Pretending climate change isn’t real is the wrong way to govern in the public interest
When government suppresses science, we lose
Facts matter a lot to me, never more so than in the era following the most recent presidential election in which “post-truth” is added to our lexicon. So in 2015 when the Wisconsin Board of Commissioners of Public Lands (BCPL), where I served as executive secretary, voted 2–1 to prohibit me from speaking the words climate change or global warming during work hours, I was quick to correct those who blamed Gov. Scott Walker.
The national media had promptly made links between the situation in Wisconsin and the actions taken by Florida Gov. Rick Scott to prohibit his state’s employees from speaking about global warming. But the BCPL is a constitutionally created board, completely independent of other branches of state government and links between Gov. Scott’s order and Gov. Walker were not based in fact. The Huffington Post looked into who was actually behind it back in April of 2015.
That was then, and this is now.
On Dec. 28, 2016 it was reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) had substantially edited a web page about climate change in the Great Lakes region by deleting long-standing references to climate change and its relationship to human activity. Unlike BCPL, however, the governor oversees the DNR, and the agency secretary is appointed by and serves at the governor’s direction.
Nothing much happens there that the governor himself isn’t involved in. And all major agency decisions and policy shifts are those of Gov. Walker.
Also deleted from the DNR page was a direct link to the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts (WICCI) report, which was produced in cooperation between the highly respected University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Climatic Research (CCR) and scientists from the DNR in 2011. Many of those scientists at the DNR are now silenced or gone.
The WICCI report set an impressive national standard for climate impacts assessment and related strategies for adapting to a warming planet, and is being looked at as a model for other states. It documents the realities of rising temperatures and heavier precipitation events, which are having negative effects on Wisconsin, its public infrastructure, people, waters, fisheries, forests and farms. And it included common sense ideas to make Wisconsin stronger and more resilient in the face of climate change threats.
It contains well-researched facts.
Most recently, it was discovered that the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, which sets energy policy for the state and whose members are all Walker appointees, had similarly deleted climate change language from their site sometime since May 1, 2016.
The Washington Post has now published an article listing many of these same deletions. This a day after President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, criticized federal rules regarding climate change and scientists reported that 2016 was the hottest year in recorded history — for the third year in a row.
What is gained by disconnecting the public, educators, students, utility companies and business owners from the best available science? How can we have an informed discussion on the appropriate public policy response to a significant challenge when government is actively suppressing the science and deleting critical information from public websites?
Why are we now ignoring the facts?
Certainly it is not because the vulnerability of the state and its people is somehow diminished by new information. Indeed, the science has only grown clearer and more compelling over time.
What is there to gain from insinuating a debate when the reality is a broad scientific consensus?
Additional questions were raised when DNR spokesman Jim Dick told Madison, Wis. ABC-affiliate WKOW-TV that the agency understands scientists are no longer debating whether there is a human connection to climate change.
But when asked if the DNR’s statement was an acknowledgement that climate change is no longer being debated among climate scientists Dick said, “Yes, we are aware of that but as I’m sure you are aware it’s still being debated amongst the public.”
So while the DNR seems content with fueling a debate about scientific facts that even they admit the science has settled, there are a few recognizable — and surprising — figures that would disagree.
In 1989, President Ronald Reagan, in a letter to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate presenting the 1990 budget, wrote, “Because changes in the earth’s natural systems can have tremendous economic and social effects, global climate change is becoming a critical concern.”
Or former President George H. W. Bush, who signed in 1992 a climate change treaty at The Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, said in the 1990 Earth Day Proclamation, “Many scientists are concerned that a buildup of certain gases in the atmosphere may cause significant climate changes with serious, widespread consequences.”
And a number of other conservatives, including Margaret Thatcher, Mitt Romney, George W. Bush, Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, and Sara Palin have all spoken publicly about human caused climate change.
It is important to our future prosperity that we agree that science very much matters, as do facts, and that cutting off the public’s access to scientific facts is dangerous. People have the right to know that a warming planet right now and into the future carries significant risks. And they need to know we have the opportunity to make many sound choices that help ensure a vibrant future.
Let’s also agree that openly acknowledging and actively addressing climate change is not and should not be treated as a partisan matter, which, as the previous statements demonstrate, is a relatively new development.
While climate change is certainly one of the greatest challenges of our time, it is also presents an enormous opportunity to forge a clean energy future that protects public health, grows a prosperous economy, creates greater energy independence and protects the environment for this and future generations.
Pretending climate change isn’t real is the wrong way to govern in the public interest.
As Sen. John McCain said in 2008, “Whether we call it ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming,’ in the end we’re all left with the same set of facts. The facts of global warming demand our urgent attention, especially in Washington. Good stewardship, prudence, and simple commonsense demand that we to act meet the challenge, and act quickly.”
I am a big believer in the unlimited capacity of American ingenuity. We should not be debating accepted scientific facts but rather what our solutions should be. Sound public policy must be built on sound science. And public policy that protects the public interest requires an informed, fact-based discussion of what we want our future to look like.
Tia Nelson is Managing Director, Climate at Outrider Foundation.
