done without the amazing effort by many, many volunteers at @EnviroDGI and support by EDGI's leadership! github.com/edgi-govdata-a…

Thank you so much to our analysts: @RebeccaLave, Maya A-D, @gretchengehrke, @ericnost, @jcwylie3, @aalemelin, @612to651, @JustE_Derry, @LizzUltee, @MarcyBeck…

And our dedicated software devs: Dan Allan, @Mr0grog, @weatherpattern, Jason Sherman, Kevin Nguyen…

And so many more!