***SNS*** Special Letter: Looking Further [Postscript]

Where does this leave us today?

Those of you reading the news this morning [9/25] may have encountered the latest effort by the Bush administration to prevent its own scientists from testifying fully, this week, on Global Warming. As a quick example, here is an excerpt from Time.com:

“I am deeply concerned that important scientific and health information was removed from the… testimony at the last minute,” Sen. Barbara Boxer, chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, wrote President Bush.

Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, demanded an explanation from the White House’s chief science adviser, John Marburger, about the handing of the testimony earlier this week by Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She appeared Tuesday before Boxer’s committee, which is crafting global warming legislation.

“We expect our government researchers and scientists to provide both Congress and the public the full results of their taxpayer-supported work without the filter that those of opposing views might like to impose,” Gordon wrote Marburger.

The White House denied that the testimony by Gerberding was “watered down” and noted that she has said she does not believe she was censored.

When a draft of Gerberding’s testimony went to the White House for review, two sections – “Climate Change is a Public Health Concern” and “Climate Change Vulnerability” – and a number of other phrases were removed, cutting the 12-page document in half.

A copy of the draft given to the White House was obtained by The Associated Press.

Earlier, a CDC official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the review process, told the AP that the original draft “was eviscerated” by “heavy-handed” changes in Washington.

Individual states and cities in the U.S. long ago realized they had to take matters into their own hands; this is even truer today. Saying Bush is committing global crimes doesn’t get the job done. Is there an issue more important to economic well-being than survival? Is there any reader out there who doesn’t think that everything from energy to insurance to food to machine tools won’t be more expensive as this unfolds?

Those of us believing in the SNS version of “hyperstructural economics” believe that technology drives the U.S., and global, economies. But even so, climate crisis can easily derail a tech-driven expansion, even as the application of appropriate technology can help mitigate climate crisis.

The time for debate, lobbying, and obfuscation is over. It’s time for leaders of all stripes to get active on this issue, and for citizens to express a deep fear and anger if their leaders do not respond.

The crisis is happening now.