EPA releases additional evidence of Bush's global warming secrecy

On October 13, 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency released a copy of a Bush/Cheney administration’s EPA report on global warming, previously acknowledged to exist, but only just released to the public under the Freedom of Information Act.

The report written in 2007 had restrained and measured language, with minimal detail, suggesting the EPA biologists were weary of how the White House might react. It became well known that the Bush/Cheney team did not want to regulate greenhouse gases.

None-the-less, their EPA 2007 report conclusion was the same as the Obama administration EPA findings in 2009: scientific evidence concluded that curbing C02 emissions was critical to avoid serious consequences to the country on a health, economic, and security level.

“The report demonstrates that in 2007 the science was as clear as it is today," Adora Andy, an EPA spokeswoman, said. "The conclusions reached then by EPA scientists should have been made public and should have been considered”—as part of the on going national debate.

"Both reach the same conclusion: the public is endangered and regulation is required," said Jason Burnett, a former associate deputy administrator. Burnett resigned from the EPA in June 2008 over the frustration of the Bush administration's inaction on climate change. "Science and the law transcend politics."

This jives with 2006/07 photographsthat were finally declassified and released to the public by the Obama administration in July, 2009. They were taken from space by NASA at the same location two years apart. The sea ice had completely disappeared.

Furthermore, the U. S. Military had thousands of photographs that were kept secret by the Bush administration. This particular set of photographs emphasizes the dramatic reduction in sea ice along Port of Barrow, Alaska, taken from satellites in July, 2006. Photographs from the same position at the site were taken again in July, 2007. The difference was astonishing. Photographic evidence for 2008 and 2009 don’t give reason to be optimistic about any reversal in the damage.

In fact, Canadian Astronaut, Bob Thirsk, made some interesting observations from the International Space Station on Sunday, July 26, 2009.

Thirsk had not seen the glaciers from space for twelve years and he was taken by surprise at the difference he observed—and he felt sad. He saw signs of human destruction as he gazed down at the planet, through a fragile, thin layer of Earth’s atmosphere that protects all life.

“These are one-metre resolution images, which give you a big picture of the summer time Arctic”, said Thorsten Markus of Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Centre.

The pictures are proof of more than 1 million kilometers of vanishing sea ice in 2007 as compared to the previous year is a jaw-dropping loss. Polar bears, seals, walruses, and other wildlife are already being nudged closer to extinction by melting sea ice, dwindling habitat, and reduced food source.

President Obama and congressional Democrats have the task of pulling the United States out of eight years of political dogma by the Bush administration to bring us up to the scientific level of climate change acknowledgement and strategic dedication of reversing the damaging trend. Laws and regulations are imperative in order to fight a galactic-ally complex issue that affects all the Earth’s governments and global population.

The Boxer-Kerry climate billis being mulled over in congress and has gotten the support of a few Republicans. It is critically important to get the legislation passed into a law for the president to sign. Hopefully, before he goes to Copenhagen in December to take a leadership role at the climate summit.

The previously classified photographs, locked away from the American public, and the Bush/Cheney era EPA report just released, clearly illustrate the smugness and apathy of an administration that knowingly placed greed, big oil, and special interest cronyism, above the need to protect a planet, whose entire population could be at risk.

***Copyright DelilahStarling 2009