Bush ‘distorted’ climate change reports
Bush ‘distorted’ climate change reports
By Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington and Fiona Harvey in London
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Published: January 31 2007 01:39 | Last updated: January 31 2007 01:39
The Bush administration has routinely suppressed or distorted communication of climate change science to the public, a climate specialist at Nasa’s Goddard Institute said on Tuesday.
The accusation, before the chief oversight committee in the House of Representatives, was reinforced by claims by Democratic lawmakers that the White House was withholding documents proving that Philip Cooney, a former Bush administration official who now works as a lobbyist for ExxonMobil, regularly edited climate reports for political reasons.
“We know that the White House possesses documents that contain evidence of an attempt by senior administration officials to mislead the public by injecting doubt into the science of global warming and minimising the potential dangers,” said Henry Waxman, the Democratic chairman of the oversight committee.
In one instance of political interference described by Drew Shindell, the Nasa specialist, a press release he drafted in 2004 about future warming in Antarctica was “repeatedly delayed, altered and watered down” by Nasa headquarters. After being told to soften the title of the proposed press release, officials altered the title of the document from “Cool Antarctica may warm rapidly this century” to “Scientists predict Antarctica climate changes”.
Rick Piltz, a former government official who co-ordinated and edited reports on climate change, said he resigned from his post in 2005 in protest against the Bush administration impeding communication on climate science and its implications.
Mr Piltz testified that the administration systematically attempted to “bury” a “national assessment” report that had been published during the Clinton administration that analysed the consequences of climate variability on the US.
He also accused Mr Cooney of editing reports that had already been drafted and approved by scientists in a way that added an “enhanced sense of scientific uncertainty about global warming”.
ExxonMobil said on Tuesday that Mr Cooney was not giving interviews.
The testimony risks embarrassing the Bush administration ahead of the release on Friday of a landmark report on climate change science that will say there is a 90 per cent certainty that human activity is changing the world’s climate and temperatures will rise by 3 degrees Celsius by 2100. It paints the most dramatic and comprehensive picture yet of a future of heatwaves, droughts and floods.
The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a scientific body convened by the United Nations, is based on research carried out over six years by more than 2,500 scientists.
The White House has been accused of attempting to weaken or change crucial wording on the state of climate science in this and previous IPCC reports, which form the basis of international climate change policy.
By Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington and Fiona Harvey in London
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Published: January 31 2007 01:39 | Last updated: January 31 2007 01:39
The Bush administration has routinely suppressed or distorted communication of climate change science to the public, a climate specialist at Nasa’s Goddard Institute said on Tuesday.
The accusation, before the chief oversight committee in the House of Representatives, was reinforced by claims by Democratic lawmakers that the White House was withholding documents proving that Philip Cooney, a former Bush administration official who now works as a lobbyist for ExxonMobil, regularly edited climate reports for political reasons.
“We know that the White House possesses documents that contain evidence of an attempt by senior administration officials to mislead the public by injecting doubt into the science of global warming and minimising the potential dangers,” said Henry Waxman, the Democratic chairman of the oversight committee.
In one instance of political interference described by Drew Shindell, the Nasa specialist, a press release he drafted in 2004 about future warming in Antarctica was “repeatedly delayed, altered and watered down” by Nasa headquarters. After being told to soften the title of the proposed press release, officials altered the title of the document from “Cool Antarctica may warm rapidly this century” to “Scientists predict Antarctica climate changes”.
Rick Piltz, a former government official who co-ordinated and edited reports on climate change, said he resigned from his post in 2005 in protest against the Bush administration impeding communication on climate science and its implications.
Mr Piltz testified that the administration systematically attempted to “bury” a “national assessment” report that had been published during the Clinton administration that analysed the consequences of climate variability on the US.
He also accused Mr Cooney of editing reports that had already been drafted and approved by scientists in a way that added an “enhanced sense of scientific uncertainty about global warming”.
ExxonMobil said on Tuesday that Mr Cooney was not giving interviews.
The testimony risks embarrassing the Bush administration ahead of the release on Friday of a landmark report on climate change science that will say there is a 90 per cent certainty that human activity is changing the world’s climate and temperatures will rise by 3 degrees Celsius by 2100. It paints the most dramatic and comprehensive picture yet of a future of heatwaves, droughts and floods.
The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a scientific body convened by the United Nations, is based on research carried out over six years by more than 2,500 scientists.
The White House has been accused of attempting to weaken or change crucial wording on the state of climate science in this and previous IPCC reports, which form the basis of international climate change policy.
posted by Carlos T Mock at 8:36 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home