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Rewriting Environmental Science

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the more-reasons-to-privatize dept.

Aqua OS X writes to tell us CBS News is reporting that government scientist James Hansen recently spoke out against the White House in an appearance on 60 Minutes. From the article: "Hansen is arguably the world's leading researcher on global warming. He's the head of NASA's top institute studying the climate. But this imminent scientist tells correspondent Scott Pelley that the Bush administration is restricting who he can talk to and editing what he can say. Politicians, he says, are rewriting the science."

3 of 500 comments (clear)

  1. Video of 60 Minutes Report by ortcutt · · Score: 4, Informative
    Windows Media

    Quicktime

  2. Re:Video of 60 Minutes Report - Link Here by ortcutt · · Score: 4, Informative

    The links above don't work. Go here instead and click on the links.

  3. Some notable quotes and comments from the article by Beryllium+Sphere(tm) · · Score: 5, Informative
    You can't spin this as a liberal versus conservative thing, this is science versus politics:
    Politically, Hansen calls himself an independent and he's had trouble with both parties. He says, from time to time, the Clinton administration wanted to hear warming was worse that it was. But Hansen refused to spin the science that way.
    The Clinton administration, however, didn't go so far as to muzzle the scientist:
    "In my more than three decades in the government I've never witnessed such restrictions on the ability of scientists to communicate with the public."
    One of the worst ways to interfere with communications is to put words in someone's mouth. The article says that before Hansen's reports were published the Council on Environmental Quality's chief of staff would rewrite them. What credentials did the chief of staff have for changing the work of a climatologist? He used to be a lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute. He's at Exxon Mobil now.

    The other important, if not newsworthy, quote was

    "Even to raise issues internally is immediately career limiting," says Piltz. "That's why you will find not too many people in the federal agencies who will speak freely about all the things they know, unless they're retired or unless they're ready to resign."
    An organization with a culture like that might be right about something someday, but only by coincidence.