Climate Researchers Feeling Heat From White House

Scientists doing climate research for the federal government say the Bush administration has made it hard for them to speak forthrightly to the public about global warming. The result, the researchers say, is a danger that Americans are not getting the full story on how the climate is changing.

Employees and contractors working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, along with a U.S. Geological Survey scientist working at an NOAA lab, said in interviews that over the past year administration officials have chastised them for speaking on policy questions; removed references to global warming from their reports, news releases and conference Web sites; investigated news leaks; and sometimes urged them to stop speaking to the media altogether. Their accounts indicate that the ideological battle over climate-change research, which first came to light at NASA, is being fought in other federal science agencies as well.

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer

Full Story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/05/AR2006040502150.html

(Thanks to Headwaters news http://www.headwatersnews.org for passing this along. Russ)