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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
 Posted - 10/25/2007 : 09:24:47
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From the NY Times:
Climate Change Testimony Was Edited by White House
The White House made deep cuts in written testimony given to a Senate committee this week by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on health risks posed by global warming, but the director agreed yesterday with administration officials who said the cuts were part of a normal review process and not aimed at minimizing the issue.
Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, the agency's director, said in a telephone interview that news reports and comments about the changes had made “a mountain out of a molehill.”
“I said everything I needed to say,” she said.
Dr. Gerberding, who addressed the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Tuesday, said she had freely spoken for more than a year about the implications for public health should warming from the buildup of greenhouse gases proceed as scientists project. Still, cuts made to her written testimony included the only statements casting the health risks from climate change as a problem, describing it variously as posing “difficult challenges” and as “a serious public health concern.”
The testimony that remained said, “Climate change is anticipated to have a broad range of impacts on the health of Americans and the nation's public health infrastructure.” But a line saying “the public health effects of climate change remain largely unaddressed” was gone, and the testimony focused on the ways health agencies were already prepared to tackle any problems.
The changes were first reported Tuesday by The Associated Press, and the draft testimony, whose authenticity was not challenged by Bush administration, was disseminated to reporters and posted online yesterday by several private groups, including Climate Science Watch.
This shift in tone prompted criticisms of the administration by some Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Barbara Boxer of California, the committee's chairwoman.
The cuts, done by the Office of Management and Budget last week, halved the 12-page draft testimony Dr. Gerberding submitted before her testimony.
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Ok, so first there's the politicization of science. Again. That's always a bad thing.
But this Administration... wow. How do they sleep at night?
I don't beleive they believe Climate Change isn't happening. I don't believe they think these ongoing misinformation campaigns RE climate change are 'setting the record straight.' They are intentionally misinforming the public about very large and looming problems, problems that increasingly appear to have DIRE world wide social and economic consequences and which they are intentionally doing nothing about.
And for what? Money.
Christian compasionate conservative my ass. These folks better hope the Christian God isn't real... If this isn't evil in the Christian context, what is??? Oh, that's right, Universal Health Care. 
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-Chaloobi
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Edited by - chaloobi on 10/25/2007 09:25:46
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
 Posted - 10/25/2007 : 11:11:05 [Permalink]
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They want to downplay the things happening right now that are a consequence of warming. You'd have to guess at their motivations for doing so, but my guess is that they want to reduce public perception of the consequences of warming.
They don't want people to know that things like the bluetongue virus (carried by a midge found only in warmer regions, until recently) have been moving north since 1998. It didn't make much US news but a lot of livestock in Europe had to be exterminated in the last couple of years because of this virus. It isn't transmisible to humans, which is why it prob doesn't get the same press as H5N1 and bovine spongiform encephalopathy(mad cow disease).
Last month the bluetongue virus made its first ever appearance in the UK.
Malaria kills millions of people every year, as the planet warms up the range of its host animal (mosquitos) will likely expand as well.
There is a real cause for concern about the effects of warming on pathogens, and some of the consequences are already being seen.
Atleast the Bush admin does now recognize that global warming is real. There was a time when they were in full denial mode.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
Posted - 10/25/2007 : 12:33:11 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dude
They want to downplay the things happening right now that are a consequence of warming. You'd have to guess at their motivations for doing so, but my guess is that they want to reduce public perception of the consequences of warming.
They don't want people to know that things like the bluetongue virus (carried by a midge found only in warmer regions, until recently) have been moving north since 1998. It didn't make much US news but a lot of livestock in Europe had to be exterminated in the last couple of years because of this virus. It isn't transmisible to humans, which is why it prob doesn't get the same press as H5N1 and bovine spongiform encephalopathy(mad cow disease).
Last month the bluetongue virus made its first ever appearance in the UK.
Malaria kills millions of people every year, as the planet warms up the range of its host animal (mosquitos) will likely expand as well.
There is a real cause for concern about the effects of warming on pathogens, and some of the consequences are already being seen.
Atleast the Bush admin does now recognize that global warming is real. There was a time when they were in full denial mode.
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They down play it to keep public pressure to do something about it at a minimum. But if they know it's real and they know it's going to be bad, how on Earth can they justify intentionally doing nothing about it? Obviously it's the money but how sinister do you have to be FFS? At this point to be still whitewashing climate change reports; it's mind numbing. It's like if the Administration was still trying to conflate Saddam Hussein and 9/11 to cover their ass over Iraq. Oh, wait. Scratch that. |
-Chaloobi
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| Edited by - chaloobi on 10/25/2007 12:34:57 |
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OMG The Bush Admin Edit's Climate Science!!!
