Science, Policy, Whatever

Cooking the books on science could be a problem. Lobbying to change policy, not. U.S. Pressure Weakens G-8 Climate Plan By Juliet Eilperin:

Bush administration officials working behind the scenes have succeeded in weakening key sections of a proposal for joint action by the eight major industrialized nations to curb climate change. Under U.S. pressure, negotiators in the past month have agreed to delete language that would detail how rising temperatures are affecting the globe, set ambitious targets to cut carbon dioxide emissions and set stricter environmental standards for World Bank-funded power projects, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. Negotiators met this week in London to work out details of the document, which is slated to be adopted next month at the Group of Eight's annual meeting in Scotland.

But it's far from clear that whatever climate changes are taking place will uniformly damage the environment--the most common example being the possibility that higher temperatures could aid agriculture. And here's the real shocker:

The administration's push to alter the G-8's plan on global warming marks its latest effort to edit scientific or policy documents to accord with its position that mandatory carbon dioxide cuts are unnecessary.

Impudent adminstration pushers of administration goals! Begone with you!