White House Blocks Testimony On Climate Change
White House blocked intelligence agency’s written testimony calling climate change ‘possibly catastrophic’, Washington Post
“White House officials barred a State Department intelligence agency from submitting written testimony this week to the House Intelligence Committee warning that human-caused climate change is “possibly catastrophic.” The move came after State officials refused to excise the document’s references to federal scientific findings on climate change. … White House officials took aim at the document’s scientific citations, which refer to work conducted by federal agencies including NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. … The prepared testimony also notes that 18 of the past 20 years have ranked as the warmest on record, according to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, “and the last five years have been the warmest five.”
Farewell To Long-term Climate Change Predictions, earlier post
This should not surprise anybody. Either you believe in science or you don’t. And yes, at this point, it is that cut and dried. All the science reports in the world will not change those who have already made up their minds.
Just in case anyone was confused by a State Department intelligence agency (and I was at first), they don’t hire spies or tap communication lines. At least their Bureau of Intelligence and Research doesn’t. The seem to forecast potential problems which the State Department may have to deal with. In this case, and noting that some nations may benefit from climate change, the report was about how climate change would affect international relations. Basically by causing unpredictable changes to national economies, which will have unpredictable effects on international trade and relations, which will basically turn potential, foreign policy problems into a random number generator. At least that’s how I read it.
Climate change also has the potential to cause new refugee crises. Denying the potential of climate change to cause these sorts of global upheavals is misguided at best, IMHO.
A new refugee crisis might not be the worst result. I’ve speculated about some places getting better and some worse. What about Persia and Iraq becoming the fertile farmland they were 3000 years ago, while sea level changes trashed the off shore and coastal oil wells in the gulf states? In the long term, that could be a plus. But it would also be a short term source of major problems in a region which isn’t known for political stability.
There’s no justifiable reason for blocking this testimony.
Really? What about the certifiably true fact that it is Fake News! Just which side are you ON, Mister? Do you want to see America be great again??
climate change is fact. anytone that say otherwise doesn’t understand the issue or science.
It’s such a sad state of affairs in the US that we see this and we don’t comment and aren’t even surprised anymore.
The Inuring of America. Has a ring to it, right? I mean who says a Prez must use a particular form of language, and grammar? Or, heck, why even change channels on teevee if the one you watch is right all the time?