- The White House was accused of politicising research
into climate change yesterday after it emerged that an official with ties
to the oil industry rewrote reports to play down links between greenhouse
gases and global warming.
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- Philip Cooney, the chief of staff for the White House
council on environmental quality, deleted and watered down findings about
the dangers of global warming in a series of government reports.
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- He is a former lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute,
an umbrella group for oil companies, and has no scientific background.
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- The row over the revelations forced the White House on
the defensive over its stance on global warming hours after Tony Blair
failed to win any concessions from President George W Bush on the environment.
The president is sceptical that man-made pollutants are causing global
warming.
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- According to the New York Times, Mr Cooney made dozens
of changes to documents, which cast doubt over findings increasingly regarded
as part of the scientific mainstream. Many of his amendments appeared in
final reports. In a 2002 draft report from the government office that co-ordinates
research into climate change, Mr Cooney deleted a paragraph that detailed
the projected impact of global warming on glaciers and the polar ice-cap.
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- In another example, he added the word "extremely"
to the following sentence: "The attribution of the causes of biological
and ecological changes to climate change or variability is extremely difficult."
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- Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, yesterday
strongly denied that Mr Cooney had politicised science. He said Mr Cooney's
amendments were a standard part of the review process and that he was just
one of many people involved.
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- He added that some of the reports edited by Mr Cooney
had later been endorsed by leading scientific bodies. Mr Bush defended
his record in his joint press conference with the Prime Minister on Tuesday
night.
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- Asked whether he believed that climate change was man-made,
he said America was at the forefront of research into the issue. "I've
always said it's a serious long-term issue that needs to be dealt with,"
he said. "My administration isn't waiting around to deal with it;
we're acting. We want to know more about it. Easier to solve a problem
when you know a lot about it."
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- Earlier, however, the scientific academies of 11 countries,
including America, issued a joint statement saying the time for research
was over and the evidence of global warming was now clear enough to justify
immediate action.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005.
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