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US Climate Science Turned Into a 'Pack o Lies'
by Don Beck - 5.6.07
"It seems more like Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union than the United States"
~ Dr. James Hansen, NASA climatologist
Keep the facts of global warming away from the American people...
they can't handle the truth.
That is the message we are getting from this Administration who have placed political appointees to head key agencies in order to
filter and even alter the scientific facts.
In February, the leading climatologist at NASA, Dr. James Hansen testified to a
congressional committee in a hearing looking into the Bush Administration's interference
with scientific reports and information getting out to the public.
Dr. Hansen stated, "In my more than three decades in government,
I have never seen anything approaching the degree to which information flow from scientists to the public
has been screened and controlled as it has now."
He also said "The effect of the filtering of climate change science during the current
Administration has been to make the reality of climate change less certain than the facts
indicate and to reduce concern about the relation of climate change to human-made
greenhouse gas emissions." (1)
In his testimony he told of how these non-scientist appointees would meet with him
personally to discuss changes in his speeches, testimony, and press releases,
so that there would be no paper or email trail of the suppression.
The scientific facts that Dr. Hansen was referring to are data that show that the scientist's
predictions and projections all have proven to be too low, and the scientists are very worried.
...the change "is happening so extremely fast, much much faster than we have seen
in thousands and thousands of years",
says Rasmus Hansson of the World Wide Fund for Nature(WWF). (2)
"...the climate system is changing as fast or even faster than expected by past IPCCs".
~ David Parker at the Hadley Centre for Climate Change Research in Exeter (3)
[For 23 more quotes of research scientists from around the world with links to the reports,
please see reference (4). Just read the titles of these reports if nothing else.
They are a collection of facts that you are not hearing in the US media.]
It is the many reports like these from the people gathering the data,
not modeling,
that brought about such an emphatic and dire report from the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC).
New restrictions on scientific material -
Apparently the oversight committee has done little to solve this horrific situation of
keeping the truth from the public, because on March 29, 2007, the Commerce Department
posted a new administrative order governing "Public Communications"
as reported by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER),
a government watch-dog organization. (5)
Ocean and climate scientists working for the US Government cannot write or speak
to the press
or to the public about their research...
not even on their own time as citizens...without getting approval
if the subject is deemed 'of official interest'.
Global warming, climate change, the Kyoto Protocol are all on the list.
"It seems more like Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union than the United States",
Dr. Hansen said last year of the interference the scientists were encountering
up to that time. (6)
We must wonder what his feelings are now, about the new suppression.
But then, I would guess that this issue is probably 'of official interest'.
PEER broke the story of the new rules on their website April 3, 2007.
"This ridiculous gag order ignores the First Amendment and disrespects the
world-renowned professionals who work within Commerce agencies",
stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch.
"Under this policy, National Weather Service scientists can only give out name,
rank, serial number and the temperature." (4)
A survey of climate scientists conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)
found that 150 federal climate scientists said they had encountered interference by
political appointees in 435 separate instances. (7)
Think of this as 435 details or facts about what is happening in the atmosphere
and oceans that you don't know about but should.
Astonishingly, these appointees have even changed the Mission Statement of NASA.
It used to be "to understand and protect our home planet".
It now reads,
"to pioneer the future in space exploration,
scientific discovery and aeronautics research". (8)
Besides the truth about our climate being held back from the public by our own government,
there is also a cadre of skeptics in organizations such as the American Enterprise Institute
who are writing and making films about human induced
global warming being a lie...
all the while being funded by oil companies and energy giants like ExxonMobile.
ExxonMobile alone has given over $15 Million to 43 organizations with names like:
Annapolis Center for Science-Based Public Policy
Committee for a Conservative Tomorrow
These groups are made up of non-scientific, non-believers in man-made global climate change,
of course. They spew fraudulent and misleading articles designed to make the public question
the real science. (9)
These 'contrarians' have been very successful in making the public question science
of any kind.
You may have noticed that report of a scientific study is published,
and a few days later another report, of another study,
is published that says just the opposite.
I have seen it dozens and dozens of times. This has had the effect that any scientific material
is now questioned by the public, and it was begun by the tobacco industry back in the 50's
when they were confronted with mounting evidence that smoking caused cancer.
This is what they had to do.
Americans are not even at the point of considering whether they will purchase a green car of
some sort. And that is devastating, facing the fact that if the world does not act by 2015 to
reduce CO2, we'll likely hit a point of no return where very powerful feedback systems kick in
that will make it impossible to stop the warming.
Even PBS ?
Even the Public Broadcasting System is stifling scientific news.
They are keeping the science show "The Eyes of Nye" out of prime time....
WAY out of prime time. It airs here at 4am.
'Bill Nye the Science Guy' has been reporting on the effects of global warming and the dangers
of nuclear power plants.
Now that the fox (oily Bush Admin. officials) is guarding the hen house,
and the press is holding back on distributing news reports about climate change (4),
it will be awhile before anything substantial is done to slow global warming because
the American people are not demanding it...
since they don't know how dire the situation is.
Those who know that the effects will be steadily accelerating for at least a century,
and this planet's climate and oceans will change greatly, wonder how these people can be
so cold, and go to such great lengths to keep the public un-informed.
But of course, they are extremely worried about the possibility of litigation.
They need to be able to create enough doubt about the causes of climate change to
keep a judge from ordering them to change and spend some of their mega-profits
on alternative energy.
Since India and China are not willing to change their development plans as yet,
the energy giants don't feel a need to do anything drastic.
This is truly a nightmarish situation of monstrous proportion.
Europeans are much more knowledgeable about global warming,
and it is essential that the American public becomes aware of the truth.
Please help by sending or posting this everywhere you can.
(1) Testimony by James Hansen: Political Interference with Government Climate Change Science
March 19, 2007, Source: House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=23642
(2) Artic Region As Global Warming Barometer, AFP
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Arctic_Region_As_Global_Warming_Barometer_999.html
(3) World's sea level rising at accelerating rate, The Guardian
http://www.environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2004718,00.html
(4) Why the recent Climate Report was so Harsh, New York City Indymedia, 4/7/07
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2007/04/85020.shtml
(5) CLIMATE AND OCEAN SCIENTISTS PUT UNDER NEW SPEECH RESTRAINTS
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=841
(6) NOAA Scientists Barred from Mentoring ' Kyoto' and 'Climate Change'
Rocky Mountain News, 12/11/06
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5205550,00.html
(7) UCS Written Testimony to Committee on Oversight and Gov't Reform, 1/30/07
http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20070130113153-55829.pdf
(8) Earth dropped from NASA mission statement, 7/24/06
http://www.physorg.com/news72971590.html
(9) Scientists' Report Documents ExxonMobile's Tobacco-like Disinformation Campaign on Global Warming Science, 1/3/07 http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/ExxonMobil-GlobalWarming-tobacco.html
@ 5.10.07
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