Reply To: Bush the anti-scientist and global warming obfuscation

#4401
Martin W
Participant

    So, the days of Bush government trying to muffle news re global warming and its impacts are not over yet.
    From Think Progress:

    Quote:
    CDC officials are now revealing that the White House heavily edited Gerberding’s [ie Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] testimony [to a senate committee, on “Human Impacts of Global Warming”], which originally was longer and had more “information on health risks“:

    “It was eviscerated,” said a CDC official, familiar with both versions, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the review process.

    The official said that while it is customary for testimony to be changed in a White House review, these changes were particularly “heavy-handed,” with the document cut from its original 14 pages to four. It was six pages as presented to the Senate committee.

    The White House’s deletions included “details on how many people might be adversely affected because of increased warming and the scientific basis for some of the CDC’s analysis on what kinds of diseases might be spread in a warmer climate and rising sea levels.”

    White House ‘Eviscerates’ CDC Director’s Senate Testimony On Global Warming

    ABC News also picked up this story; report includes:

    Quote:
    Environmental and public health experts overwhelmingly denounced editing by the White House of a federal health agency head’s testimony to Congress Tuesday. Significant deletions were made from the testimony, concerning global warming and the potential impact on human health.
    Story

    The original, unedited testimony presented to Congress by Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and obtained by ABC News was 14 pages long, but the White House Office of Management and Budget edited the final version down to a mere six pages.

    Scientists and public health organizations called the move “frustrating,” “terrible” and “appalling.” The edits essentially deleted all sections that referred to climate change as a public health concern — including the risks of increased food-borne and waterborne diseases, worsening extreme weather events, worsening air pollution and the effect of heat stress on humans.


    Scientists Denounce Global Warming Report ‘Edits’
    Public Health Experts Say Edits Represent Censoring of Science