Censorship also at NOAA, NASA Climate Expert Reports

[G_j]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/10/AR2006021001766_pf.html

Censorship Is Alleged at NOAA
Scientists Afraid to Speak Out, NASA Climate Expert Reports

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 11, 2006; A07

NEW YORK, Feb. 10 -- James E. Hansen, the NASA climate scientist who sparked an uproar last month by accusing the Bush administration of keeping scientific information from reaching the public, said Friday that officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are also muzzling researchers who study global warming.

Hansen, speaking in a panel discussion about science and the environment before a packed audience at the New School university, said that while he hopes his own agency will soon adopt a more open policy, NOAA insists on having "a minder" monitor its scientists when they discuss their findings with journalists.

"It seems more like Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union than the United States," said Hansen, prompting a round of applause from the audience. He added that while NOAA officials said they maintain the policy for their scientists' protection, "if you buy that one please see me at the break, because there's a bridge down the street I'd like to sell you."

NOAA Administrator Conrad C. Lautenbacher denied Hansen's charges, saying his agency requires its scientists to tell its press office about contacts with journalists but does not monitor their communications.

..more..

[Nikki Stone 1]

1. Kick and recommend

This is really distressing. NOAA is a good site; to muzzle it is a disservice to the American people. Maybe this is why Santorum is whoring for ACCU-weather. They'll lie for taxpayer dollars and won't have to be muzzled.

[fed-up]

2. "For reasons of "National Security" we have declined to inform the US

citizens of the impending disaster that global warming will bring. We have procedures in place to take care of the situation if an when it does become a disaster-(see our response to Hurricane Katrina)".


Can you imagine what will happen to business and the housing markets once the sea really starts rising at a rapid pace???

Why on earth we we want to relocate people ahead of time??? It might interfere with corporate profit...

Besides if we ignore it, just think how many (low paying) jobs will be created with the clean-up effort...


dripping sarcasm...

[starroute]

3. Sounds like it would explain this

I thought at the time it was an attempt to avoid embarrassing statements about hurricanes and the like -- but it seems there's more to it than that.

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Commerce_Department_tells_Nationa_1004.html

Commerce Department tells National Weather Service media contacts must be pre-approved

Larisa Alexandrovna

The Department of Commerce has issued a blanket media policy to employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), requiring that all requests for contact from national media be first approved by the Department, RAW STORY has learned.

According to a leaked Sept. 29 email memo sent out to NOAA staff, including employees of the National Weather Service (NWS) -- both of which are under the Department of Commerce -- employees must collect information from reporters and forward it to the Department. . . .

The policy requires that local weather offices forward media requests to the NWS press office, who in turn would forward the request on to the Commerce Department’s public relations office. The Department would then decide whether comment should be granted.

Under this new policy, the Department, rather than the weather agencies, would also determine who would then provide comment.

“There has been no explanation as to why this policy was issued. It does appear the intent of this policy is to restrict the flow of weather information to the national media,” said the NOAA employee who also expressed concern over why Commerce is suddenly making blanket policy decisions for the NWS and deciding who can speak to the media.

[G_j]

4. yes it does

unbelievable!

..back in the USSR...

[HeeBGBz]

5. Okay they are definitely hiding something

I guess the thing to do would be to find out how bad the hidden thing is going to be. Mega-bad, uber-bad, or kiss-your-uninformed-ass-goodbye-bad.

They are raiding the treasury and stealing us blind. Are they gonna stock up and hide out in the Cheney bunker while the rest of us get blown off the planet?

I'm still holding out for an asteroid.

[gordontron]

6. kicked and r

Bush hates science and he hates us environmentalists who can prove that global warming is a much bigger issue than the "gay agenda".

[Nothing Without Hope]

7. ***Here is an earlier NYT article on Hansen's statements about censorship:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2071526
thread title (1-28-06): Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30D13FF355B0C7A8EDDA80894DE404482

CLIMATE EXPERT SAYS NASA TRIED TO SILENCE HIM

January 29, 2006, Sunday
By ANDREW C. REVKIN (NYT); National Desk
Late Edition - Final, Section 1, Page 1, Column 6, 1615 words

The top climate scientist at NASA says the Bush administration has tried to stop him from speaking out since he gave a lecture last month calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming. The scientist, James E. Hansen, longtime director of the agency's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in an interview that officials at NASA headquarters had ordered the public affairs staff to review his coming lectures, papers, postings on the Goddard Web site and requests for interviews from journalists.

Dr. Hansen said he would ignore the restrictions. "They feel their job is to be this censor of information going out to the public," he said. Dean Acosta, deputy assistant administrator for public affairs at the space agency, said there was no effort to silence Dr. Hansen. "That's not the way we operate here at NASA," he said. "We promote openness and we speak with the facts." Mr. Acosta said the restrictions on Dr. Hansen applied to all National Aeronautics and Space Administration personnel whom the public could perceive as speaking for the agency. He added that government scientists were free to discuss scientific findings, but that policy statements should be left to policy makers and appointed spokesmen.

Dr. Hansen, 63, a physicist who joined the space agency in 1967, is a leading authority on the earth's climate system. He directs efforts to simulate the global climate on computers at the Goddard Institute on Morningside Heights in Manhattan. Since 1988, he has been issuing public warnings about the long-term threat from heat-trapping emissions, dominated by carbon dioxide, that are an unavoidable byproduct of burning coal, oil and other fossil fuels. He has had run-ins with politicians or their appointees in various administrations, including budget watchers in the first Bush administration and Vice President Al Gore.

In 2001, Dr. Hansen was invited twice to brief Vice President Dick Cheney and other cabinet members on climate change. White House officials were interested in his findings showing that cleaning up soot, which also warms the atmosphere, was an effective and far easier first step than curbing carbon dioxide. He fell out of favor with the White House in 2004 after giving a speech at the University of Iowa before the presidential election, in which he complained that government climate scientists were being muzzled, and said he planned to vote for Senator John Kerry.

(snip)

[suffragette]

8. Treating scientists like dangerous dogs by keeping them

on a leash held by "minders" and muzzling them.

And this being done at a time when we most need their expertise to guide us to a better world.

All in the service of money and power for a few trumping the needs of the world.

This is pure insanity.