ADMINISTRATION ALTERS SCIENTIFIC REPORTS

President Bush's last State of the Union address will be remembered for the words Addicted to Oil, but just as remarkable was the absolute lack of any reference to global warming, or even the administration's preferred euphemism, climate change. The omission was no mistake. Ever since taking office and promptly reversing a campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, President Bush has been consistent in his disdain for the science on climate change. Indeed, at times that disdain has bordered on outright hostility.

When asked by a reporter about the EPA's Climate Action Report 2002 - a report that acknowledged the reality of global warming - a visibly miffed Mr. Bush replied, I read the report put out by the bureaucracy.

The statement was dripping with contempt, but Mr. Bush himself has appointed any number of bureaucrats to meddle with the science he finds so threatening. For starters, there was oil lobbyist Philip Cooney - former White House staff, now with ExxonMobil - who, despite not having any scientific training, saw fit to edit government climate research so as to heighten any uncertainties and soften conclusions.

More recently, there was 24-year-old Bush appointee George Deutsch, erstwhile public affairs official at NASA, who threatened the space agency's top climate scientist James Hansen with dire consequences if he didn't tone down public comments on global warming. He also tried to keep Hansen from talking to NPR, calling it the country's most liberal media outlet. Deutsch, who worked for Bush's re-election campaign, resigned from NASA not long after Hansen went public with the news. It seems the young man's resume contained certain untruths, like the assertion that he actually graduated from college.

The story about Dr. Hansen's muzzling ran on the front page of the New York Times on January 29, 2006, just two days before the president delivered his climate-free remarks to the nation. To his credit, Dr. Hansen has continued to speak plainly, warning that we are fast approaching a point of no return when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions. He recently told reporters that he felt compelled to say what he knows. "The point I made to my boss and his boss is, we're not doing our job if we don't make clear this information. Not every scientist is in a position to look at this picture and feel that we have some understanding of it, from the emissions to the end consequences, and it would be inappropriate to not make that clear."

Source: Sierra Club Compass, March 1, 2006

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