Gina Solomon's Blog
White House Meddling in Health and Global Warming Science
October 24, 2007
Posted by Gina Solomon in Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
What is it about global warming that the occupants of the White House don't seem to understand? It's beginning to seem like the only people who just don't get it are a few people in big buildings in Washington. Only two weeks after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for describing how global warming will affect the planet and human health, the White House is now censoring scientific statements based on their work.
In the latest round of meddling, White House censors yesterday gutted the testimony of the nation’s leading public health official – Dr. Julie Gerberding, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - by slashing more than half of her testimony to the Senate on the health effects of global warming. Read more about it in the Washington Post here and in the Associated Press here.
The White House completely eliminated seven pages of testimony on the health impacts of global warming, including explanations and descriptions of the links with heat stroke, weather disasters, worsening air pollution and allergies, food- and water-borne infectious diseases, mosquito and tick-borne infectious diseases, food and water scarcity, mental health problems, and even chronic disease. Perhaps the White House doesn’t want the U.S. public to know that climate change will directly affect their health and their lives.
Dr. Gerberding’s original testimony also explained that the burdens of global warming will fall on certain vulnerable populations. Her original testimony included the following detailed information on who is most at risk, which the White House seemingly doesn’t want people to know: "Children are at greater risk of worsening asthma, allergies, and certain infectious diseases, and the elderly are at higher risk for health effects due to heat waves, extreme weather events, and exacerbations of chronic disease. In addition, people of lower socioeconomic status are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events. Members of racial and ethnic minority groups suffer particularly from air pollution as well as inadequate health care access, while athletes and those who work outdoors are more at risk from air pollution, heat, and certain infectious diseases." Yikes, that sounds like most of us! I guess that's the problem.
The original CDC testimony also included the following statement, that was removed by OMB: "Scientific evidence supports the view that the earth’s climate is changing. A broad array of organizations (federal, state, local, multilateral, faith-based, private and nongovernmental) is working to address climate change. Despite this extensive activity, the public health effects of climate change remain largely unaddressed. CDC considers climate change a serious public health concern." Apparently the White House does not agree that CDC should consider climate change a ‘serious public health concern’.
The science on the health effects of global warming is growing stronger and more urgent every day. It’s beginning to seem like everyone understands these connections except the occupants of the White House. As wildfires burn in Southern California threatening homes and lives, and the water supply in Atlanta is draining dry, the White House is apparently trying to duck the inevitable question – are we already seeing the direct health effects of climate change today?
In case anyone's curious, take a look at the original testimony by the CDC director, and the gutted testimony that she gave yesterday to the Senate.
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- Gina Solomon
- Senior Scientist
- San Francisco
- I've been a Senior Scientist at NRDC for twelve years, and my work is focused on protecting people...
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