Good luck silencing science | TechCrunch

"he list of federal agencies having their online communications tampered with or outright shut down is growing: the EPA, the National Parks Service, the Departments of Energy, Agriculture, Transportation, and the Interior, among others. Because of the ham-handed way it was done, it’s obvious these agencies are being reined in specifically with regard to climate change. Good luck with that!

First though, let’s dispel the possibility that we’re all jumping the gun here. This is a time of transition between administrations, after all. Why wouldn’t there be a few hiccups as things get rewired? Even major lapses like losing the entire Spanish version of the White House website could be bumps in the road.

But it isn’t a casual absence of, say, the words “solar,” “wind,” or “renewable” from the administration’s energy plan.

Nor is it accidental that there is no replacement for, or even a rebuttal of Obama’s climate change policy.

Nor that the National Parks Service was chastised after several tweets regarding climate change.

Nor that the CDC suddenly cancelled its conference on climate change.

Nor that cabinet nominees repeatedly refused to acknowledge the existence or urgency of climate change.

Nor that many other agencies receiving communications restrictions of varying intensity have jurisdiction over things largely affecting or affected by climate change.

Nor that the EPA has been gagged, hobbled, told to remove its page on climate change, and now to have its studies vetted by the administration before release.

This isn’t stumbling through a transition, or getting talking points straight, or playing up one side of an issue; we can talk about other things, just not climate change. It’s systematic suppression by the government of information relating to a topic it considers dangerous.

There’s a word for that — a word frequently misused these days, but the correct word in this case: censorship."