Bush says this isn’t Censorship- Hiding the Polar Bears
Scientists travelling abroad who work for the US Fish and Wildlife Service are no longer allowed to speak about Polar Bears. This is the edict that has fallen from on high. Even when the Scientists are at conferences to discuss Global Warming they are not to discuss Polar bears. Scientists have been censored by the Bush Administration.
This is about the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Does Dubya think that if Scientists can’t mention them that the problem will magically go away? Does Dubya think that all the bad press he’s gotten because of his trashing of all our environmental protection laws and our agencies that police such things is going to magically disappear if scientists, while doing the job they’re being paid to do, don’t talk about Polar Bears? Does he think that just because nobody talks about Polar Bears that he will be able to dodge the silver bullet when they’re declared an Endangered Species?
According to the MIT Technology Review Blog:
The order to squelch talk about polar bears came in a “new requirement” listing to government scientists traveling abroad. Henceforth, if they are participating in a meeting “involving or potentially involving climate change, sea ice, and/or polar bears,” they need to report this and have a spokesperson assigned to articulate the administration’s policies. Fish and Wildlife officials want to be sure that “the one responding to questions on these issues, particularly polar bears,” understands the administration’s position on these topics.Fish and Wildlife director H. Dale Hale said this was not an attempt to censor scientists, though the travel memos specifically require that the traveler “understands the administration’s position on climate change, polar bears, and sea ice and will not be speaking on or responding to these issues.” The memos were discovered and released by two environmental groups, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Center for Biological Diversity.
This comes as the Bush administration decides whether or not to list these mountains of fangs and white fur as “threatened” because of the shrinking ice floes–which would be an acknowledgement of the severity of global warming that this presidency has been reluctant to admit, and has done little to counter.
What next, Dubya? Are you going to muzzle anyone who mentions Iraq and Profiteering?
Technorati Tags: Censorship, Polar Bears, Global Warming, US Fish and Wildlife Service
