DNR scrubbed climate wording after newspaper query
This story was originally posted on Jan. 9, 2017. The photo caption was updated on Jan. 10.
What prompted the Department of Natural Resources to scrub language from its website about the role that humans play in climate change?
An inquiry by a northern Wisconsin newspaper.
The Lakeland Times reported that Wisconsin's environmental protection agency removed information saying humans and greenhouse gases are the main causes of climate change two days after the newspaper raised the issue with Secretary Cathy Stepp.
“After questioning from The Lakeland Times, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has changed its climate-change web page to reflect a policy of neutrality on its causes and effects, rather than embracing the dramatic manmade hypothesis the web page has touted since the Doyle administration,” the paper reported on Friday.
DNR spokesman Jim Dick on Monday acknowledged the paper raised the issue with Stepp during an interview.
"The Lakeland Times reporter did bring that particular Great Lakes web page to our attention during a phone call on other matters," Dick said in an email. "We reviewed it and decided to update it as we’ve stated in previous statements."
The DNR updated a web page on the Great Lakes on Dec. 21, saying climate change is a matter of scientific debate, striking sentences attributing global warming to human activities and rising levels of carbon dioxide.
In its update, the DNR said, “as it has done throughout the centuries, the earth is going through a change. The reasons for this change at this particular time in the earth’s long history are being debated and researched by academic entities outside the Department of Natural Resources.”
Officials replaced this wording:
“Earth’s climate is changing. Human activities that increase heat-trapping ('greenhouse') gases are the main cause.”
The old text said “scientists agree” that the Great Lakes region will see longer summers and shorter winters, decreased ice cover and changes in rain and snow patterns “if climate change patterns continue.”
RELATED OPINION: Denial won’t stop climate change
The vast majority of scientists in the field of climate science are in agreement that humans and the burning of fossil fuels have had a warming effect on the planet.
In 2014, a United Nations report surveyed the latest science and found “human influence on the climate system is clear, and recent anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest in history.”
UW scientists critical of DNR
Also, on Monday seven scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison released an opinion piece that criticized the DNR for characterizing global warming as a matter of debate in the scientific community.
"The revised statement fails to mention either human-caused climate change or science, but manages to imply that changes in climate are natural, mysterious, and driven by causes that still stir debate among climate scientists. In fact, the revised version is simply incorrect," the scientists said.
The scientists said "ignoring the facts and this responsibility hobbles the state agency entrusted to manage natural resources and protect the public."
The article was written by climate scientist John E. Kutzbach; limnologists Stephen R. Carpenter and John J. Magnuson; zoologist Monica G. Turner; wildlife ecologist Stanley A. Temple; botanist Donald M. Waller; and Jonathan A. Patz, a physician and expert on the environmental health effects of climate change.
Dick said in an email the agency "does not have the capacity to independently evaluate the causes of climate change. We leave that to the scientists/researchers working in that area." He noted the agency has links to UW-Madison programs on climate change research.
On Dec. 28, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on the modified wording on the agency's website. Afterward, in an open records request, it asked the DNR to provide all documents, emails and text messages related to the changes.
The DNR responded with a copy of the updated version of the web page and two links to UW-Madison the DNR refers visitors to.
The DNR has not made global warming a priority since 2011 when Gov. Scott Walker took office. Walker has been critical of regulations to cut carbon emissions under the Obama administration, saying the president was overstepping his authority and ignoring the impact of higher energy prices on Wisconsin consumers.
RELATED OPINION: Legislators must be held accountable for any DNR changes
In October 2015, Wisconsin joined a federal lawsuit opposing the regulations.
Stepp or her spokespeople have said the role of the agency is to use its expertise in areas such as wildlife and forest management to adapt to a changing climate.
An example is a June 15, 2015, email to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in which a DNR spokeswoman said "the agency does not have the capacity to independently evaluate the causes of climate change. There is ample data available from many other sources to inform that discussion."
The agency has removed other information on climate change from its website, including extensive work from former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's Task Force on Global Warming, which pushed for a reduction in carbon emissions in Wisconsin.
Still, some information on the agency's website remained, including recent references on the role humans play in climate change on its Great Lakes web page.
In an interview on Dec. 19, Richard Moore, investigative reporter for the Lakeland Times, asked Stepp and Deputy Secretary Kurt Thiede that since “DNR officials have been publicly stating for at least three years that the causes of climate change are debatable … why the climate page was never changed,” the newspaper reported.
"Stepp said she did not know what we were referring to but said what we were telling her was concerning and she would check out the climate-change page to make sure she was getting the right information," the Minocqua-based newspaper reported.
"If there is something on our website that I'm not familiar was on our website, I thank you for bringing that to my attention," Stepp said.
The Journal Sentinel asked the DNR whether the agency planned to scrub other language related to human factors in climate change on the website, such as a web page devoted waste management.
The page says, "We now have a clearer understanding of the role waste and materials management plays in global climate change and, most importantly, the opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the waste and materials management sphere."
Dick, the DNR spokesman, responded in an email: "Thank you for bringing that landfill page to our attention. Now that you have, we’ll take a look at it and see if it needs updating."