AP: Congress takes on climate issues, including alleged political pressure on scientists

[PhilipShore]

January 30, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/30/america/NA-GEN-US-Congress-Climate.php


WASHINGTON: Two private advocacy groups say they have found evidence of political pressure on government climate scientists in seven federal agencies to downplay the threat of global warming.

Their report was expected to be presented to a House of Representatives committee on Tuesday as the Democratic-controlled Congress steps up its examination of climate policy in the Bush administration.

The intense interest on climate change comes as about 500 climate scientists gathered in Paris this week to put final touches on a United Nations report about how warming, as a result of a growing concentration of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, is likely to affect sea levels.

Allegations of political pressure have been at the center of a controversy involving James Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and one of the country's top experts on climate change. Hansen has accused the space agency of trying to keep him from speaking publicly about global warming.