The document is an editorial from The Atlanta Journal and Constitution criticizing the Bush administration for removing and altering conclusions about human-caused global warming from an EPA report on environmental challenges. It notes key facts and conclusions about rising global temperatures that were deleted, such as references validating a recent study requested by Bush and conclusions agreed upon by scientists. The editorial argues these deletions mislead the public and amount to pandering to oil industry interests instead of facing the facts on an important issue.

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The Atlanta Journal and Constitution Jne 23, 2003 Monday
Copyright 2003 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
http: //www. aja. corn
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
June 23, 2003 Monday Home Edition
SECTION: Editorial; Pg. 10A
LENGTH: 640 words
on global warming
HEADLINE: OUR OPINIONS: Give EPA heat for hiding facts
SOURCE: AJC
BODY:
If
Th ere is a dangerous pattern emerginc from the Bush administration:
them.
the facts don't suit President Bush's policies, distort
Public attention has already been foc sed on charges that Bush and his
Two
aide hyped intelligence on Iraq's we pons of mass destruction.
congressional committees are investig ting.
Agency report
Now comes news that an important Envi onmental Protection
facts on global warming --- even facts
leaves out critical scientific
confirmed by a special study requeste by t he president himself last
increase
year. That study substantiated the Earth's alarming temperature
over the last decade and its major ca se, increased carbon dioxide
sources are
emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. The biggest
automobiles and coal-fired utilities.
budget officials
The White House Council on Environmental Quality and Bush
changed the global warming section of a comprehensive report on the
EPA next week. The
nation's environmental challenges to be issued by the
report was the final contribution of EPA chief Christie Whitman, who is
stepping down as agency administrator,
issues,
Whitman, who came to her post with a good record on environmental
the White House
continued her habit of turning the ot er cheek whenever
She said she is
slaps down science in favor of its co-porate oil friends.
"comfortable" with the report.
the global warming
Ironically, Whitman suffered her firs: embarrassment on
issue shortly after she was sworn in, when she assured the international
commitment to
co mmunity that the United States was serious about its
the U.S. signature to
carbon dioxide reductions, only to have Bush rescind
week at the agency,
the global warming treaty. It is sad that in her last
the departing EPA chief must suffer a similar embarrassment.
contribution to
Among the deletions were conclusions about the human
global warming from the 2001 National Research Council report the White
by a United
House commissioned (after rejecting similar conclusions
Nations panel of scientists) , one that Bush previously endorsed in several
to a 1999 study
speeches. White House officials also deleted a reference
by a respected panel of scientists slowing that global temperatures had
over the past
gone up sharply in the last decade c mpared with levels
1,000 years. Instead, Bush officials added a reference to a new study,
that
partly financed by the American Petr leum Institute, questioning
conclusion.
statement upon
Deleted from the report, for example, is even the simple
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consequences for human
whi ch scientists agree: "Climate chan e has global
with one meant to
health and the environment." That stat ment is replaced
of the issue and the need
obfuscate and confuse; it cites the co plexities
were so extensive,
to resolve uncertainties. The White Ho se changes
according to an April 29 EPA staff memD given to the media by a former EPA
accurately
official, that the report's climate section "no longer
represents scientific consensus on climate change."
warming cannot be
The president's refu sal to face the facts on global
to his friends in Big
construed as anything other than blatant pandering
facts and refusing to
Oil. They have spent years minimizing scientific
energy sources that
concede the need for conservation and alternative
could save our children from serious economic and environmental
consequences.
on the Senate
Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.), the rankin- minority member
Environment and Public Works committe , along with several Democratic
the original drafts of
committee members, ha s asked the White House for
of the aisle are
the climate change section. Members or both sides
people are being misled
obligated to find out to what extent the American
security of the nation as
on a matter at least as important to the future
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
9
Monday
yThe Atlanta Journal and Constitution June 23, 2003
Copyright 2003 The Atlanta Journal-Comstitution
http://www.ajc.com
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
June 23, 2003 Monday Home Edition
SECTION: Editorial; Pg. 11A
LENGTH: 469 words
for warmer climate
HEADLINE: EQUAL TIME: Nature, not man to blam e
BYLINE: ROBERT GRECO
SOURCE: For the Journal-Constitution
BODY:
helped sponsor the
It is true that the American Petroleu Institute
groundbreaking research referred to ii The New York Times story on global
of the funding for the
warming. But API's role was relatively small. Most
NASA, the U.S. Air
research came from several federal agencies, including
Administration.
Force and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
h more important is the
But focusing on the funding misses the point. Muc
critical substance of the research itself, which was done by two eminent
Harvard-Smithsonian
scientists, Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas of the
Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.
or warmer between 800
Their analysis suggests that the world was as warm
If that's true --- and it
A.D. and 1300 A.D. as in the late 20th century.
cars or coal-fired
appears to be --- nature was more im ortant than
utilities in causing higher temperat res in that era.
the late 20th century was
Their work found that the warming ex erienced in
not unusual. They analyzed 240 separ te studies of tree rings, ice cores,
cultural and
stalactites, coral, glaciers and oth r sources, including
documentary records going back over 1,O00 years.
the debate
Their conclusions are important beca se for a decade,
surrounding global climate change has assumed that significant increases
of the 20th century
in temperature occurred only during the final decades
when fossil fuels became the main so r ce of energy for mankind.
scientific arm, the
That has been the conclusion of the United Nations'
that human activity is
International Panel on Climate Chang , which says
that drive
largely to blame for producing the g eenhouse gases
temperatures up.
agenda for much of the
Until now, the United Nations' work ias set the
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a mathematical
debate about climate change. Tts report constructed
temperature model based on a single trae-ring study of data collected
mostly from Northern Hemisphere locatio ns.
Baliunas and Soon found that warming ring the 20th century was neither
unique nor as extreme as during those earlier simpler times when world
is today, and the Industrial
population was less than one-tenth of what it
Revolution was yet to come.
minimal. So, if climate
In other words, emissions caused by people were
of years ago, how do we
was changing naturally and significantly hundreds
causes of climate change
know that forces of nature are not thE main
today?
from that possibly
And how do we disting uish natural climate change
caused by emissions from the internal combustion engine, or the burning of
coal to generate electricity?
climate change will help
Intelligent discussion of the science surrounding
this highly complex issue.
all of us to set the right public policies on
programs for the American
Robert Greco is director of global climate
Petroleum Tnstitute.
2003 Monday
yThe Atlanta Journal and Constitution June 23,
Copyright 2003 The Atlanta Journal-Coistitution
http: //www. aj c.com
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
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