W, “Flat-Earther”

As a follow-up to my previous post about W’s administration covering up a recent climatological study, I came upon an article in The Nation that serves as an even more disturbing reminder of the current administration’s self-serving, archaic environmental policies. The article, entitled “The Junk Science of George W. Bush,” provides many startling examples of corruption, cover-ups, and outright lies, summarized nicely by this quote: “The Bush Administration’s first instinct when it comes to science has been to suppress, discredit or alter facts it doesn’t like.” Not exactly an enlightened view, but then again, no one ever accused W of being a Renaissance man. I can’t do the article justice, so you should really read through it for yourself. Although the many examples detailed in the article are bad enough, I think the worst effect of this administration’s track record of influencing government agencies to its own ends will be to discredit them for years to come:

The Bush Administration has so violated and corrupted the institutional culture of government agencies charged with scientific research that it could take a generation for them to recover their integrity even if Bush is defeated this fall. Says Princeton University scientist Michael Oppenheimer, “If you believe in a rational universe, in enlightenment, in knowledge and in a search for the truth, this White House is an absolute disaster.”

Thanks, W.

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