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Tempest Brews in Weather Think Tank
Tempest Brews in Weather Think Tank
Scientists: Climate Data Squelched
Sunday, October 01, 2006
BY KITTA MacPHERSON
Star-Ledger Staff
Scientists at a world-renowned climate research lab in New Jersey say their discoveries are being
hidden from public view because their conclusions on global warming differ from those in the
Bush administration.
The scientists, part of the research staff of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
say a spate of press releases as well as a position paper reviewing various studies on the risk of
global warming have been quashed by officials at the Commerce Department.
The researchers work at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Plainsboro, a small
branch of NOAA and the birthplace of the technique that uses computer models to forecast
climate.
They say the press releases and the position paper detailed reports linking intensified hurricanes
to global warming. The reports also predict spells of intense weather like droughts and floods,
and paint some warming as irreversible, the scientists say.
"What can I tell you? I was telling them something they didn't want to hear," said Richard
Wetherald, a career scientist at the federally funded center. "But the public is not being informed
when these things are zapped."
Wetherald, 70, a registered Republican, said the Commerce Department has quashed three
press releases written to trumpet major findings stemming from his research at the lab near
Princeton.
Wetherald's colleague, Thomas Knutson, one of the world's experts on the relationship between
changing climates and extreme weather events, says he has been barred from participating in
two television interviews for national broadcasts to discuss hurricanes and climate change.
"My feeling was that it was not right," Knutson said.
Neither NOAA nor the White House responded to several requests for an interview. President
Bush's science adviser, John Marbuger, was not available for this article.
Tensions between the lab and officials in Washington first came to light last week when the
journal Nature quoted Ants Leetmaa, the director of the Plainsboro center, as saying the Bush
administration has squelched a public statement on hurricanes and climate change prepared last
spring. The paper was the work of a panel of scientists Leetmaa headed.
Scientists: Climate Data Squelched
Sunday, October 01, 2006
BY KITTA MacPHERSON
Star-Ledger Staff
Scientists at a world-renowned climate research lab in New Jersey say their discoveries are being
hidden from public view because their conclusions on global warming differ from those in the
Bush administration.
The scientists, part of the research staff of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
say a spate of press releases as well as a position paper reviewing various studies on the risk of
global warming have been quashed by officials at the Commerce Department.
The researchers work at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Plainsboro, a small
branch of NOAA and the birthplace of the technique that uses computer models to forecast
climate.
They say the press releases and the position paper detailed reports linking intensified hurricanes
to global warming. The reports also predict spells of intense weather like droughts and floods,
and paint some warming as irreversible, the scientists say.
"What can I tell you? I was telling them something they didn't want to hear," said Richard
Wetherald, a career scientist at the federally funded center. "But the public is not being informed
when these things are zapped."
Wetherald, 70, a registered Republican, said the Commerce Department has quashed three
press releases written to trumpet major findings stemming from his research at the lab near
Princeton.
Wetherald's colleague, Thomas Knutson, one of the world's experts on the relationship between
changing climates and extreme weather events, says he has been barred from participating in
two television interviews for national broadcasts to discuss hurricanes and climate change.
"My feeling was that it was not right," Knutson said.
Neither NOAA nor the White House responded to several requests for an interview. President
Bush's science adviser, John Marbuger, was not available for this article.
Tensions between the lab and officials in Washington first came to light last week when the
journal Nature quoted Ants Leetmaa, the director of the Plainsboro center, as saying the Bush
administration has squelched a public statement on hurricanes and climate change prepared last
spring. The paper was the work of a panel of scientists Leetmaa headed.