Truth
Since it seems we're cutting and pasting, here's an article from the NYTimes, 6/8/05
Official altered reports on links to global warming U.S. climate research edited to downplay effects of greenhouse gases on environment
Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times
Wednesday, June 8, 2005
A White House official who once led the oil industry's fight against limits on greenhouse gases has repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that play down links between such emissions and global warming, according to internal documents.
In handwritten notes on drafts of several reports issued in 2002 and 2003, the official, Philip Cooney, removed or adjusted descriptions of climate research that government scientists and their supervisors, including some senior Bush administration officials, had already approved. In most cases, the changes appeared in the final reports.
The dozens of changes, while sometimes as subtle as the insertion of the phrase "significant and fundamental" before the word "uncertainties," tend to produce an air of doubt about findings that most climate experts say are robust.
Cooney is chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the office that helps devise and promote administration policies on environmental issues.
Before going to the White House in 2001, he was the "climate team leader" and a lobbyist at the American Petroleum Institute, the largest trade group representing the interests of the oil industry. A lawyer with a bachelor's degree in economics, he has no scientific training.
The documents were obtained by the New York Times from the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit legal-assistance group for government whistle-blowers.
My thoughts:
This is the administration's MO. To wit: FDA advisory panel suggest that the "morning after pill" is safe. In an "rare" move, the advisory panel's recommendation is ignored and this is sent back for further investigation. The EPA goes against an advisory panels recommendations on mercury levels, finding one scientist who feels that the case for a specific mercury level has not been made. The administration has all the answers, and they find people who will agree with them. Don't worry, trust them, they know better than those technocrats.
One wonders if this was the kind've thing that happened in the intelligence on Iraq before the war. We now know that this administration had decided before-hand that Saddam must go (Blair memo). Then it massages and slants the intelligence (Bolton, etc) shows it to everyone as the "objective intelligence" and says afterward, "Everyone saw the same intelligence as us, and came to the same conclusion." And so, we have lost over 1000 young American lives, over 25000 Iraqi lives, moved our country from unprecendented prosperity to record breaking deficits and have enraged the Muslim world more making us much less safe than before. Which goes to show that truth does matter and you can't massage the truth forever without truth biting back at some point.
Official altered reports on links to global warming U.S. climate research edited to downplay effects of greenhouse gases on environment
Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times
Wednesday, June 8, 2005
A White House official who once led the oil industry's fight against limits on greenhouse gases has repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that play down links between such emissions and global warming, according to internal documents.
In handwritten notes on drafts of several reports issued in 2002 and 2003, the official, Philip Cooney, removed or adjusted descriptions of climate research that government scientists and their supervisors, including some senior Bush administration officials, had already approved. In most cases, the changes appeared in the final reports.
The dozens of changes, while sometimes as subtle as the insertion of the phrase "significant and fundamental" before the word "uncertainties," tend to produce an air of doubt about findings that most climate experts say are robust.
Cooney is chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the office that helps devise and promote administration policies on environmental issues.
Before going to the White House in 2001, he was the "climate team leader" and a lobbyist at the American Petroleum Institute, the largest trade group representing the interests of the oil industry. A lawyer with a bachelor's degree in economics, he has no scientific training.
The documents were obtained by the New York Times from the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit legal-assistance group for government whistle-blowers.
My thoughts:
This is the administration's MO. To wit: FDA advisory panel suggest that the "morning after pill" is safe. In an "rare" move, the advisory panel's recommendation is ignored and this is sent back for further investigation. The EPA goes against an advisory panels recommendations on mercury levels, finding one scientist who feels that the case for a specific mercury level has not been made. The administration has all the answers, and they find people who will agree with them. Don't worry, trust them, they know better than those technocrats.
One wonders if this was the kind've thing that happened in the intelligence on Iraq before the war. We now know that this administration had decided before-hand that Saddam must go (Blair memo). Then it massages and slants the intelligence (Bolton, etc) shows it to everyone as the "objective intelligence" and says afterward, "Everyone saw the same intelligence as us, and came to the same conclusion." And so, we have lost over 1000 young American lives, over 25000 Iraqi lives, moved our country from unprecendented prosperity to record breaking deficits and have enraged the Muslim world more making us much less safe than before. Which goes to show that truth does matter and you can't massage the truth forever without truth biting back at some point.
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