Government Scientists Subject to Policy

This CBS News article is about 10 days old now but I didn't have time to complete this post when the article was first published. From the article:

Two private advocacy groups told a congressional hearing Tuesday that climate scientists at seven government agencies say they have been subjected to political pressure aimed at downplaying the threat of global warming.

What? Someone's superiors insisting that their employees' actions should actually be bound by agency policy?

It amuses me when I see some indignant reporter trying to suggest that government employees shouldn't be controlled by their supervisors. Imagine the chaos that would result if all government employees were given carte blanche to pursue their own interests. It would be the same chaos that would result in a private organization run in that manner.

Reporters are certainly free to criticize the Bush Administration's policy on global warming, but to try to make a story out of the Administration's efforts to administer its policy is just plain silly.

The Democratic chairman of the House panel examining the government's response to climate change said Tuesday there is evidence that senior Bush administration officials sought repeatedly "to mislead the public by injecting doubt into the science of global warming."

How is it 'misleading the public' to inject doubt into the science of global warming? There is plenty of doubt and uncertainty in the science of global warming. The public should be encouraged to question what the alarmists are telling them.

About the only aspect of global warming that most scientists agree on is that the earth is warming -- but some are beginning to question that. Some say that we might enter a little ice age within about twenty years. There is a lot of disagreement about whether human activity is a significant contributor to warming and, if it is, whether we can do anything that will significantly slow the warming. There is tremendous disagreement on the rate of warming and its effects. Some argue that the effects might even be a net positive for humans.

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