WI stance on climate change altered casually

Wisconsin's official stance on climate change, climate science and cabinet-level communications for the public have come down to a matter of...who's on the phone.

The State of Wisconsin has a very broad and long-standing Open Records law which allows citizens, businesses, journalists to request copies of in the possession of state agencies and employees, including electronic items such as emails, voice mails, etc.

On December 22nd, 2016, I had published the disclosure that a key page Department of Natural Resources web page about climate change had been scrubbed of all references to climate and climate change, after first disclosing such deletions by the DNR as far back as 2012.

The same day I sent an Open Records request to the DNR which cited in full the original text deleted and the recreated page, and then asked for:

all WDNR correspondence including emails to and from other agencies, such as but not limited to the Governor's office, which contributed to producing the changes that turned the original page which is no longer available into the page linked above and now available on line. 

On January 5, 2017, the agency told me by email there were no records responsive to my request other than these two links to outside agencies:

The Nelson Institute  

Water Sustainability and Climate

I did note on January 6, 2017 that a conservative newspaper in Northern Wisconsin was taking credit for suggesting the changes to DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp

and today the DNR and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel are confirming that.

And that's how communications about science in Wisconsin are handled these days.

No doubt a hint of what's coming when Donald Trump's people take over the US EPA, etc.