Censoring Climate Science

<p>On Friday, <a title="Democracy Now! had" id="d-35" href="http://www.democracynow.org/2008/3/21/censoring_science_inside_the_political_attack">Democracy Now! had</a> James E. Hansen and Mark Bowen on to talk about Bowen’s new book, &quot;Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming.&quot; <br />

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I was glad to hear Hansen talk about science getting filtered through the White House during both the Clinton and Bush administrations. We keep hearing about Bush administration’s suppression of climate science — but the fact is, science gets politicized no matter who is in office. <br />

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Hansen gave one example about press releases. He said that NASA press releases make a stop in the White House before going public: &quot;They don’t even admit that it’s going to the White House. It goes to NASA headquarters and then it sort of disappears for a couple weeks. Well, where is it? Well, it’s very often at the White House…That’s something that’s really inappropriate in my opinion.&quot; <br />

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During the Clinton administration, for example, Hansen published a paper saying that CO2 wasn’t the only thing contributing to global warming — methane and black soot, for example, were other things that needed to be looked at. But the Clinton administration didn’t like focusing on non-CO2 factors. After some back and forth between NASA and the White House, Hansen ultimately could not get a press release out with the information he wanted.<br />

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Hansen and author Bowen go on to detail calculated attempts by the Bush administration to quash climate findings. The examine the problems created when the coal and oil industries having the White House wrapped around their little fingers. <a title="Watch" id="sbp2" href="http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2008/march/video/dnB20080321a.rm&amp;proto=rtsp&amp;start=10:16">Watch</a> or <a title="listen" id="vq44" href="http://media.switchpod.com/users/democracynow/ftp/dn2008-0321-1.mp3">listen</a> to the whole segment.</p>