Bush Interference with Climate Change Science

Whistleblower Group Details Bush Interference with Climate Change Science

The Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower and watchdog group in DC, released a report (.pdf) today detailing a top-down government campaign to suppress climate change research that deviated from policy positions within the Bush administration. In particular, the administration tried to bury research that showed human activity contributes to global warming and stronger storms.

The GAP report, "Redacting the Science of Climate Change," took a year to assemble and relies on information from dozens of interviews and thousands of FOIA disclosures, internal documents and public records. It illustrates an organized and secretive White House effort beginning in 2001 to restrict scientists' ability to accurately communicate their research results to the media, the public and Congress. Using low-level proxies, the administration altered press releases, muzzled scientists who spoke openly and, frequently, routed requests for information about sensitive research to the White House. In the report, GAP focuses on NOAA but includes information on similar tampering at NASA and the EPA.

Although evidence of the Bush administration playing politics with climate change science has trickled out in the media for some time, the GAP report collects and synthesizes many of the more egregious offenses. Tarek Maassarani, the report's author, will testify later today in front of a House Science Committee hearing on political interference in science research (check back here for more this afternoon).

In recent months, the White House, facing a backlash over its heavy handed treatment of government scientists, has claimed that it always supported the view that global warming is real and humans contribute to the problem. President Bush has also morphed into an ethanol fiend, popping up at seven photo ops already this year, sometimes in a white lab coat, to pump corn fuel. When he ran for president, Bush mocked hybrid vehicles.

E-Waste - 40 Million Tons/Year

The environmental impacts of information technology is back in the news, as companies, communities, activists, and others seek solutions to the vexing problems of their energy use, hazardous ingredients, and "e-waste." Last week, Wal-Mart (They don't get "good guy" status just yet) announced it would begin grading electronics suppliers on a range of environmental criteria, including energy efficiency, durability, upgradability, end-of-life solutions, and packaging. Beginning next year, the "scorecards" filled out by electronics manufacturers will be made available to Wal-Mart's and Sam Club's U.S. customers.

Also lasts week, a global public-private partnership was launched to reduce the nearly 40 million tons of e-waste produced globally each year that ends up in China, India, and other developing countries. The goals of the initiative, called Solving the E-Waste Problem (StEP), is to standardize e-waste recycling processes globally, extend the life of products and markets for their reuse, and harmonize world legislative and policy approaches on e-waste.

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