This article originally published by The Charleston Gazette

April 6, 2007

Mel Tyree

Naysayers suppressing global warming threat

THE critical need for urgent action to reduce the level of human-caused greenhouse gases that bring rapid climate change has been deliberately downplayed by the White House, ExxonMobil Corp., the news media, etc.

In congressional testimony, NASA scientist and climate change researcher James Hansen reported numerous instances of censorship of his work orchestrated by the White House. Dr. Hansen said: “The effect of the filtering of climate change science during the current administration has been to make the reality of climate change less certain than the facts indicate, and to reduce concern about the relation of climate change to human-made greenhouse gas emissions.”

He went on to implicate the administration in interfering with freedom of information and the public’s right to know, calling White House editing of press releases concerning global warming “inappropriate, if not illegal.”

Dr. Hansen testified that he was even forced to remove vital information about climate change posted on NASA’s Web site. “It became clear that the new constraints on my communications were going to be a real impediment when I was forced to take down from our Web site our routine posting of updated global temperature analysis.” Dr. Hansen is not violating national security here. He is not reporting data on U.S. troop movements in Iraq. This is clearly an example of White House suppression of information important to the public and it should not be tolerated in a free democracy.

A letter on Dec. 4 from Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, to ExxonMobil’s Chairman and CEO Rex W. Tillerson accused that corporation of deliberately investing in “pseudo-science” designed to confuse the public regarding the reality of human-caused climate change.

Rockefeller and Snowe wrote: “We are persuaded that the climate change denial strategy carried out by and for ExxonMobil has helped foster the perception that the United States is insensitive to a matter of great urgency for all of mankind, and has thus damaged the stature of our nation internationally.”

These senators are not left-wing tree-huggers emotionally waving their arms. They are relatively conservative elected officials exposing a morally wrong propaganda campaign by a corporation more focused on immediate profit rather than safeguarding human welfare and the planet’s environment.

The senators added: “Rather than investing in the development of technologies that might see us through this crisis — and which may rival the computer as a wellspring of near-term economic growth around the world — ExxonMobil and its partners in denial have manufactured controversy, sown doubt and impeded progress with strategies all-too-reminiscent of those used by the tobacco industry for so many years.”

Suppressing awareness of global warming is sinister, because climate change may severely impact the future economic viability of humanity, as well as the entire world’s biodiversity, according to the latest research by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the 2006 Stern Report and scientific studies conducted by NASA.

America’s corporate-owned media are not adequately reporting the devastating destruction already occurring in other countries as a result of climate change. This helps foster the belief among Americans that human-caused climate change is not yet a serious issue.

There is little dispute that global warming is causing the world’s glaciers to retreat rapidly. According to a March 14 BBC report, melting of Andean glaciers is seriously affecting Peru’s future economic development. In fact, Lima already is facing a huge lack of drinking water due to dry conditions and loss of glacial ice, according to the report. This is not some future climate change event predicted by a supercomputer. It is happening now —and the U.S. news media is doing the public a disservice by focusing more on entertainment and sports than on critical world events.

An equally disturbing climate change event is occurring in Australia. That nation is in the grips of a devastating seven-year drought, the longest in its history. Australian scientist and climate change authority Tim Flannery warns that his country is entering a period of “long-term climate change, which could cause longer and more frequent droughts.” Dr. Flannery is lobbying for higher charges for water and more work to stop the causes of climate change, according to the online interview posted by ABC News.

A person shouldn’t have to search the Internet or go to international news sources to find information on the current devastation of climate change. Climate change is costing other countries many millions of dollars in lost revenue. It should be better reported by U.S. news services.

It’s almost impossible to believe that in a free democracy, vital information regarding the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced is censored, misrepresented or improperly reported, but that appears to be exactly what is occurring.

Tyree, a former geologist for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and a volunteer with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, lives in Hurricane.