News Intelligence Analysis
Science sidelined
August 29, 2004
ONCE AGAIN a Bush administration scientific report blames emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases for global warming, and once again the reaction of the Bush White House is to say the evidence does not warrant action. Kennebunkport is going to go the way of Atlantis by the time this administration gets serious about climate change. This week the US secretaries of energy and commerce and the president's science adviser signed a report to Congress stating that warming trends in recent decades cannot be explained by natural factors and are due to increases in carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases. But the report gave the administration license for additional foot-dragging by adding that the studies in the report did not "make any findings of fact that could serve as predicates for regulatory action."
In 2002 an administration report to the United Nations on climate change also referred to the important role played by manmade emissions. President Bush quickly dismissed that report as something "put out by the bureaucracy." Later that year the Environmental Protection Agency suppressed a report on global warming.
On Thursday, New York Times reporters asked Bush why the administration has now changed its position on what caused global warming. According to the reporters, Bush seemed unfamiliar with the new report and said: "Ah, we did? I don't think so."
That reaction and the report's advice against "regulatory action" make it clear that the administration plans no steps to limit greenhouse emissions beyond voluntary initiatives by industry. The administration must have decided that releasing the report, even with its study spelling out the role of emissions in climate change, was preferable to enduring additional headlines about its suppression of scientific research.
If Bush were to read the report and take it seriously, it is difficult to see how he could stick to his no-action-needed position. One study cited in the report found that high levels of carbon dioxide spurred the growth of invasive weeds much more than planted crops. Another study found that the portion of the Arctic Ocean covered by perennial sea ice has declined by about 9 percent in each decade since 1978.
During the 2000 campaign, Bush called for regulatory controls
on carbon dioxide emissions. Once in office, he quickly flip-flopped
on that pledge and rejected the Kyoto treaty approach to curbing
climate change. But while government policy has been at a standstill
for four years, the buildup of greenhouse gases has not, nor
has government research proving their effect on climate. It will
take a new attitude in Washington to put that research to work.
© Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
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