- 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 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, Julie Gerberding, M.D., M.P.H., and others. It was Dr. Gerberding's testimony that was censored. Other testimony was given by 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.
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