Despite itself, WI DNR amplifies climate realities, science defense

I'd discovered two weeks ago that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources had scrubbed off a web page about climate change all references to climate, climate change and climate science.

Many blog posts followed, as did news coverage of the DNR's censorship hither and yon, as I also have documented.

In response, the DNR defended its page changes as routine, and said, besides, climate change is still being debated, so what's the big deal?

And it left two links to outside academic work on its stripped-down, no-climate-change-climate-change page.

And here's where the story gets funny, ironic, informative and inspirational.

One of the links that the DNR posted on its watered-down page about climate change effects on the Great Lakes was to a site about water and climate science in the Yahara watershed, in and surrounding Madison, or roughly 80 miles from Lake Michigan.

Irrelevant?

Yes and no, because no matter how far the site's study area is removed from the Great Lakes, there is a button near the bottom with the site's contact information that says "read our blog."

And when you click on that button like any good investigative reporter is wont to do, what you find most recently posted Tuesday at the top of the blog is this posting:

A strong defense of non-partisan, fact-based science, a strong recognition of global warming, a strong acknowledgement of climate change and strong criticism of the DNR's web page scrubbing:

Here in Wisconsin, the agency responsible for managing the resources we so cherish – our wildlife, fishes, forests and lakes – just removed any mention of climate change from its website. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources replaced this –

“Earth’s climate is changing. Human activities that increase heat-trapping (‘greenhouse’) gases are the main cause.”

With this:

“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 Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.”

As one of those academic entities, we can confidently state that the “reasons for this change at this particular time” are NOT being debated. They are known.  

Here is some excerpts from the blog. Props to the authors:

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In 2017, We Resolve to Speak Out For Science.

Installation by the street artist, Bansky, at London’s Saatchi Gallery. Picture: Jeff Felten, Pictify.

We think anyone would agree that 2016 was a pretty bad year for civil discourse and just, well, the overall delivery of information...

For our part, we resolve to speak up for science. To stand by the data and information and results that scientists spend so much time carefully collecting and analyzing. We resolve to do our small part in helping the discourse reach a place where observable facts are just that – facts. Not opinions, not biased, not part of the games that politicians play.

Let’s start with something we can all agree on, no matter what party you affiliate with – thermometers aren’t political...

The same is true about global warming. Temperatures around the world are going up. That’s not debatable...

Here in Wisconsin, the agency responsible for managing the resources we so cherish – our wildlife, fishes, forests and lakes – just removed any mention of climate change from its website. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources replaced this –

“Earth’s climate is changing. Human activities that increase heat-trapping (‘greenhouse’) gases are the main cause.”

With this:

“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 Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.”

As one of those academic entities, we can confidently state that the “reasons for this change at this particular time” are NOT being debated. They are known. It is an observable fact that human activity has greatly increased the amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere...

There is no place for politics in these simple facts.

The real place for politics in global warming is in discussions about HOW we should address climate change. What can and should we do about it as a society?

...Climate change is here and it is happening...

Continuing to pretend that man-made global warming isn’t happening only weakens our ability to respond...

We resolve to continue to produce the best science possible about our freshwater resources so that we, as a species, can make the best decisions possible about how to manage them. We resolve to continue to strive to make science engaging, fun, and inspiring to our audience, so that they can share in the wonder of the world around us and better understand the ecosystems they call home.

And, last but not least, when we see science being misrepresented or misconstrued, we resolve to say so.