JONATHAN TURLEY

President Bush has only recently back off of his long opposition to the theory of global warming, once even rejected his own scientists support of the theory as “junk science.” Now, however, it has been disclosed that the White House cut out testimony to Congress that revealed the scope of the dangers of global warming to citizens. The White House severely edited congressional testimony given this week by Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Atlanta-based CDC. It was an extraordinary act of censorship of a health official called to testify on the specific health risks associated with global warming. It also comes at a time when the President, in his final year in office, is trying to establish that now accepts the dangers of global warming and simply opposes the global efforts to curtail the causes of global warming as economically infeasible. When one considers the recent withholding of a study on the high incidents of near misses and accidents in the aviation industry by the Administration, there is a well-based concern over the President’s commitment to protecting the health of average citizens over industry. For the story on the aviation report, click here On the global warming issue, the President has made one valid point. The Chinese and Indians should not be exempted from reduction goals under the international treaty. China is about to become the world’s leading economy and still insists that it shoudl be treated as a developing nation. However, the Administration has opposed virtually every substantive effort domestically and internationally to address the contributors of global warming under pressure from industry. Now, it appears that the White House will not even allow citizens to learn the findings of their own health experts on the implications of the problem. For the full story, click here