In an email sent out on Thursday, USDA Director of Digital Communications Peter Rhee detailed the process, which required staff to “identify and archive or unpublish any landing pages focused on climate change” and “document it in a spreadsheet.”
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Website managers at the Agricultural Research Service received a separate email that emphasized the urgency of the request. Several websites went dark on Friday, including the United States Forest Service website. It has resources such as research and adaptation tools that provide vital vulnerability assessments for wildfires.
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Trump has repeatedly made claims denying and downplaying the impacts of climate change. His nominee for USDA Secretary, Brooke Rollins, has been described as a “climate skeptic,” sharing Trump’s denial of the reality of climate change. She advocated for the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and told participants at a right-wing energy conference that “we know the research of CO2 being a pollutant is just not valid.”