Whistle Blower Vindicated, Two Years Later

Remember this? Well two years later, the NASA inspector general verifies that leading climate scientist James Hansen was right — the agency’s public affairs office distorted climate change research findings and limited agency scientists’ access to the media from 2004 to 2006.

A 48-page report on the internal investigation shows that from the fall of 2004 through early 2006, the public affairs office published news releases on climate change "that suffered from inaccuracy, factual insufficiency, and scientific dilution." It also said the office generally "managed the topic of climate change in a manner that reduced, marginalized or mischaracterized climate change science made available to the general public."

When NASA scientist Hansen blew the whistle in 2006, the agency’s administrator Michael Griffin ordered policy changes calling for scientific openness. In an email to the agency’s entire staff, he wrote, "It is not the job of public-affairs officers to alter, filter or adjust engineering or scientific material produced by NASA’s technical staff."

As part of its findings, the IG report credited Griffin with acting swiftly on the matter.

The  investigation found no evidence that the climate science silencing went beyond the NASA public affairs office. The politicking was also not linked to the White House. That’s interesting because Dean Acosta, who was the public affairs deputy assistant administrator at the time, was a Bush appointee. Acosta denied allegations about stifling science back in 2006. He’s now called the reports findings "patently false."

These findings are extremely important. They’re a wakeup call to the public about the kind of science that fell through the cracks for two-years.