04/06/2007
WASHINGTON - Senator John Kerry today rebuked the Bush Administration in response to reports that several key Administration officials attempted to censor portions of an international report warning of climate change repercussions.
"This is the latest example of the Bush Administration trying to change the science to fit their ideological agenda. It's an embarrassment. Restoring American leadership in the world means we should be the world's leading advocate, not the world's leading denier of climate change. We should lead the world to address climate change rather than joining with Saudi Arabia as the leader of the flat earth caucus. This is the latest chapter in the Bush Administration story of diplomacy at its worst -- ducking the difficult choices, substituting words for deeds, postponing the reckoning until the day after tomorrow. The world is changing and now the reckoning is real. Here's the bottom line: within the next decade, if we don't deal with global warming, our children and grandchildren will have to deal with global catastrophe. It is time to start leading, not retreating from our responsibility."
Today's report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns of the global effects of climate change, including extreme weather patterns, increasing droughts that lead to famine and disease, massive floods and avalanches in Asia, and species extinction unless significant action is taken on a global level to abate climate change.
During the past six years, the Bush Administration has made several attempts to block or censure government employees or reports that warn of global warming. The United States, Saudi Arabia and China worked to tone down the panel's report, leading many of the report's most alarming projections to be generalized.