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TechnoratiDemocrats Accuse White House of Cooking Climate-Change Testimony
WASHINGTON - The White House censored climate scientists and edited their testimony on global warming before Congress, Democrats charged Monday after a 16-month investigation into allegations of political interference with scientific inquiries.
The Bush administration was "particularly active in stifling discussions" of a potential link between climate change and the intensity of hurricanes, according to the findings in a draft report issued Monday by Democrats on the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Climate scientists are divided about whether the storms that hit the U.S. in 2004 and 2005 were part of a cyclical weather pattern or attributable to higher global temperatures.
The report said that after Hurricane Katrina, the administration steered journalists toward government scientists who discounted a link between climate change and increased hurricane intensity. It also accused staffers on the Senate Commerce Committee of influencing the public testimony of climate experts such as former National Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield.
"The White House exerted unusual control over the public statements of federal scientists on climate change issues," said the report, which acknowledges that there's no scientific consensus on whether global warming leads to stronger hurricanes.
The report also charges that the administration has engaged in a "systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policymakers and the public about the dangers of global warning."
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino called the report "rehashed rhetoric" and said that the Bush administration understands the "urgent challenge that is posed by climate change," a term the White House prefers to "global warming" because it doesn't suggest that human activity is responsible.
Perino said she was unaware of any attempts to downplay any scientific information that conflicted with the White House's politics.
House Republicans on the oversight committee dismissed the report as "seriously flawed" and complained in their own report that an investigation that began as a bipartisan effort into the presidential Council on Environmental Quality's role in climate-change policy "veered into a partisan diatribe against the Bush administration."
Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., defended the panel's findings and said that science should be above the influence of politics.
"When Congress and the public hear the testimony of a government scientist, they should have confidence that there is not a hidden agenda behind their description of the understanding of a scientific issue," Waxman said in an e-mail.
Republicans on the committee disputed the charge that the administration provided access only to government scientists who'd deny any connection between hurricane intensity and global warming.
They did say, however, that interviews with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration staffers made it clear that the administration wanted to present a "unified position" on the issue so as "not to pit government scientists against each other in the media."
They defended Mayfield, saying that such "respected scientists" were "demeaned as mere mouthpieces for the Bush administration and its supporters."
Mayfield on Monday denied that there was any interference in his testimony.
"I can truthfully say that no one told me at any time what to say in regard to possible impacts of climate change on tropical cyclones," Mayfield said in a statement.
The report also singles out an e-mail sent by a Commerce committee staffer for Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who oversaw NOAA's climate research when he chaired the committee.
The e-mail came from Tom Jones, who worked on the Disaster Prediction and Prevention subcommittee, then chaired by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.
In an e-mail to Noel Turner, a NOAA staffer who was writing a statement for Mayfield's upcoming committee testimony, Jones suggested that the hearing be used to discredit any link between hurricanes and global warming.
"We're going to work on smacking the s*** out of this issue," he wrote.
In his e-mail, Jones urged NOAA staffers to write phrases for Mayfield such as, "The individuals who are implying that Katrina has something to do with global warming are just plain wrong. They don't understand the science, and they're shamelessly trying to make political hay out of a national tragedy."
Turner told his colleagues at NOAA in an e-mail that he thought the suggested language wasn't something that Mayfield or the Commerce undersecretary would say, but "if we can get something close and quotable, that would probably be good."
Turner went on to write that the No. 1 priority for the hearing was to shift attention away from NOAA by "making FEMA look bad. Number two could be killing the climate change and hurricane issue."
In testimony to a House committee, Mayfield said that increased hurricane activity since 1995 was due to "natural fluctuations . . . and not enhanced substantially by global warming." He also said that "those who would link Hurricane Katrina to global warming just don't understand the science."
Stevens' current staffers on Monday distanced themselves from Jones.
"While this person is a staffer, he does not speak for the committee or Senator Stevens," said Commerce Committee spokesman Joe Brenckle.
Brenckle pointed out that as chairman of the Commerce Committee, the Alaska Republican established a subcommittee on climate change and has a long history of backing legislation and funding that promotes climate change research.
"In spite of any comments to the contrary, the Commerce committee will continue to approach climate change openly and honestly in the spirit of bipartisanship to form policies supported by sound science," Brenckle said.
On The Web
Read the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee report.
Read the Republicans' report.
Read Max Mayfield's statement.
© 2007 McClatchy Newspapers
15 Comments so far
Show AllLike ALL of the flags plastered upon the castle's parapets,
each of itself is but a slave to the common wind,
that aligns and binds them,
spouting forth from the "father's" nether regions
Namaste … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Mahatma Gandhi … … … … … … … … … …
« We must be the change we wish to see in the world »
« There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed »
ALEX LAWYER: You echo my sentiments & perceptions!
METAMORPH: When children are raised by right wing faith based types, their minds are so thoroughly brainwashed by the time they enter classrooms, that "reality based" versus "scripture" become irreconcilable "cognitive camps." A lot of these people thus home-school, or influence the local school boards to use curriculum or "values" that they support. Near where I reside, the local Christians didn't want any costumes for Halloween which they consider to be Pagan. An ingenious teacher came up with an evocative way to integrate the children's desire to dress up with a premise the Christians could countenance. The kids had to dress up as a character from a storybook they just read. Then they could parade in "literature's" costume.
One thing that hits me with the entire Bush coterie, including that juvenile yes-man imbecile Martin presiding over our access to information (away from the mega-corporate communication channels) is IF they truly believe their own lies? Having read John Dean's "insider scoop" on how these "authoritarian" automotons operate, one wonders IF they are capable of any original thought, or if it's only the matter of obtaining their positions in a hierarchy where FATHER (or fuhrer) always knows best.
THERE IS NOTHING complex about this issue. No need to be a rocket scientist.
1) Global warming is increasing the ocean temperature levels.
2) Hurricanes are fueled by warmer water. This is the reason Hurricane Season is not in the winter months. (Summer through Fall -- Fall because the warmer water temperatures, after the hot summer, take some time to cool down.)
3) If (1) and (2) are fact, then Global Warming is DEFINATELY FUELING increased Hurricane activity.
The average temperature increase caused by global warming could be similar to the average temperature increase from the fringe to the center of tropical latitudes, where the difference in hurricane activity is easily observed.
Also, the average temperature increase caused by global warming could be similar to the average temperature increase from the edge to the center of the hurricane season, when the difference in hurricane activity is likewise easily observed.
Wait gang, read the headline again. It's the Democrats who accuse the White House of lying.
We all know the Democrats are all liars. Well maybe one isn't. Take your pick there.
Anyway, since the Democrats are all liars, then the White House guys must be 'not liars'. Wow, and all this time I thought they were. Wrong again, ___ I hate it when that happens.
It is amazing how much effort goes into controlling scientific information that receives virtually no press and is soon forgotten.
Too bad the New Orleans levee condition report never garnered similar attention.
Oilmen have a hard time admitting that there is any damage done by human activity.
The War on Terror is misunderstood, the War on Drugs is now possibly going to be abandoned and the War on Science is being waged by the Republicans.
Read the book: The Republican War on Science
We need to educate better about science in K-12 and get people excited about these fields.
Union of Concerned Scientists has been around since the late 1960s and they are reliable and good group .
Imagine that! A government headed by two oilmen being less than candid about a trivial issue, involving as it does the survival of all life on earth, when corporate profits are at stake! And how could anyone imagine that our born-again, Jesus influenced, divinely guided President might utter something less than truthful! If the Supreme Court had not rescued us from the misguided majority's support of Ozone Man, we might have made some bad choices. The economy might be like it was in the Clinton-Gore days, we'd have neglected the opportunity to wage war on the Iraqi people, we wouldn't be showing suspected terrorists--and the rest of the world--who's boss by waterboarding and torturing them to death. Thank God for George W. Bush! Amen!
The United States of Exxon.
Go to Democracy Now and watch the whole Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. I guarantee
to you that the whole experience-- the two speeches, the music, the seriousness of the subject, the gull flying above the fjord through the windows, the beautiful women in the attentive audience including Uma Thurman and Liv Ullman, the personal drama involving the American election and Oliver of "Love Story"-- all of it taken together will be unlike any journalistic account you will ever watch or read.
This red herring keeps being brought up by the deniers, in a last ditch attempt to avoid losing the war they started. All weather is being influenced by global warming, because all weather depends on the energy in the atmosphere (http://www.blognow.com.au/mrpickwick/77576/Tomorrow_and_tomorrow_and_tomorrow.html). It is nonsense to debate whether a particular event is the result of global warming. Severe events happen, and have always happened, but they will gradually happen, on average, with greater intensity and with greater frequency. You would have to be very foolish indeed to think that Katrina wasn't affected by warmer temperatures.
This administration has lied about everything. Certainly, about science.
The Union of Concerned Scientists has a A-Z list of lies and distortions.
http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/interference/a-to-z-alphabetical.html\
Bush's favorite advisor on climate change was a science fiction writer (the operative word here is fiction) that agreed with his views.
"The White House censored climate scientists and edited their testimony on global warming before Congress, Democrats charged"
If that's how the Dems feel regarding a matter of grave, global importance, why not impeach?
Looks like 'fooled again' number 2. Shame on you.
NO!!! I can`t believe this story. Tell me it isn`t true. Does this mean we cannot fully trust our administration any more? Dana Perino would not tell us anything but the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, would she?
GLOBAL WARMING ARROGANCE
The US rejections of Kyoto, and now the Bali Conference, underscore the dangerous control that special interests exercise over this administration's policies. Their distortions of scientific data typifies their unconscionable war on science. Evidence linking carbon pollution to warming has long been as close to certain as science can be. Its causes, consequences, and mitigation requirements have been documented by many dedicated environmental organizations including The Union of Concerned Scientists.
Special interests argue that the current warming trends follow historic warming cycles, and hence reflect natural weather patterns--but they omit obvious differences: The earlier warming trends developed at slower rates which permitted the ecosystems to adapt. Morever they resulted from temporary natural events, which allowed transitions back to normal temperature patterns--by contrast, the current warming patterns result from artificial causes that will only intensify unless mitigated.
By all indicators, global warming will self perpetuate as the melting ice sheets absorb rather than reflect heat, as the melting permafrost releases more CO2 & methane, and the list goes on. Inundation of low lying areas, spread of tropical diseases to temperate latitudes, sea life destruction from changing ocean chemistry, & currents, are only some potential consequences.
Often overlooked is the fact that, the same measures needed to mitigate global warming would be necessary even if it were no issue. Conservation, alternative energy development, anti- pollution refinements, etc are essential for other vital environmental reforms such as air and water quality, reductions in toxic waste generation, land preservation, etc.
Contrary to right wing assertions, measures to reduce greenhouse gases could only improve our economy by lessening our trade deficits, and improving our security by reducing our dependance on foreign oil. We could also regain some of our lost world respect that has resulted from our rejection of Kyoto while arrogantly contributing disproportionally to carbon pollution. With our participation in international efforts, China & India could no longer use our non-compliance as an excuse for their non-participation.
The environmental and social damage from our indifference to carbon pollution can only worsen if we allow this administration, guided special interests, to continue their war against our planet.