Jun. 08, 2006 - 19:17 MDT

INTELLIGENCE VS. POLITICS

Perhaps this will be a Santanyana saying that cannot be fulfilled -- can't repeat history if the store goes out of business.

Just like many other instances of the past, whatever the powers that be were, ignoring real intelligence has been poisonous.

There is an article in this mornings Rocky Mountain News by Jim Erickson of that paper, which will be quoted in full:

RESEARCHER ALLEGES CLIMATE COVER-UP

BOULDER -- "The American public is not hearing the full story on global warming because Bush administration officals are muzzling government scientists, a top climate researcher said Wednesday."

"Warren Washington, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, said that Bush appointees are suppressing information about climate change, restricting journalists' access to federal scientists and rewriting agency news releases to stress global warming uncertainties."

"The news media is not getting the full story, especially from government scientists," Washington told about 160 people attending the first day of "Climate Change and the Future of the American West," a three day conference sponsored by the University of Colorado's Natural Resources Law Center."

"Trigg Tulley, acting director of the U.S. Office of Global Change, also spoke at Wednesday's meeting. He would not directly address Washington's allegations, but said the Bush Administration is serious about reducing heat-trapping greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide."

"He cited Future Gen, a ten year, $1 billion, U.S. led international effort to build the first zero-emission power plant, as an example of that committment. The coal-fired plant would capture greenhouse-gas emissions and store them deep underground, using an emerging technology called carbon sequestration."

"Washington said in an interview that the climate cover-up is occurring at several federal agencies, including NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Forest Service. NOAA operates several Boulder laboratories that conduct climate and weather research."

"Washington's comments echoed statements made by NASA climate researcher James Hansen in a Jan. 29 article in The New York Times. Hansen said the Bush administration treid to stop him from speaking out after he called for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse-gases linked to global warming."

""The Bush administration has rejected the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement that sets binding national targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions."

"Talley referred all questions about Washington's charges to a federal spokesman. Jordan St. John, a NOAA spokesman, said the allegations against his agency are false.

"NOAA is an open and transparent agency," he said. "It's unfair to the people who work at this agency that this kind of characterization keeps being made. Hansen said it once, and it took on a life of its own and just keeps getting repeated."

"But Washinton insisted that government officials are "trying to confuse the public" about climate change and the scientific consensus that global warming is a real problem."

"In his remarks at Wednesday's meeting, Talley outlined the administration's program to address global warming and the mounting levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced largely by the burning of fossil fuels."

"The plan includesd voluntary programs to reduce greenouse gas emissions by industry, expenditures of about $2 billion a year for climate-change research, a proposal to spend $3 billion a year on alternative energy technologies, and more emphasis on nuclear power."

"But in a question-and-answer period following Talley's talk, New York University physicist, Martin Hoffert pointed out that 850 new coal fired power plants are planned for U.S., China and India. None of them would capture and sequester carbon dioxide emissions."

"One hightly touted FutureGen won't do much to counter the "oncoming wave of carbon" from those 850 plants," he said.

"It's a totally ineffective program," Hoffert said later of the Bush plan outlined by Talley."

"First of all, we should be spending $10 billion to $20 billion a year to develop alternative energy sources -- similar to the Manhattan Project or the Apollo Program," said Hoffert, a professor emeritus."

"In partnership with India and China, the U.S. should begin building numerous coal gasification power plants capable of capturing and sequestering carbon dioxide, he said."

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So, along with burying deep underground nuclear waste with a life of almost forever, now the gummint guys are going to pump the earth below full of carbon dioxide. And the possibility that more carbon dioxide will be produced than can be stored underground might not have arisen to the gummint eggheads minds.

In my mind, action should have been taken immediately after the Kyoto meetings.

Of course, we all know that the president never tries to cover up anything, never uses the dog and pony / smokescreen tactics, never, ever, ever, ever.

And of course, these research departments, funded by the gummint are going to go the route pointed out by those on the top.

The hole in the ozone over antartica, the shrinking ice shelves there apparently have no intellectual effect on the gummints mind. Seems that Mr. Bush decided that to subscribe to the Kyoto protocol would cost us too much. Wonder how much more it will cost us by not doing so ?

Even if we did a Manhattan type project, funded out the ears, beginning last year, I fear we may be too late to do much good.

As ever it appears that it is a case of INTELLIGENCE VS. POLITICS . . . . . . . . . . . .

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