The executives of fossil fuel companies rejoiced yesterday at another win in the war against science. This time the White House Office of Management and Budget took one scientist's fourteen page report on the effects of climate change on diseases and slashed it down to four. What was presented to the Senate committee lost all of its teeth and now it seems unlikely that the public will get to know what was in the original document.
From The New York Times:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House severely edited congressional testimony given Tuesday by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the impact of climate change on health, removing specific scientific references to potential health risks, according to two sources familiar with the documents.
Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Atlanta-based CDC, the government's premier disease monitoring agency, told a Senate hearing that climate change ''is anticipated to have a broad range of impacts on the health of Americans.''
But her prepared testimony was devoted almost entirely to the CDC's preparation, with few details on what effects climate change could have on the spread of disease. Only during questioning did she describe some specific diseases that likely would be affected, again without elaboration.
So not only did they edit Dr. Gerberding's findings, they told her to keep her mouth shut in front of the Congress. The White House is vehemently opposed to the truth and especially having the truth disseminated on "their" dime. George Bush apparently thinks that the CDC and other Federal agencies work for him and not for the people as it was written in the Constitution.
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