Censorship, or science? USDA staff advised to refer to 'weather extremes' in place of 'climate change'

Brett T. | 5:22 PM on August 07, 2017

Before anyone gets too bent out of shape over words being “censored,” let’s not forget that organizations like the Associated Press issue revised guidelines all of the time; for example, the AP advised journalists in 2013 to stop using the term “illegal immigrant,” arguing that “illegal” should be used only to describe an action, not a person.

Certain words disappeared from Obama administration documents as well. Officials stopped using the labels “felon” and “convict,” claiming the terms could “drain their sense of self-worth and perpetuate a cycle of crime,” preferring instead to use “person who committed a crime.”

That said, the Guardian seems upset that the Trump administration is “censoring” the use of the term, “climate change” in the USDA.

USDA has begun censoring use of the term 'climate change', emails reveal https://t.co/lGOK2nOFs5

— The Guardian (@guardian) August 7, 2017

https://twitter.com/theMikePearson/status/894640595607662594

That's not Orwellian at all….

— Joseph Smoseff (@ZiggythePiggie) August 7, 2017

Dystopian.

— Seriously fed up (@anitatheowl) August 7, 2017

@USDA Climate Change is the slavery of our time, denying it for "economic reasons", means you lack human decency. History won't forget.

— Sabrina Hilario (@sabrinamhg) August 7, 2017

When the world has succumbed to the full force of 'extreme weather', will the US then be held accountable for the genocide of humanity?

— Error_Gen_Failure (@Error_Gen_Fail) August 7, 2017

Yay censorship… ? With shit like this happening rn, no wonder our planet/home is marked for death already

— ????? ? (@malekjensen) August 7, 2017

Censorship? That’s quite a claim, considering that in the text of the piece, the Guardian refers to the USDA’s “advice to staff on climate change language” and cites emails that say staffers have been “asked” to use, for example, “resilience to weather extremes” in place of “climate change adaption.”

We’re not sure how upset we’re supposed to be, even from a scientific vantage point. Maybe we’re all a little too used to, say, TV host and mechanical engineer Bill Nye the Science Guy taking pictures of the weather report on his TV and calling it climate change.

https://twitter.com/vivala_ko/status/894642632948764672

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Related:

Researcher’s linking of 59,000 suicides in India to climate change ‘particularly worrisome’ under Trump https://t.co/gFvZa1ku3O

— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 2, 2017