White House hides facts about risks to children's health

The Trump administration has rejected language from the EPA warning that children are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

The shameless move comes as Republicans across the country are working hard to undermine the overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is real and man-made, and that it will have catastrophic effects on human society.

Reviewing the EPA’s proposed language for a rule governing heat-trapped chemicals, the White House scrubbed key passages that made it clear children face an outsized danger from climate change, E&E News reports.

The EPA proposal itself wasn’t exactly friendly to the environment. It cut back on an Obama-era EPA rule that was designed to reduce dangerous chemical leaks from air-conditioning and refrigeration appliances.

But the draft of the rule still contained text admitting that the dangers of climate change are especially acute for vulnerable populations.

“Certain populations and life stages, including children, the elderly and the poor, are most vulnerable to climate-related health effects,” the draft text stated. “Impacts to children are expected from heat waves, air pollution, infectious and waterborne illnesses, and mental health effects resulting from extreme weather events.”

But that language did not survive the White House review.

This isn’t the first time that the Trump White has cut language related to climate change from an EPA rule, E&E News reports. Earlier this year, the White House scrubbed references to climate change from the agency’s proposed replacement for the Clean Power Plan.

That EPA proposal stated that greenhouse gas emissions were worsening climate change and endangering public health.

For years, Trump has promoted wild conspiracy theories that climate change is a “hoax,” and even claimed it was invented by the Chinese as a way to hinder U.S. manufacturing.

In June, newly released emails indicated the EPA had been quietly working with climate change deniers at a conservative think tank to discredit the agreed-upon science on the issue.

The EPA was teaming up with the Heartland Institute, which is backed by the billionaire Koch brothers. The Heartland Institute is dedicated to waging an aggressive disinformation campaign about the peer-reviewed science showing that human-caused climate change is an urgent matter.

The emails also showed EPA staffers contacting the right-wing think tank to rally activists around Trump’s rollback of the Obama-era Clean Power Plan.

Climate deniers in the White House don’t have the facts on their side — so they’re trying to use censorship to make sure the truth doesn’t get out.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.