Bush accused of censorship over global warming risk

The Independent (U.K.) ^ | 06/20/03 | Rupert Cornwell

[Pokey78]

The White House has again angered the green lobby by censoring and re-editing a government report to play down the threat of global warming and the contribution made to it by industrial and vehicle emissions.

The report was commissioned in 2001 by Christine Todd Whitman, the outgoing head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), whose two years in the job have seen a string of disputes between an increasingly disillusioned agency and the pro-business Bush administration.

It is due to appear next week but only after initial drafts were altered heavily by the White House, eliminating suggestions that human activities were at least partly responsible for climate change and warnings of the danger this could pose to health and ecosystems.

The final version omits references to a widely accepted 1999 study showing how sharply temperatures had risen over the previous decade, compared with the 1,000-year pattern. It cites a controversial later study, partly financed by the oil industry, which disputes these findings.

Ms Whitman, who steps down on 27 June, told The New York Times that despite the forced changes, she was "comfortable" with the outcome, saying the final report contained "a lot of really good information".

But environmental groups and some EPA officials do not agree. A National Wildlife Federation spokesman derided the report's "junk science". In a memorandum in April, EPA officials said that after the White House changes, the section on global warming "no longer represents the scientific consensus on climate change".

[buffyt]

Global warming and global cooling have been ocurring since the beginning of the earth. This is nothing new, and it is not caused by humans!

[Pontiac]

A National Wildlife Federation spokesman derided the report's "junk science".

Well they should be happy then. After all, Junk Science is their area of expertise.

EPA officials said that after the White House changes, the section on global warming "no longer represents the scientific consensus on climate change".

The “scientific consensus on climate change.” The lie perpetrated on the world by the Greens with the willing compliance of the leftist press.

[caisson71]

Pontiac, you've got Cadillac views. I agree with you 100% and wonder how some have drawn such definite conclusions on global warming from such dubious science.

[grapeape]

It amazes me that most people can't see the environmental movement as a tool to destroy the USA. It is so obvious. These people have been caught lying so many times and the press insists on taking them seriously.

[cwb]

Exactly! I keep thinking about the "In Search of" series with Leonard Nemoy and how one of their 1978 (I think) episodes was in search of the coming ice age. I still can't figure out how, when we more or less polluted with impunity, we were heading for an ice-age. And since then, with strict environmental controls and regulation, we're heading towards global warming. Things that make you go Hmmm.

[jdege]

The final version omits references to a widely accepted 1999 study showing how sharply temperatures had risen over the previous decade, compared with the 1,000-year pattern. It cites a controversial later study, partly financed by the oil industry, which disputes these findings.

"Widely accepted" by lunatic leftists, maybe.

[StringTheory]

If fact, we need to be increasing green house gasses. The facts show that we're comming up on another ice age.

[Jackson Brown]

"The environmental movement has been hijacked by political activists who are using environmental rhetoric to cloak agendas like class warfare and anti-corporatism that in fact have almost nothing to do with ecology." Patrick Moore, co-founder and former Director of Greenpeace International

[grapeape]

Put him in charge..

[buffyt]

Not too many years ago the same group was screaming Global Cooling was coming. Bunch of hooey!

[buffyt]

In that case, I should get the car out and go for a spin tonight! teee heee I lived in LA (San Marino/suburb) 1988-1990. We lived there again in 1997 and all last year. Temperature always felt the same, didn't feel hotter last year than in 1988. It certainly isn't any hotter here on the Gulf (alligator infested) coast of Texas.

[thedugal]

Actually we are headed for global cooling. The next ice age is due but whether it arrives in 10 years or 1000 is up to mother nature. There will probably be a short period of global warming before the ice age, but certainly not because of man. The warming causes increased percipitation which leads to ice buildup.

Regardless of whether the earth warms or cools, one thing is for certain, we do not have the technology to significantly alter either even if we dedicated our entire energy production to the task. Stopping all fossil fuel use tomorrow would have about as much effect as pissing in the ocean.