密歇根新闻广播 研究人员发现政府官网篡改环境数据

Some government websites are changing what they say about the environment, and a group of researchers is keeping track. Researchers in the U.S. and Canada are continuing to back up scientific data from federal agencies in the U.S.

They're also keeping a close eye on how information is changing on federal websites like the EPA, the State Department and the Department of Energy, along with other federal agency sites, and they've been finding changes are happening.

One of the groups heading up this effort is called the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative.

EDGI regularly releases reports with updates on its findings. The group's most recent report focused on a part of the Government Accountability Office website about the management of federal oil and gas resources.

Toly Rinberg is a member of the group's website tracking committee.

"This change happened a few weeks ago, and we've seen paragraphs - introductory paragraphs - that now focus more on job creation and economic benefits of oil and gas production, and we've seen removal of sections on environmental and public health risks of shale¹ and oil and natural gas production," he says.

He says EDGI submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the GAO about these changes.

The report states that the group received this response from the GAO: "We have no records responsive to your request. Please be advised that the key issues page is periodically updated to reflect recent GAO work. As an agency responsible to the Congress, GAO is not subject to FOIA. However, GAO's disclosure policy follows the spirit of the act consistent with GAO's duties and functions as an agency with primary responsibility to the Congress."

Rinberg says every two years, the GAO writes a report on its high risk programs.

"So this isn't a surprising thing necessarily," Rinberg says. "I want to emphasize that it's not like we caught the Government Accountability Office or something like that, that's not our intent at all. We just believe that it's revealing and useful to compare the difference."

In an email, Chuck Young, managing director of the GAO's public affairs office, says these pages were changed because they updated their annual high risk list:

I can see why the group that issues this has a major disclaimer on their first page – they seem to have completely missed the expansion of oversight² of environmental issues. The pages were changed because we updated our annual High Risk List to show the Department of Interior has been backsliding from past reforms, using outdated³ policies and procedures, even in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon incident. Also, unlike most other federal agencies, GAO is in the legislative⁴ branch and works only for Congress, not for the White House.

EDGI's Toly Rinberg says that although the public can access millions of government websites, there are too many for the layperson to keep track of any changes. That's why EDGI uses software to do just that.

He says they're currently analyzing⁵ 25,000 government agency websites with that software, including EPA, DOE, NASA, NOAA, and others.

Once the software notes a change, an analyst⁶ decides whether it's significant.

"I think the value of us looking at the comparison and the difference between these pages allows someone to analyze⁷ that and say, you know, ‘what is the trend here?'" says Rinberg.

In addition to the changes to the GAO website, Rinberg says there have been recent significant shifts in tone when it comes to climate change across several government websites.

"We saw an EPA initiative that used to be called ‘Climate-Ready Water Utilities' now renamed to ‘Creating Resilient Water Utilities.' And from that page, all 19 mentions of the word ‘climate' were removed; replaced with terms like ‘extreme weather' or ‘resilient.'"

Rinberg says his group also found that mentions of greenhouse gas emissions⁸ had been eliminated from the website of the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.

1 shale   

n.页岩，泥板岩

参考例句：

• We can extract oil from shale.我们可以从页岩中提取石油。
• Most of the rock in this mountain is shale.这座山上大部分的岩石都是页岩。

2 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

3 outdated   

adj.旧式的，落伍的，过时的；v.使过时

参考例句：

• That list of addresses is outdated,many have changed.那个通讯录已经没用了，许多地址已经改了。
• Many of us conform to the outdated customs laid down by our forebears.我们许多人都遵循祖先立下的过时习俗。

4 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

5 analyzing   

v.分析；分析( analyze的现在分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析n.分析

参考例句：

• Analyzing the date of some socialist countries presents even greater problem s. 分析某些社会主义国家的统计数据，暴露出的问题甚至更大。 来自辞典例句
• He undoubtedly was not far off the mark in analyzing its predictions. 当然，他对其预测所作的分析倒也八九不离十。 来自辞典例句

6 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

7 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。

8 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。