NASA expert says US stifling evidence on global warming
October 28, 2004
Page Tools
Email to a friend Printer format
The Bush Administration is trying to stifle scientific evidence of the dangers of global warming in an effort to keep the public uninformed, a NASA scientist said.
"In my more than three decades in government, I have never seen anything approaching the degree to which information flow from scientists to the public has been screened and controlled as it is now," James Hansen told a University of Iowa audience on Tuesday.
Mr Hansen is director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and has twice briefed a task force headed by Vice-President Dick Cheney on global warming.
Mr Hansen said the administration wanted to hear only scientific results that "fit predetermined, inflexible positions".
Evidence that would raise concerns about the dangers of climate change was often dismissed as not being of sufficient interest to the public.
"This, I believe, is a recipe for environmental disaster."
Mr Hansen said the scientific community generally agreed that temperatures on Earth were rising because of the greenhouse effect - emissions of carbon dioxide and other materials into the atmosphere that trap heat.
Advertisement
Advertisement
These rising temperatures, scientists believed, could cause sea levels to rise and trigger severe environmental consequences, he said.
Mr Hansen said such warnings were consistently suppressed, while studies that cast doubt on such interpretations received favourable treatment from the US administration.
He also said reports that outlined potential dangers of global warming were edited to make the problem appear less serious.
"This process is in direct opposition to the most fundamental precepts of science," he said.
White House science adviser John Marburger III has denied charges that the administration refuses to accept the reality of climate change.
He said President George Bush had pointed out in a 2001 speech that greenhouse gases had increased substantially in the past 200 years.
Last December, the administration said it was planning a five year program to research global warming and climate change.
Mr Hansen said he was speaking as a private citizen, not as a government employee, and paid his own way for the Iowa appearance.
He described himself as moderately conservative, but said he would vote for John Kerry in the presidential election.
"He certainly is not in denial of the existence of climate change problems," Mr Hansen said.
AP
- Forums
- General
- bush stifling evidence on global warming
bush stifling evidence on global warming
Featured News
Featured News
The Watchlist
CC9
CHARIOT CORPORATION LTD
MD - Shanthar Pathmanathan, Geologist - David Trabert
MD - Shanthar Pathmanathan
Geologist - David Trabert
SPONSORED BY The Market Online