EPA cuts mentions of humans from webpage on climate change causes

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has removed several mentions of human activity on a webpage related to the causes of climate change.

Last week, the EPA quietly updated a page on its site outlining causes of global warming. 

Previously, the page said: “This record shows that the climate varies naturally over a wide range of time scales, but this variability does not explain the observed warming since the 1950s. Rather, it is extremely likely (> 95%) that human activities have been the dominant cause of that warming.”

It also previously contained a significant section related to the impacts of human-caused greenhouse gases, stating, “burning fossil fuels changes the climate more than any other human activity.”

Now, the only mention of humans on the causes of climate change page is in a section related to volcanos, stating: “Volcanic particles from a single eruption do not produce long-term climate change because they remain in the atmosphere for a much shorter time than greenhouse gases. In addition, human activities emit more than 100 times as much carbon dioxide as volcanoes each year.”

The page does also say that “recent climate changes cannot be explained by natural causes alone.”

An EPA spokesperson said via email that the agency “no longer takes marching orders from the climate cult.”

“We uphold gold-standard science at the Trump EPA and are committed to fulfilling our statutory obligations,” the spokesperson said, noting that previous iterations of the pages are still available through the agency’s archives. 

There is a scientific consensus that climate change is primarily driven by human activity, including the burning of fossil fuels.

However, President Trump and his administration have sought to undermine both the government’s consideration of climate change and its climate action.

Notably, the EPA has proposed a repeal of the “endangerment finding,” a landmark legal finding that climate change poses a threat to the public and should be regulated.

The Energy Department earlier this year released a report that downplayed both climate change itself and its connection to human activity. 

The administration has also sought to roll back various climate-related regulations, including those impacting cars and power plants and sought to claw back spending aimed at fighting climate change.

The changing climate causes extreme weather, including heat waves and more intense storms. 

“EPA is trying to bury the evidence on human-caused climate change, but it cannot change the reality of climate science or the harsh toll climate impacts are taking on people’s lives,” said Rachel Cleetus, senior policy director for the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, in a written statement. 

“This isn’t just about data on a website; it’s an attack on independent science and scientific integrity,” Cleetus said.