From An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore

One prominent source of disinformation on global warming has been the Bush-Cheney White House.

They have attempted to silence scientists working for the government who, like James Hanson at NASA, have tried to warn about the extreme danger we are facing. They have appointed "skeptics" recommended by oil companies to key positions, from which they can prevent action against global warming. As our principal negotiators in international forums, these skeptics can prevent agreement on a worldwide response to global warming.

At the beginning of 2001, President Bush hired a lawyer/lobbyist named Phillip Cooney to be in charge of environmental policy in the White House. For the previous six years, Cooney had worked at the American Petroleum Institute and was the person principally in charge of the oil and coal companies' campaign to confuse the American people about this issue.

Even though Cooney has no scientific training whatsoever, he was empowered by the President to edit and censor the official assessments of global warming from the EPA and other parts of the federal government. In 2005, a White House memo authorized by Cooney (a portion of which appears below) was leaked to the New York Times by a hidden whistleblower inside the administration. Cooney had diligently edited out any mention of the dangers global warming poses to the American people. The newspaper's disclosure was embarrassing to the White House, and Cooney, in what has become a rare occurrence in the last few years, resigned. The next day, he went to work for Exxon Mobil.

The New York Times

(Next to his deletions, Cooney wrote in the memo's margin: "Straying from research strategy into speculative findings from here.")

Warming will also cause reductions in mountain glaciers and advance the timing of the melt of mountain snow peaks in polar regions. In turn, runoff rates will change and flood potential will be altered in ways that are currently not well understood. There will be significant shifts in the seasonality of runoff that will have serious impacts on native populations that rely on fishing and hunting for their livelihood. These changes will be further complicated by shifts in precipitation regimes and a possible intensification and increased frequency of hydrologic events. Reducing the uncertainties in current understanding between climate change and Arctic hydrology is critical.

© 2006 by Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, Rodale, p. 264

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