NOAA accused of blocking climate report

A government agency blocked the release of a document that suggests global warming is contributing to the frequency and strength of hurricanes, the journal Nature reported on Sept. 26. The document, a two-page summary of the relationship between hurricanes and climate, was prepared by a seven-member panel of scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It was written to correct what many agency scientists viewed as an erroneous position paper posted last fall suggesting that there was no connection between global warming and hurricanes. The document was set to be released in June as part of a media press kit for the start of this year's hurricane season. It was not released until Sept. 27; one day after Nature's highly critical article on the suppression of the report was published. The researchers have accused Bush administration appointees to NOAA of ignoring the possible connections between global warming and more intense or frequent hurricanes. They also accuse NOAA of preventing scientists who believe that there might be such a link from speaking out. Conrad Lautenbacher, the administrator of NOAA, said media reports quoting the scientists were incorrect and he rejected charges that the position paper was blocked because it suggested a link between hurricanes and global warming. Lautenbacher claims the panel discussion and subsequent report was simply an internal exercise designed to get researchers to respect each other's point of view. But panel members, including Ants Leetma, chair of the panel and director of NOAA's prestigious Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, disagree strongly with this interpretation. Internal NOAA and Commerce Department emails discuss the timetable for the document being "cleared" for "distribution." Furthermore, an email to Leetma from a Commerce Department official informed him that the document needed to be made less technical before it could be released. In response to the Nature article, a group of 14 Senators have called for an investigation of allegations that the Bush administration has repeatedly interfered with federal scientists who have tried to publish research or speak to the media about the reality and impacts of global warming. The senators sent a letter Sept. 29 to the inspector generals of NASA and the US Commerce Department, which oversees NOAA, requesting formal investigations into the claims. "We strongly believe that research paid for with taxpayer funds should be published, disseminated and debated, rather than suppressed because it does not support the stated positions of the administration," the letter said. "Unfortunately, this recent incident seems to be onlythe latest in a growing list of actions taken by this administration to conceal legitimate and scientifically sound findings that do not fit the President's stated ideological preferences." The letter notes that Bush administration appointees at NOAA apparently barred NOAA scientist Tom Knutson from speaking to reporters last year because he has published studies that link global warming to hurricane strength. That allegation is supported by internal agency emails, released last week by Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA), in which a press officer at the Department of Commerce inquired about Knutson's view on global warming when considering an interview request from CNBC television. The interview request was denied and a NOAA scientist who disputed the hurricane-warming connection was chosen in Knutson's place. The letter also cites reports that NASA scientist James Hansen, a world-renowned expert on climate change, was prevented by political appointees from speaking to the media after delivering a lecture in which he concluded that greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced in order to slow global warming. In addition, it mentions an April article by the Washington Post that include interviews with NOAA scientists and contractors who disclosed that not only had administration officials criticized them for speaking on global warming policy, but had removed references to global warming from "their reports, news releases and conference Websites."