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The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has removed language from its public website describing the scientific consensus that human activity is the main cause of climate change.

Republicans who have controlled state government since 2011 are fighting federal efforts to reduce greenhouse gases that cause climate change, but they have mostly attacked the costs of pollution controls without publicly denying the science until now. 

A Madison-based conservation activist who is pushing for the air pollution standards said spreading falsehoods about climate change was dangerous because delays in addressing the problem will worsen the climate-related health hazards faced by future generations.

"The notion that this is matter of scientific debate is ridiculous," said Keith Reopelle, policy director at Clean Wisconsin. "The only people who say that are being paid by the fossil fuel industry." 

A series of surveys show that 97 percent or more of working climate scientists agree humans are causing the dramatic changes in temperature and weather.

But the DNR revised its website on the grounds that the issue "is still being debated," a spokesman said.

"As you know the causes and effects of any changes in climate are still being debated and research on the matter is being done in academic circles outside DNR," spokesman Jim Dick said in a statement issued Wednesday.

Dick described the revision as part of a routine review of the website. He said DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp and other top administrators were on vacation and unable to discuss their views.

Stepp, a former home-builder and critic of the DNR before Gov. Scott Walker appointed her to run the agency in 2011, campaigned for Donald J. Trump, who has claimed without evidence that the concept of climate change is a Chinese hoax.

The DNR's web page on climate change in the Great Lakes region now says: "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 Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources."

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/greatlakes/climatechange.html" target="_blank">It previously said: "Human activities that increase heat–trapping ("green house") gases are the main cause. Earth's average temperature has increased 1.4 °F since 1850 and the eight warmest years on record have occurred since 1998. Increasing temperatures have led to changes in rainfall patterns and snow and ice cover. These changes could have severe effects on the Great Lakes and the plants, wildlife and people who depend on them." 

The previous version can be seen on The Internet Archive, a service that periodically saves copies of web pages from a variety of sites.

On Thursday Dick argued that the department's views were consistent with the scientific consensus and he maintained that expenditures of tax dollars were still being guided by scientific evidence. 

"Neither the updated web page nor the statement says the 'science is not settled'," Dick said in an emailed comment. "There is still debate amongst the general public."

"We are still using science to protect the natural resources and adapting to the climate challenges that present themselves," Dick added.

Less than two years ago while cutting 90 DNR positions, Gov. Scott Walker and the Legislature cut removed half of the department's senior scientists because they researched "controversial" topics like climate change and pollution from mines.

DNR scientists have worked to adapt forestry and fisheries and other programs to be effective under rising temperatures and increasingly frequent extreme rain events, although former department employees say support for those efforts has declined.

The DNR is also responsible for enforcing federal limits on air pollution, although it has been repeatedly criticized for failing to adhere to national standards.

The rewritten web page is the top result returned by the search engine on the DNR website when the keywords "climate change" are entered. It includes a notation that it was last revised a week ago.

Earlier versions of the page gave an introduction to the problem of climate change with six paragraphs and eight links to additional sources of information. What remained this week were two paragraphs and two links.

There is no indication of any effort by the DNR to remove everything on its extensive website related to the human causes of climate change.

And among the first 10 results the DNR site search engine produced for "climate change" was one that connects to a DNR page describing how landfills can release greenhouse gas.

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But seven of the others now lead to DNR "Page Not Found" messages. Dick didn't respond when asked if the links didn't work because of intentional action by the department or if they had simply fallen into disrepair and hadn't been fixed.

Another of the first 10 links returned by the DNR website search engine leads to a DNR educational page on "tree planting" for young people that provides further links to websites of other organizations, although several of those are broken. 

Gov. Scott Walker's administration has opposed federal measures to cut greenhouse gases by saying they would be too costly. A review of news coverage didn't immediately find any previous official pronouncement by the Walker administration addressing the causes of climate change. His office didn't respond to requests for comment.

While 97 percent of working climate scientists agree that rapid climate change has been caused by human activities such as emissions from power plants and automobiles, representatives of the fossil fuel industry and Republican politicians are a vocal few in public life who have tried to cast doubt.

The DNR website change comes more than a year after the GOP-controlled state Board of Commissioners of Public Lands drew national attention by ordering its staff not to discuss climate change.

Budget cuts aimed at scientists

At the DNR, Walker and the other Republicans who control state government have pressured the department to refocus its activities on an undefined "core mission" and speed up issuance of pollution permits to businesses. 

Last week Walker disclosed a legislative proposal to scatter DNR programs among five separate departments. 

Last month, the department announced a major reorganization that had been demanded by elected officials under the threat that the agency would face further cuts if it didn't change. A nonpartisan audit in June confirmed that budget cuts were contributing to lax enforcement of clean water laws.

The change in the DNR website was first reported by independent Wisconsin journalist James Rowan who has tracked shortcomings in DNR information on climate change for several years.

Source: DNR erases cause of climate change from website