> NASA expert: White House stifles global warming data
>
> IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) -- The Bush administration is
> trying to stifle
> scientific evidence of the dangers of global warming
> in an effort to
> keep the public uninformed, a NASA scientist said
> Tuesday night.
>
> "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 is
> now," James E. Hansen told a University of Iowa
> audience.
>
> Hansen is director of the NASA Goddard Institute for
> Space Studies in
> New York and has twice briefed a task force headed
> by Vice President
> Dick Cheney on global warming.
>
> Hansen said the administration wants to hear only
> scientific results
> that "fit predetermined, inflexible positions."
> Evidence that would
> raise concerns about the dangers of climate change
> is often dismissed
> as not being of sufficient interest to the public.
>
> "This, I believe, is a recipe for environmental
> disaster."
>
> Hansen said the scientific community generally
> agrees that
> temperatures on Earth are rising because of the
> greenhouse effect --
> emissions of carbon dioxide and other materials into
> the atmosphere
> that trap heat.
>
> These rising temperatures, scientists believe, could
> cause sea levels
> to rise and trigger severe environmental
> consequences, he said.
>
> Hansen said such warnings are consistently
> suppressed, while studies
> that cast doubt on such interpretations receive
> favorable treatment
> from the administration.
>
> He also said reports that outline potential dangers
> of global warming
> are edited to make the problem appear less serious.
> "This process is
> in direct opposition to the most fundamental
> precepts of science," he
> said.
>
> White House science adviser John H. Marburger III
> has denied charges
> that the administration refuses to accept the
> reality of climate
> change, noting that President Bush pointed out in a
> 2001 speech that
> greenhouse gases have increased substantially in the
> past 200 years.
>
> Last December, the administration said it was
> planning a five-year
> program to research global warming and climate
> change.
>
> Hansen said he was speaking as a private citizen,
> not as a government
> employee, and paid his own way for the Iowa
> appearance. He described
> himself as moderately conservative, but said he will
> vote for John
> Kerry in the presidential election.
>
> "He certainly is not in denial of the existence of
> climate change
> problems," Hansen said.
>
>
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/10/27/global.warming.ap/
>
>



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