Lawmakers question continued censoring of climate scientists

Two members of the House Committee on Science and Technology have written to Dick Kemthorpe, secretary of the interior, to ask why federal scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Service are being prohibited from discussing climate change.

Representatives Bart Gordon, D-TN, the committee chairman, and Brad Miller, D-NC, chairman of the oversight and investigations subcommittee, were responding to an article in The New York Times that said FWS scientists had been instructed not to speak of global warming in relation to efforts to save Arctic species - such as polar bears - whose survival is threatened by the warming Arctic environment.

This “appears to be the latest effort by the Bush Administration to block a full and free discussion of issues relating to climate change by the scientific community, despite the President’s recent acknowledgement that global warming was an issue that needed to be addressed,” they wrote.

See also

 Science committee letter (PDF)