US Climate Science Reduced to a 'Pack o Lies'
reposted | 14.05.2007 17:31 | Ecology
by Don Beck
"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
"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"
said 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 scientific facts that you are not hearing in
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 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 many, many 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)
Here is actually the way the Pentagon now feels about climate change: "Even the pentagon,
instrument of Bush's destruction, is worried, telling Bush that climate change will destroy us.
In a secret report they have warned Bush of ensuing rioting and nuclear war, stating that
Britain will be as cold as Siberia in less than 20 years. The Pentagon document predicts
that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries use
nuclear weapons to defend and secure dwindling food, water, and energy supplies. The threat
to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to the report's
contents."(9)
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 Constructive Tomorrow
These groups are made up of non-scientific, non-believers in man-made global climate
change, of course. They spew out fraudulent and misleading articles designed to make
the public question the real science.(10)
These 'contrarians' have been very successful in making the public question science of
any kind. You may have noticed that a report of a scientific study is published, and a
few weeks 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 '50s 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. They have not noticed much of a change in climate at all. They don't
understand that the CO2 will be increasing, and it remains in the atmosphere for hundreds
of years.
The worst effect we have seen that is unquestionably a result of the warming is the melting
of the glaciers and the polar caps. Along with the likely increase in hurricane strength and
a 50% reduction of the coral reefs in the Cayman Islands, it still sounds very far off in the
future. And that is devastating, facing the fact that if the world does not act by 2015 to reduce
CO2, we will likely hit a point of no return where very powerful feedback systems kick in that
will make it impossible to stop very dramatic climate change.
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 4 AM.
'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 a while 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.
No rights reserved
*****************
References:
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) Arctic Region As Global Warming Barometer, AFP
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Arctic_Region_As_Global_Warming_Barometer_999.html
3) World's sea levels 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 Scientist Barred from Mentioning ‘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) The People's Voice, Mission Statement,
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/index.php/Mission
10) Scientists' Report Documents ExxonMobil’s Tobacco-like Disinformation Campaign on
Global Warming Science, 1/3/07
http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/ExxonMobil-GlobalWarming-tobacco.html
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"
said 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 scientific facts that you are not hearing in
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 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 many, many 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)
Here is actually the way the Pentagon now feels about climate change: "Even the pentagon,
instrument of Bush's destruction, is worried, telling Bush that climate change will destroy us.
In a secret report they have warned Bush of ensuing rioting and nuclear war, stating that
Britain will be as cold as Siberia in less than 20 years. The Pentagon document predicts
that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries use
nuclear weapons to defend and secure dwindling food, water, and energy supplies. The threat
to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to the report's
contents."(9)
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 Constructive Tomorrow
These groups are made up of non-scientific, non-believers in man-made global climate
change, of course. They spew out fraudulent and misleading articles designed to make
the public question the real science.(10)
These 'contrarians' have been very successful in making the public question science of
any kind. You may have noticed that a report of a scientific study is published, and a
few weeks 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 '50s 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. They have not noticed much of a change in climate at all. They don't
understand that the CO2 will be increasing, and it remains in the atmosphere for hundreds
of years.
The worst effect we have seen that is unquestionably a result of the warming is the melting
of the glaciers and the polar caps. Along with the likely increase in hurricane strength and
a 50% reduction of the coral reefs in the Cayman Islands, it still sounds very far off in the
future. And that is devastating, facing the fact that if the world does not act by 2015 to reduce
CO2, we will likely hit a point of no return where very powerful feedback systems kick in that
will make it impossible to stop very dramatic climate change.
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 4 AM.
'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 a while 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.
No rights reserved
*****************
References:
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) Arctic Region As Global Warming Barometer, AFP
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Arctic_Region_As_Global_Warming_Barometer_999.html 3) World's sea levels 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 Scientist Barred from Mentioning ‘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) The People's Voice, Mission Statement,
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/index.php/Mission 10) Scientists' Report Documents ExxonMobil’s Tobacco-like Disinformation Campaign on
Global Warming Science, 1/3/07
http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/ExxonMobil-GlobalWarming-tobacco.html
reposted
Comments
Display the following comment