There was an item in the news a day or two ago that did not get much mainstream coverage but the chain of events speaks volumes. It also demostrates one theory as to why most Bush supporters claim that global warming is just hoax; a liberal/democrat conspiracy begun by Al Gore.
The White House Council on Environmental Quality was lead by a man named Philip Cooney. Prior to working at the White House Philip Cooney “…was a lobbyist at the American Petroleum Institute, the largest oil industry trade group.” The man who was in charge of the United States Environmental Quality council has no scientific background or training and in fact was trained as a lawyer. The New York Times claims that “…dozens of changes to reports issued in 2002 and 2003, and many appeared in final versions of major administration climate reports.”
Cooney is alleged to have made changes such as adding the phrase “significant and fundamental” before the word “uncertainties” creating a sense of doubt. According to USA Today, the Times also reported Cooney removed from a report a paragraph describing the projected reduction of glaciers and snowpack. The Taipei Times reported that White House officials said the changes “were part of the normal interagency review that takes place on all documents related to global environmental change” That’s comforting. The Taipei Times continued by saying “…Cooney’s alterations are sometimes as simple as the insertion of an adjective, but they cause clear shifts in the meaning of the documents.”
White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, defended Philip Cooney by saying, according to the New York Times, “There are policy people and scientists who are involved in this process, in the interagency review process, and he’s one of the policy people involved in that process” Very helpful. Thanks for that Mr. McClellan. Even though White House officials rushed to claim the changes to climate files were part of usual review, Philip Cooney ironically submitted his resignation two days after the news broke. Philip Clapp, the president of the National Environmental Trust, said “his resignation is less surprising than the fact that the lead oil industry lobbyist on global warming should have been given this kind of power over climate science and scientists.”
One can see how this makes the Bush Administration look bad. The interesting thing is, even with this information, which hundreds of different news organizations reported on, Bush supporters will continue to wear their blinders and claim that the liberal media is skewing the news. But I ask them this: just how liberal do you think agencies like the Taipei Times are? With all this in mind, consider what the Herald Sun reported on Thursday:
“…the administration thanked Exxon executives for the company’s ‘active involvement’ in helping to shape climate change policy, and also sought its advice on what such policies the company might find acceptable.”
