Lee Bergquist

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MILWAUKEE — Wisconsin's state agency that oversees environmental regulation recently removed language from its webpage on the Great Lakes that says humans and greenhouse gases are the main cause of climate change.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources now contends the subject is a matter of scientific debate.

The department made the changes Dec. 21, striking out whole sentences attributing global warming to human activities and rising levels of carbon dioxide.



It’s the most recent example of the agency removing information related to climate change. More broadly, the changes reflect how the administration of Republican Gov. Scott Walker has de-emphasized the subject since he took office in 2011.

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“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,” the department has written in its latest changes.

Officials replaced this wording:

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

The old text goes on to say “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.”

Blogger Jim Rowen, a critic of the Walker administration’s environmental policies, first reported the revised passages Monday.

“(The) updated page reflects our position on this topic that we have communicated for years, that our agency regularly must respond to a variety of environmental and human stressors from drought, flooding, wind events to changing demographics," Natural Resources spokesman Jim Dick said in email. "Adaptation has been our position on this topic."

While some scientists have painted doubt for the reason why the planet is warming, the vast majority of climate scientists agree that burning of fossil fuels has increased global greenhouses gases in the atmosphere and has caused warming.

A 2014 United Nations report that surveyed the latest science of climate change found “human influence on the climate system is clear, and recent anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest in history.”

The report, the U.N.'s fifth since 1990, also found “warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and (oceans) have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, and sea level has risen.”

Under Walker, climate issues have not been a high priority. He has been critical of President Obama’s climate initiatives.

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GOP Attorney General Brad Schimel joined other like-minded states in 2015 in a federal lawsuit opposing regulations to limit carbon emissions from power plants.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources also recently removed a teaching guide on climate change from its website. According to the agency, it is turning it over to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

In recent years, state Natural Resources officials have removed other information devoted to global warming, but other information is still intact.

For example, a Webpage devoted to landfills and waste says, “Climate change poses a serious threat.”

“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,” it says.

In contrast, the department has taken down a trove of information on former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle’s Task Force on Global Warming. The 2008 report, which sought ways to reduce carbon emissions, still can be found on an online archive known as the Wayback Machine.

Michigan and Minnesota maintain extensive information on climate change and its effect at their respective environmental agencies.

Paul Robbins, director of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the alterations don't surprise him.

“When climate change gets so politicized, you can imagine agencies and its leaders haggling over wording,” he said.

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Robbins said University of Wisconsin scientists have worked with state Natural Resources Department field staff for years on how to adapt to a warming climate although with shrinking state agency budgets, “it’s not as high of a priority as it was in the past.”

Bill Davis, president of the John Muir chapter of the Sierra Club in Madison, described the scrubbing as “unfortunate, but not surprising — they’ve been doing it pretty much since Walker got into office.

“This is an asset, paid for with public funds, and the fact it was scrubbed off its website is not good public policy,” he said.

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Said Joel Brammeier, president of Chicago-based Alliance for the Great Lakes:

“I don’t understand the need for the changes. To me, it looks like they are trying to cover up a debate that really isn’t happening.”

Climate change is affecting the Great Lakes, Brammeier said, citing as one example Green Bay’s dead zone, which has been linked to runoff and warm summer water temperatures.

Dick, the Department of Natural Resources spokesman, said the agency is working on ways Wisconsin can adjust to a changing climate.

Follow Lee Bergquist on Twitter: @leebergquist