
All References to Climate Change Have Been Deleted from the White House Website - hamckio
https://motherboard.vice.com/read/all-references-to-climate-change-have-been-deleted-from-the-white-house-website
======
vowelless
I think the headline is a little wrong or maybe I am misreading it. It's not
the case that someone went to the website and deleted climate change
references; but rather, there is a new web site which doesn't have any
references.

As the article itself says :

> To reiterate: It is normal that the site is completely new; it is notable
> that climate change is not mentioned on any one of Trump's new pages

~~~
iaw
Thanks for pointing this out, I missed it on my first read-through. The
framing of this article implies that the Trump administration scrubbed the
references first thing rather than roll out their new version which had no
references to climate change.

I'm as ready as half the country to despise this administration but I'll save
my outrage for things that are actually malicious.

~~~
burkaman
The act of replacing the website is normal, but the content of the replacement
is malicious.

~~~
iaw
How do you define malicious in this context? I see the content (from
summaries, I haven't read it) as 100% self-consistent for the Trump
administration.

~~~
burkaman
It is, and the Trump administration's position on the climate is malicious, in
that it will cause harm to the majority of humanity.

------
azeirah
I did some digging.

$ wget --execute="robots = off" \--mirror --convert-links --no-parent
www.whitehouse.gov

$ grep -rl climate

the-press-office/2011/09/20/president-obama-participate-linkedin-town-hall-
mountain-view-california-

the-press-office/2011/09/21/remarks-president-obama-and-president-clinton-
clinton-global-initiative

the-press-office/2011/02/28/presidential-proclamation-50th-anniversary-peace-
corps

joiningforces

1600/first-ladies/mamieeisenhower

1600/first-ladies/louhoover

The first three are press releases from 2011, so they're old. The fourth
result "joiningforces" has this at the top of the page "This is historical
material “frozen in time”. The website is no longer updated and links to
external websites and some internal pages may not work."

The other two pages are duds, because they're just talking about the climate
as in "it's a nice climate".

So yep, no references to climate change _whatsoever_

~~~
lloyd-christmas
Sadly, it's directly mentioned on this page.

[https://www.whitehouse.gov/america-first-
energy](https://www.whitehouse.gov/america-first-energy)

~~~
knowaveragejoe
It's a shame that there's not a single mention of renewable, solar, wind, or
nuclear, but coal and oil are mentioned multiple times each.

~~~
woofyman
Trump is anti wind power.

[https://www.google.com/amp/s/thinkprogress.org/amp/p/bd4acf3...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/thinkprogress.org/amp/p/bd4acf3264d?client=safari)

~~~
masklinn
And his cabinet is by and large anti-everything-which-is-not-fossil-fuels.

~~~
LyndsySimon
I was of the understanding that he was pro-nuclear.

~~~
helthanatos
Nuclear is very good for the environment as long as it's done right. Besides
the initial building costs and maintenance, it is a much better deal than most
other ways.

------
epaulson
Whitehouse.gov was archived to
[https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/](https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/)
at noon. It looks like they've done a reasonable job with redirects from old
URLs to the archives sites. (Hopefully forever)

Not quite the mantra of 'Cool URLs don't change', but a reasonable compromise
for making something that the non-technical public can understand.

~~~
masklinn
Some of the documents are missing though, the cabinet's exit memos are gone:
[https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/administration/cabinet/...](https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/administration/cabinet/exit-
memos)

~~~
takeda
Maybe they were still restoring the data at that time? Few links that I
clicked on that page worked for me.

------
colept
As someone who lives in South Florida it's bad enough we have to deal with
Rick Scott denying rising sea tides in his own back yard.

Now we're up against a POTUS who denies the disaster we will face in twenty
years yet owns property in the afflicted area (North Miami Beach - Trump
Towers). As I watch the city raise the sidewalks and roads by a foot I'm
astounded. I've lived here for three years and since I got here every major
roadway has been under construction - installing pumps to return flood water
back to the bay. When I first arrived, you couldn't cross the street without
steeping ankle deep into water and it's getting better. But pumps were only
installed in key areas that affected the Mayor's and his friends' commercial
properties.

I cannot buy property here because to do so would be a huge mistake
considering what is now beach front will be underwater unless something is
done about it.

~~~
copperred
Twenty years?

~~~
jwatte
Global temperature will rise enough to disrupt the global food supply
somewhere between 20 and 50 years from now. The catastrophe will be seen in
famine and war over resources, not in higher flood insurance cost and taxes to
pay for levees.

------
blhack
EVERYTHING has been scrubbed from the site, it would appear, because there is
a new administration taking over.

~~~
masklinn
It was quite surprising as I deref'd a link to the Obama administration's exit
memos at just that point, but the site is apparently archived at
[https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/](https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/)
(though not entirely, the page linking to the exit memos is there[0] but the
link is dead)

[0]
[https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/administration/cabinet/](https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/administration/cabinet/)

------
BurningFrog
Some reports even claim that President Obama himself has been replaced by a
completely different person!

------
jandrese
I said it on election day and I'll say it again. Sorry kids, we fucked up.
Making billionaires even richer is more important than keeping the Earth
livable. Trump doesn't care, he'll be dead before the ice caps finish melting
and we start seeing just how badly we're screwed. All that matters in the big
race is winning, and winning is measured in dollars.

~~~
newsat13
This has nothing to do with Trump or the election though. Mankind is screwing
up in general and having some text on whitehouse site is not going to change
it.

Look at the startup scene. It's all about convenience (ignoring the massive
amount of wasted resources), social media is all about endless narcissism and
then we have everything handed out free by mining your data. All this is not
going to change. All this mindless self-gratifying churn is what worsens the
climate.

~~~
burkaman
Really, Rick Perry and Scott Pruitt have nothing to do with Trump or the
election? "eliminating harmful and unnecessary policies such as the Climate
Action Plan" and "reviving America’s coal industry" have nothing to do with
Trump and the election?

[https://www.whitehouse.gov/america-first-
energy](https://www.whitehouse.gov/america-first-energy)

~~~
newsat13
If anything it just worsens the climate faster than the current rate. Climate
is going down regardless of who is in power.

------
finid
Every paragraph on that page scares the heck out of me.

Take these two:

 _President Trump is committed to eliminating harmful and unnecessary policies
such as the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the U.S. rule._

 _The Trump Administration is also committed to clean coal technology, and to
reviving America’s coal industry, which has been hurting for too long._

May God help America!

------
woofyman
He said it was a hoax. But we were told to take him seriously not literally.

------
aburan28
Why Is this flagged Mods? This pattern of flagging political stories is
totally against what the Ycombinator community stands for

------
mempko
If car exhaust isn't harmful to people and the planet, close the White House
windows and pump that shit in cowboy!

------
iklos55
Why is that link flagged?

~~~
grzm
I suspect the HN members who've done so believe that the resulting discussion
would produce more flames than illumination.

