Bush Administration censors its own scientists

A new Congressional report shows that a Commerce Department press officer blocked an NOAA scientist from appearing on CNBC because the scientist believed that global warming affects hurricanes.

During a global warming speech yesterday, Al Gore said something that certainly holds true in this era:

"When we make big mistakes in America, it is usually because the peoplehave not been given an honest accounting of the choices before us,"Gore said in an hour-long speech at New York University Law School.

The former Vice President said this just as the House Government Reform Committee released a report that exposed the Bush Administration for preventing an NOAA scientist from discussing global warming on a CNBC program following hurricane Katrina.  When CNBC requested an interview with NOAA scientist Tom Knutson, a Commerce Department press officer by the name of Chuck Fuqua quickly e-mailed the NOAA to ask the group what Knutson's position was on global warming.

The NOAA e-mailed back and told Fuqua that Knutson projected a "very small increase in hurricane intensity" due to greenhouse pollution.

Fuqua then responded, "why can't we have one of the other guys (besides Knutson on the program) then?"

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the committee, wrote a letter to Commerce Secretary Carlos Guitierrez complaining that his press officer censored the interview.  Waxman also has a copy of the e-mails between press officer Chuck Fuqua and the NOAA that expose how the Administration would not let Knutson on the air because he believed global warming has an impact on hurricane strength.  I guess the truth hurts!

There are other global warming stories making the headlines today:

• Strangely, biologists found two live Arctic Seals on the Southern Florida beaches, more than 2,500 miles away from their natural habitat.  One seal was found in Martin County and the other in Palm Beach County.  The reason why they went to Florida is unknown.  "They're suffering from severe dehydration," said one official at the location where the seals are being treated.
• University of Maryland Biology Professor David Inouye warned that the decline of the sunflower in the Rocky Mountains is caused mostly by global warming.  The decrease in winter snowfall coupled with increased temperatures in the spring is making the buds of the sunflower more sensitive, therefore unable to produce flowers.  If the buds can't produce flowers, then the flowers can't produce seeds.  "The reduction in flowers means that there are fewer resources (nectarand pollen) for pollinator species such as bumble bees, for herbivoressuch as deer and elk that eat some of the flowers, for seed predatorswhose larvae eat some of the developing seeds, and for the parasiticinsects that prey upon the seed predators or pollinators," said Inouye.
• Scientists believe that tree rings can be used to measure the intensity of hurricanes in the past.  By measuring the different isotopes of oxygen in the rings, scientists can measure hurricane patterns as long as five-hundred years ago.  This is important because the government only began keeping track of storms 20 years ago.  Scientists will then see how those hurricane patterns match up with the rising of CO2 in the atmosphere.  In other words, the following question will be answered: does global warming have any impact on the strength of hurricanes?
• A global warming conference will be held this weekend in Helena, Montana.  Click here for details.

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Other sites blogging about global warming: Slashdot, California Connected Newsroom, Blue Girl in a Red State, Stratasphere, Political Wire, Truthout.