Several years ago when I made a trip to Texas, most of the people I talked to about climate change told me, “I don’t believe there is such a thing as climate change. Scientists haven’t proven it.” I came home and told my husband, “We have to move back to Texas. They don’t have climate change there!”
Since that time, I have found too many references where the White House has suppressed information about climate change. No wonder people are confused. The list below is only those references that I have come across. I’m sure there are others.
New Scientist, February, 2005: Most of the prominent organizations making the case against mainstream climate science… often accept funding from the fossil-fuel industry. Few employ climate scientists.
New Scientist, March 24, 2007: A former White House aide defended editing government reports on global climate change to put them in line with the views of the Bush administration.
USA Today, April, 2007: The report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Several scientists objected to the editing of the final draft by governmental negotiators. Some scientists vowed never to take part in the process again.
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, November/December 2007: The 1995 U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change declared that “the balance of evidence” suggested a discernible human impact on climate. The Bush administration continues to this day to delay or prevent implementation of the assessment.
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, December 2007: The evidence before the committee leads to the inescapable conclusions: the Bush Administration has engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policymakers and the public about the dangers of global warming.
The Toronto Star, June 25, 2008: James Hansen appeared before Congress 20 years to the day since he became the first leading scientist to warn of the dangers of global warming. He called for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links between smoking and cancer. “There is no debate,” he reported.
The New York Times, June 27, 2008: The federal government has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until it studies their environmental impact, which is expected to take about two years.
How many days until a new administration is in the White House? Will it, can it stop the stonewalling and encourage new scientific initiatives that move us forward in order to avert the consequences of our combined actions that brought us to this disastrous moment in history?
My friends in Texas now know there is such a thing as climate change.
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