Scientists: Government doctored our climate work
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
BY J. SCOTT ORR
STAR-LEDGER WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- A leading scientist told a House committee yesterday that "political interference is harming federal science and threatening the health and safety of Americans," and the committee chairman said the Bush White House has been misleading the public on the dangers of global warming.

"Political interference with the work of federal scientists threatens the quality and integrity of (federal) policies," said Francesca Grifo, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' Scientific Integrity Program.



According to a UCS survey whose findings were presented to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, more than 40 percent of the 279 scientists who responded said their work had been edited to more closely reflect the administration's position on climate change.

"No scientist should ever encounter any of the various types of political interference described in our survey questions," Grifo told the committee, which is looking at the government's response to climate change.

The panel chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), said he has seen evidence the administration has been trying to mislead the public on global warming.

"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 minimizing the potential dangers," he said.

Waxman demanded that the documents be turned over to his committee. He said he has been rebuffed in his efforts so far.

"The committee isn't trying to obtain state secrets or documents that could affect our immediate national security. We are simply seeking answers to whether the White House's political staff is inappropriately censoring impartial government scientists," he said.

Most scientists believe global warming is caused by greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide from vehicles and industrial sources, that keep heat from the sun trapped in the atmosphere.

President Bush acknowledged the existence of climate change in his Jan. 23 State of the Union address, though he did not use the term "global warming."

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His administration has rejected proposals to place new restrictions on greenhouse gases, calling the measures too costly.

According to the report issued yesterday by the UCS and the Government Accountability Project, 46 percent of respondents said they were pressured to eliminate the words "climate change," "global warming" or similar terms from communications, and 43 percent said their work was edited or otherwise altered in a way that changed their findings.


Thirty-seven percent of respondents said government officials misrepresented their findings, and 25 percent said they had seen scientists object to or remove themselves from projects because of pressure to change scientific findings.

The survey also found that the scientists who reported the most interference were those working on the most politically sensitive issues: 78 percent of researchers dealing with controversial topics like global warming reported inappropriate interference. Twenty-seven percent of that group experienced such incidents six or more times in the past five years.

In all, the survey contacted more than 1,600 scientists from seven federal agencies. Less than a fifth of them responded.


'OVERARCHING' PROBLEM

Rick Piltz, director of climate science at the Government Accountability Project, worked on climate research projects for years alongside scientists from several federal agencies that produced, among other things, mandated annual reports to Congress on climate change. He quit the program in protest in 2005.

"I came to the conclusion that politicization of climate science communication by the current administration was undermining the credibility and integrity of the (program) in its relationship to the research community, to program managers, to policymakers, and to the public interest," he told the committee yesterday.

In a parting memo to the program, Piltz cited one "overarching" problem: "that the administration was acting to impede forthright communication of the state of climate science and its implications for society."

Last month, experts from both sides of the debate over climate change told a Senate panel that research should not be suppressed or edited to meet political goals.

During that session, scientists were asked specifically about research by meteorologist Richard Wetherald of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration branch lab near Princeton, who said his work was hushed because it contradicted the administration position on global warming.

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Wetherald and several of his colleagues at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Plainsboro found that intense weather events, such as droughts and floods, are probably on the increase and some recent global climate changes may be irreversible.

Wetherald said yesterday he was not surprised by the results of the UCS report.


"I would've been surprised if the results were different," he said. "The reason I'm not surprised is because I know what my own experience has been. I haven't had trouble with NOAA administration itself. It seemed to occur at a higher level, at the Department of Commerce.

"Our labs are federally funded, meaning they're publicly funded by taxpayers. They pay for our machines, for our experiments, and I feel strongly that the public has a right to know about our research. That's been the most upsetting thing for all of us. But I have hope now things will change.

"We've gone through rough times. It hasn't been easy. This (global warming) is not a popular subject with this administration. ... I hope this will make a difference.

"At least the Bush administration now acknowledges climate change. They didn't for five years."

The hearing came just three days before the expected release of a U.N. report on climate change that is expected to confirm what most scientists believe, that global warming is continuing and that humans are to blame.



Staff writer Amy Ellis Nutt contributed to this report. J. Scott Orr may be reached at sorr@starledger.com.

Galileo the astronomer and physicist told the Pope of the Roman Catholoc Church in the 16th Century that the earth was not the center of our solar system and that this planet revolved around our closest star. The Pope made Galileo recant his scientific discoveries under the pain of excummunication from the church. The church said the earth was the center of our solar system despite scientific fact that proved other wise.


Centuries later the President of the United States George W. Bush for five years has called global warming 'speculative musings' and 150 U.S. climate scientists have had their scientific research on global warming repressed by the leader of the free world. It's as if we were living in a past that based reality on beliefs instead of scientific research.


This week the U.N. will speak to the world and declare global warming to be factual occuring at an accelerated rate.

E-mails Suggest That Administration Stopped Global Warming Interview
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/20/2006 12:54:00 PM
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Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif) has internal Commerce Department e-mails that suggest the administration was keeping a government scientist who did not toe the line on the administration's view of global warming and hurricanes from appearing on CNBC.

CNBC had, in October 2005, asked for an interview with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Scientist Tom Knutson on whether global warming was contributing to the number or intensity of hurricanes. NOAA is under the Department of Commerce.


In a letter to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, Waxman cites an e-mail in which a Commerce press officer, after learning that Knutson believes there is some connection between the two,responds to the interview request--forwarded from the NOAA--by asking "why can't we have one of the other guys, then."

Knutson told the Wall Street Journal in February of 2006 that he had felt censored by the administration for his view, says Waxman, while the administration said it did not censor its scientists. The interview request was ultimately denied.

"If accurate, this e-mail exchange appears to be an example of press officials in the Department of Commerce blocking federal scientists from discussing their research with the news media."

Waxman has asked for all internal documents relating the the government's position on global warming, and for an explanation of how Commerce decides which scientists get to speak with the press on the issue.

A Commerce Department spokesman had not returned a call for comment at press time.