The Global Warming Cover Up

I was watching 60 Minutes tonight and one of NASA's top staff, James Hansen who has studied the Earth's ecology and global warming problem for several years openly talked in an interview tonight about the Bush administrations attempt to cover up the severity of the problem. Yet another secret our government is keeping from us; one that was disastrous consequences if it's not dealt with.

Hansen believes that if we don't decrease the amount of Carbon Dioxide and other gases that are being released into the atmosphere, within the next 10 years, we will not be able to reverse the rapid effects that global warming is having on the Earth. But you won't find this theory in any report that comes out of the White House, because to quote Hansen "In my more than three decades in the government I've never witnessed such restrictions on the ability of scientists to communicate with the public,". Hansen states that several reports he's written have been altered to downplay the impact Global Warming is having on the Earth. These changes have been made before the report even makes it to Congress, which makes the covering up even more malicious.

This process of covering up the truth is deeply disturbing, because if we don't face the reality of what we as humans are doing today and how our behavior is having a negative impact on the Earth, we won't be able to save future generations from paying for our mistakes. As I understand it, there are things that can be done to decrease the amount of Carbon Dioxide and other gases in the air. One of the major causes of pollution comes from cars and fuel emissions. If we put more money into technology to create better fuel burning methods or better yet, cars that don't need to run on fuel at all or only on limited amounts, we'd be better off. Hybrid cars are the future, but I think the Bush Administration has too much invested in the fuel industry to think about the possibility of eliminating or decreasing fuel usage in the United States. His selfishness WILL cost the world a great deal, but his old ass probably won't be around to see the impact his poor decisions will have on the world’s future.

I'm not exactly sure what will happen if the polar caps continue to melt as quickly as they are, but I would imagine in 40 or 50 years it could cause major flooding and climate shifts that would become increasingly disastrous to human life. Look at how warm the winters have become in the North and how hot the summers are and how disastrous the hurricane seasons are becoming. I can only pray that we won't have a hurricane season this year like we did last year, because we can only take so much.

I hope that George Dubya and his White House cronies will take heed to science and stop the secrecy, because it's future generations of human life that will pay the price. At some point, this man has to serve the best interest of the people of our country, which he has yet to do. We don't know the half of what's going on in America and we are continually being fed small, manipulated, censored pieces of information while there are all kinds of shady things going on behind the scenes in our government. Will we ever have honest leadership again in this country? A president who cares about the people and not their own agenda(s)? Given the current landscape, it's hard to believe the American people will be able to really trust our Commander in Chief, because our trust has been so deeply damaged. Let’s hope that our next president will invest in our global ecology.