Mother Jones:
Top environmental officials under Perry have gutted a recent report on sea level rise in Galveston Bay, removing all mentions of climate change. For the past decade, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which is run by Perry political appointees including famed global warming denier Bryan Shaw, has contracted with the Houston Advanced Research Center to produce regular reports on the state of the Bay. But when HARC submitted its most recent State of the Bay publication to the commission earlier this year, officials decided they couldn't accept a report that said climate change is caused by human activity and is causing the sea level to rise.
In addition to editing out mentions of climate change, note that the commission even edited out the prediction of how the bay was rising and would continue to rise, and reference to human intervention as being the main reason for disappearance of area wetlands. In other words, they edited out the whole purpose of the report.
Anderson has refused to let TCEQ publish the heavily edited version of his work. "It would not have been a worthwhile paper," he says. "It would not have said anything."
Perry is a notorious(ly dim) climate denier, and the decision from this Texas commission points rather squarely to what happens when plain scientific results clash with a predetermined ideology: The research has to be erased, so that there is no longer a conflict. You say the bay is rising by three millimeters a year? Well, we'll just see about that, Mr. Measuring Guy. Our leaders say it's not happening, and they have hell of a lot more clout than you.
It sounds like something from North Korea or the old Soviet Union. Nope! Modern conservatism, where ideology trumps actual facts. Next up: airbrushing Reagan out of old photos, because he was just way, way too moderate.
Top Comments for today are here.