In the aftermath of the Downing Street memo and the subsequent leaks of other memos in the British press, we now have a new story of Bush administration duplicity which should make the American people livid. Unfortunately, the American people probably won't hear much from the American press about this either.
It seems that the American government has been secretly working to undercut British Prime Minister Tony Blair's efforts to combat global warming. This story takes the Philip Cooney story (that's the White House employee who was basically an oil industry shill who rewrote science reports and edited out specific findings) a step further into a truly Orwellian world of Bush administration denials and lies.
"The documents show that Washington officials:
· Removed all reference to the fact that climate change is a 'serious threat to human health and to ecosystems';
· Deleted any suggestion that global warming has already started;
· Expunged any suggestion that human activity was to blame for climate change."
The story also outlines how "the White House has withdrawn from a crucial United Nations commitment to stabilise greenhouse gas emissions." There is no length to whcih these people seem to be able to go in denying science. Here is another sentence they removed: "Every year, it (local air pollution) causes millions of premature deaths, and suffering to millions more through respiratory disease." By doing so, Bush and his co-conspirators have condemned millions of children to suffering and dying from asthma and other lung ailments.
In the face of massive evidence to the contrary (National Academies of Science, The Pew Center, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, National Center for Atmospheric Research, National Science Foundation, National Commission on Energy Policy), Bush is denying the science, rewriting the science, or simply eliminating it. This is not incompetence. This is gross malfeasance, a high crime and misdemeanor causing great harm to the national security and welfare of the American people. This not simply a matter of one group of people disagreeing with another over policy. This is lying and falsifying evidence.
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