Bush's "bamboozling ballet of dissimulation and denial" on global warming

From The Annals of Duh, our new series at The Reaction that highlights the obvious.

The Washington Post reports this: "Scientists doing climate research for the federal government say the Bush administration has made it hard for them to speak forthrightly to the public about global warming. The result, the researchers say, is a danger that Americans are not getting the full story on how the climate is changing."

It's important to report this, of course, but it's no surprise that the White House is giving climatologists a hard time. As we all know, Bush doesn't care about climate change (or global warming, or whatever you want to call it). He doesn't even believe in climate change. Which is to say, he doesn't respect science, at least not nearly enough given the very real threat of global warming and related climatological change.

Whatever else he does, he puts politics before science and the economy before the environment. Consider this: "NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] scientists... cite repeated instances in which the administration played down the threat of climate change in their documents and news releases. Although Bush and his top advisers have said that Earth is warming and human activity has contributed to this, they have questioned some predictions and caution that mandatory limits on carbon dioxide could damage the nation's economy."

Clearly, we need a president who understands and cares about the environment, one who is willing to adopt far-reaching policies to deal with climate change. Hmmm. Who might that be? If memory serves, someone who fit the bill ran in 2000 (and won the popular vote). Perhaps he might be tempted to run again?

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On a related note, see this book review by Rob Nixon at Slate. Nixon reviews "[t]wo ambitious new books on global warming, Elizabeth Kolbert's Field Notes From a Catastrophe and Tim Flannery's The Weather Makers, both of which look extremely good.

Here's Nixon's best line: "Indeed, the Bush administration has turned foot-dragging over climate change into a veritable performance art—a bamboozling ballet of dissimulation and denial."

That pretty much sums it up.