The Bush administration’s to manipulate climate science took another hit this week. The New York Times ran a editorial highlighting the damning report just issued by The Inspector General of NASA showing that political appointees from the Whitehouse were apparently massaging the messaging around climate science.
Specifically, the Inspector General found “NASA Headquarters Office of Public Affairs managed the topic of climate change in a manner that reduced, marginalized, or mischaracterized climate change science made available to the general public…”
The New York Times was not amused and ran a scathing editorial titled The Science of Denial:
“The Bush administration has worked overtime to manipulate or conceal scientific evidence — and muzzled at least one prominent scientist — to justify its failure to address climate change.”
In the waning days of Bush Administration, the mainstream press is becoming increasing critical of Whitehouse’s ham-handed manipulation of climate science, including efforts to silence scientists speaking the truth about climate change.
The Times said of the Whitehouse’s propaganda efforts:
“Its motives were transparent: the less people understood about the causes and consequences of global warming, the less they were likely to demand action from their leaders. And its strategy has been far too successful.”
The Bush Administration has also missed mandatory reporting requirements around the progress and implications of climate change. According to the editorial:
“A 1990 law requires the president to give Congress every four years its best assessment of the likely effects of climate change. The last such assessment was undertaken by President Clinton and published in 2000. Mr. Bush not only missed the 2004 deadline but allowed the entire information-gathering process to wither. Only a court order handed down last August in response to a lawsuit by public interest groups forced him to deliver this month.”
The legacy of the Bush Whitehouse is being etched in editorial ink all across the nation. The Times summed it up nicely:
“This administration long ago secured a special place in history for bending science to its political ends. One costly result is that this nation has lost seven years in a struggle in which time is not on anyone’s side.”
