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Congress Hears From Muzzled Scientists
BendingSpoons writes "More than 120 scientists across seven federal agencies have been pressured to remove the phrases 'global warming' and 'climate change' from various documents. The documents include press releases and, more importantly, communications with Congress. Evidence of this sort of political interference has been largely anecdotal to date, but is now detailed in a new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held hearings on this issue Tuesday; the hearing began by Committee members, including most Republicans, stating that global warming is happening and greenhouse gas emissions from human activity are largely to blame. The OGR hearings presage a landmark moment in climate change research: the release of the 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The IPCC report, drafted by 1,250 scientists and reviewed by an additional 2,500 scientists, is expected to state that 'there is a 90% chance humans are responsible for climate change' — up from the 2001 report's 66% chance. It probably won't make for comfortable bedtime reading; 'The future is bleak', said scientists."
And I get tired of all these stupid Republicans who think that predicting the weather has anything to do with prediciting the climate.
Got flame baited the first time, so here we go again: Three Points
Point 1: You do research on the federal doll, you do the work you were asked to do not choose your research to vent your personal opinions and unrelated suppositions.
Point 2: Scientists (especially climatologists) have been predicting that the sky will fall pretty regularly for the last half-century and most of their predictions have been incorrect. The Earth is a huge steady state equilibrium system with process that have kept is that way for a long time. Processes that scientists aren't even close to understanding in the short term much less over a millennium.
Point 3: (related to 2). Using the specific buzzwords/phrases that were censored is appropriate when they convey a meaning other than intended. Proving that human interference may directly cause changes to the environment does not mean that the Earth is going to dry up into a tsunami ridden dustbowl tomorrow. Using those specific "loaded" phrases will cause many non-scientists to think that way because of the way it has been portrayed in the press and by fringe scientists.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
It has a lot to do with the fact that the Republican Party is heavily supported by "Big Oil" and other industries. Being forced to reduce carbon emissions will cost these industries a lot of money- which they do not want to spend. Consequently, they, and the politicians they support, will do anything they can to prevent that from happening.
(assuming you're from the US) Because you live in a democracy where, in theory, the population chose their government.
(assuming you're from the US) Because, in theory, you live in a democracy.
fixed that for you.
yp.
AFAIK, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, the weather was considerably warmer. There must have been lots of vegetation, since those things had quite an appetite.
So, we get longer growing seasons, warmer weather, plenty of veggies, and this time, no dinos in the cafeteria lines. Humans shouldn't have any problem reproducing - people manage to do that in equatorial Africa, right now.
No doubt, scientists will eventually resurrect a dino from dna; they'll probably taste like chicken, and eventually degrade into more crude oil.
What's so bad about that?
In addition, I understand New York and LA would be underwater.
That's just a bonus.