An inconvenient report

Posted By Kate Palmer Wednesday, September 27, 2006 - 1:25 PM Share

katrina-from-space The furor over leaks from the National Intelligence Estimate on the war on terror--and the Bush administration's desire to keep much of the report's status classified--is topic A in Washington these days. But there's another hot report (excuse the pun) that's getting much less attention amid the infighting. According to a report by Jim Giles in the journal Nature (subscription only), the Bush administration is blocking a study that describes the positive correlation between global warming and stronger hurricane activity.

The report, produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was supposed to be released in May, but was deemed too "technical" for public consumption by the Commerce Department, which oversees NOAA. I can think of a few cities in Florida and Louisiana that would probably disagree. Given the administration's noted skepticism of the dangers of global warming, as well as the perception of an inadequate response to the devastating Hurricane Katrina, the blocking of this report at the very least sends the wrong message.

Seed Magazine is reporting that the NOAA has not taken an official stance on the issue. We'll follow this case to see what happens if and when it does.

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