« Gray Tree Frog | Main | Two Southern Flying Squirrels »

May 24, 2009

Book Review: Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming by Mark Bowen

This book was well-written but very difficult for me to read. I was constantly angry.

Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming documents the deliberate and petty machinations of our last few administrations, which came in the form of hampering the efforts of the science community which falls under the purview of federal funding and the public financing--specificaly NASA and NOAA, but also the EPA, National Weather Service, etc. on any research or findings which didn't jive with the continued future of the fossil fuel industry. The snuffing out of all information and data about the dangers of climage change, instability and global warming (sea level rise, greenhouse effects, more severe weather including hurricanes) were snuffed out by both Bush Administrations using a combination of heavy censorship, intimidation, and the restriction of funding on research that would certainly result in findings that top political officials did not want the American public aware of.

Jim Hansen is head of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (Earth Sciences Division). He is one of the most well-respected climate experts in the world, although his forthright manner and willingness to tell those in political power what they don't want to hear has made him into something of a maverick. He has testified before Congress on numerous occassions. Al Gore based much of his work on Jim Hansen's science, as well as that of his collegues around the world.

For the past few administrations, Hansen's science (and that of many scientists at federal agencies including NASA and NOAA) has been heavily censored and modified to water down and also change the meaning of findings. Scientists and career civil servants were intimidated into softening their own findings (self-censoring), or risked losing their jobs. Public affairs processes were put into place to passively censor by way of delaying press inquiries long enough that they became obsolete. The party line (climate change isn't real, isn't a concern, isn't causing any of our problems, like Hurricane Katrina) was parroted by political appointees positioned at the top of each federal agency, which was not supported by the pure scientists of those agencies. Later, heavy active censorship, including the modification of factual data, led to a number of scandals within NASA. In fact, the funding of these science-based agencies were used by the most recent Bush Administration as political tools to get re-elected, at the expense of the American public and the detriment of our future.

Ironically, Jim Hansen's personal values do not put him at the liberal end of the spectrum; but he was a McCain supporter and conscious of trying to keep political pressures out of the scientific method. Since the early 1980s, his research has been far enough ahead of most others that his findings and warnings (esp. regarding coal-fired power plants) have been ridiculed and subject to not just healthy skepticism from the scientific community, but also deliberate attacks on his credibility for the sake of sticking with "business as usual.". In the past 25 years, most of his early warnings have become widely accepted facts, and he continues to advocate for common-sense changes in the form of curbing emissions (including carbon taxes), carbon sequestriation, improved efficiency standards, and a number of other policy changes required to keep us from the climate tipping point, which may very well be sooner, not later.

The book does not leave me hopeful. It leaves me even more concerned that change, which may have arrived with the Obama White House, will not be fast enough or aggressive enough, to avoid the serious consequences which are already on our doorstep.

It also made me realize how Americans, and the press, still haven't lived up to our responsibilities as the primary producer of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. For example, China recently surpassed the US as the primary emitter of greenhouse gasses, I have continually heard about how China's escalating creation of coal-fired power plants is the "real" problem now. I think many Americans then assume that is because of the rising middle class in China, when in reality, many of these plants are being created to power factories producing cheap goods which are then shipped back to the US. We off-shored our factories, and the emissions went with them (to less regulated places, at that, so the price is cheaper for us at the expense of long-term catastrophe).

End result: we Americans are still the ones who need to make changes. Big changes. Now.

Posted by sorsha at May 24, 2009 12:46 PM