Category Archives: Environment

Dunno why I am surprised by this. This administration has done this basic action again and again over the last 6 years. But there’s something about this one that seems more arrogant than the others. And more frustrating.

As reported by the New York Times, the Bush administration has basically forbidden government scientists and employees of the Fish and Wildlife Service from discussing issues regarding global warming:

Internal memorandums circulated in the Alaskan division of the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service appear to require government biologists or other employees traveling in countries around the Arctic not to discuss climate change, polar bears or sea ice if they are not designated to do so.

But the Bush administration decided this isn’t Draconian enough:

“Please be advised that all foreign travel requests (SF 1175
requests) and any future travel requests involving or potentially
involving climate change, sea ice and/or polar bears will also require
a memorandum from the regional director to the director indicating
who’ll be the official spokesman on the trip and the one responding to
questions on these issues, particularly polar bears.

For the past five years, the Bush administration got away with distorting facts about the effects of global warming. In less than a month, the Democratic congress is already tearing through the deceptions and holding the Bush administration over the coals:

Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) blasted the alleged political meddling, calling it “George Orwell at its best.”At the hearing, several witnesses testified that they had experienced or seen political interference by the Bush administration in climate-change science. Witnesses said press officers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies had manipulated or obstructed media interviews with government scientists. Witnesses also said that important research on global warming had been downplayed, edited or suppressed by a system of “minders” and “gatekeepers.”

Unfortunately, I think that a lot of damage has already been done. There are already a number of people who have bought into the administration’s deceptions and now don’t believe global warming is real. These people will not listen to scientific studies, but instead put their full faith in what the government says.