A couple of days ago, I
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2007/10/lets_improve_the_quality_of_th.php">wrote
about the government reforms proposed by
href="http://www.centerforinquiry.net/advocacy/protecting_scientific_integrity_2/">The
Center for Inquiry. Specifically,
- Enact legislation to specifically permit
government scientists to communicate freely with the media and the
public. - Re-establish the Office of Technology Assessment
- Reform the Data Quality Act
Now, Think Progress has a post in which
they detail how the
Administration
href="http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/23/gerberding-global-warming/#comment-4130401">watered
down the congressional testimony given on the topic of the
health effects of climate change.
Despite the ham-handed censorship, some content is openly available at
this point...
Health
Concerns Spur U.S. Senate to Global Warming Action
By J.R. Pegg
WASHINGTON, DC, October 23, 2007 (ENS)
Amid growing evidence that scientists have
underestimated the pace of global warming, public health experts on
Tuesday urged U.S. lawmakers to support efforts to better understand
the human health impacts from climate change.
There was testimony by the Director of the CDC,
href="http://www.cdc.gov/about/leadership/director.htm"
rel="tag">Julie Gerberding, M.D., M.P.H., and
others. It was Dr. Gerberding's testimony that was censored.
Other testimony was given by
href="http://www.pbs.org/tradesecrets/program/pop_inter07.html"
rel="tag">Michael McCally M.D.,
Ph.D., Professor and Vice Chairman of the
Department of Community and Preventative Medicine at Mount Sinai, and
executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Scientists predict climate change will
increase heat waves, fires, flooding, hurricanes and drought - all of
which adversely impact human health, McCally said.
Furthermore, a warming climate also has the potential to
decrease air quality, negatively impact the quantity and quality of
fresh water supplies and increase vector, food and water-borne diseases.
According to Dr. Gerberding:
"Weather is inextricably linked to
health," said Julie Gerberding, director of the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control, CDC. "We see that in the kinds of weather events that
occur every day. We see it seasonally with the relationship to
influenza, we see it over years in the consequences of things like El
Nino, and I believe we will see this on a much a long time-frame in the
context of our changing climate."
Gerberding, citing the raging fires in California, the
drought affecting the southeastern United States and this week's
flooding in New Orleans, said CDC is increasingly "being asked to
prepare and respond to these kinds of extreme weather events."
It will be expensive to undertake the preparations needed to avert or
mitigate health effects of climate change. I'd say it would
make sense for us to start now, and to stop wasting money on senseless
military adventurism.