Censorship of Climate Scientists Heats Up

"Prompted by reports that [Bush] administration appointees, including a former oil industry lobbyist who was chief of staff at the [White House] Council on Environmental Quality, edited climate change reports or pressured scientists to tone down statements about the dangers of global warming," the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing. Committee chair Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), along with Rep. Thomas Davis (R-Va.), is pushing for the release of documents to determine "whether the White House's political staff is inappropriately censoring impartial government scientists." A recent report by the Union of Concerned Scientists and Government Accountability Project details cases of political interference in climate research. And in Canada, federal environment commissioner Johanne Gélinas has been "pushed out the door," after repeatedly calling for a "massive scale-up" of environmental initiatives, particularly on global warming, reports the Toronto Star.