In an effort to avoid public embarrassment, NOAA scientists
apparently attempted to forge a consensus among government experts
about the link between hurricanes and global warming. What they
came up with was a "Hurricane Fact Sheet" that was sent to NOAA
headquarters for sign-off. That was last spring, and that fact
sheet remains
hidden from the public today.
Silencing Scientists?
We also uncovered a document through the FOIA request that shows
a 13
step illustration of the guantlet that a press release has to
go through to be approved. Talk about red tape.
NOAA also asks its
scientists to notify the Public Affairs office when they are
working on something that might be "controversial". Read
NOAA's media policy.
So let's get this straight, amplified hurricanes due to global
warming is "controversial"? What if a scientist were to discover
that bird's migration patterns were being disrupted by global
warming, or that snowmelt in the mountains was accelerated, or
drought deepened or a heatwave worsened.
Since when should a scientist have to judge the importance of
their studies on a political controversy scale?
This week, NATURE sheds light on this story with this news
feature.
For more background on this ongoing investigation by Greenpeace
and others, here are some resources:
Screening Scientist Interviews
This shows a series of communications between a NOAA scientist
and an employee of NOAA public affairs discussing two incidents in
which reporters were denied the opportunity to interview him.
Read the e-mails.
Imposed Restrictions
In this series of emails a NOAA public affairs official imposes
restrictions on what questions a reporter may ask in an interview
with a NOAA scientist. Read
the e-mails.
Leetma letter to Mahoney
Ants Leetma, a NOAA senior scientist writes a scathing letter to
the head of NOAA James Mahoney. Dr. Leetma is upset about NOAAs
misrepresentation of the current science available regarding the
link between hurricanes and global warming. He writes "It is
disconcerting scientifically that ... meteorologists were making
decadal hurricane projections based on a phenomena of which they
know nothing..." Read
the letter.
Protest Letter
Regarding Hurricane Consensus
This series of emails shows an incident in which senior NOAA
scientists take serious issue with an official NOAA statement
released by NOAA public affairs claiming increased Atlantic
hurricane activity "is not related to greenhouse warming." They
collaborate on writing a letter of protest to the Bush appointee
Conrad Lautenbacher, NOAA Administrator. Read the
e-mails.
The New Republic dug into this story last February
2006, uncovering a muzzling of scientists on the subject of global
warming and hurricanes. Read
the article.
The New York Times covered how this document was
blocked from release.
Read the article.
Rueters gives a
breakdown of the nature feature. Read
this article
The Providence Journal ran a telling story in March
2006 containing telling interviews with NOAA scientists and public
affairs officials.
Read the article.
US News and World Report finds NOAA Administrator
Conrad Lautenbacher in conflict with his spokesman.
Read the article.
Salon.com
writer Paul Thacker revealed that the White House also had a hand
on the muzzle. Read the
article.
ABC News digs
in and tries to get the truth from NOAA themselves.
Read the article.
The Newark Star Ledger chronicles when the muzzle
went on.
Read the article.
Congressman Waxman’s office has dug
its teeth into this story, sending a
letter of complaint to the Secretary of Commerce (which
overseas NOAA) demanding a full explanation.
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