When Science and Politics Intersect

Global warming science has been swept under the rug by the Bush Administration in the suppression and distortion of scientific research that obviously points to evidence that the earth’s temperature is rising at an unprecedented rate. I will never forget when George Bush said global warming is not based on "sound science.” The question keeps coming back, although we know the answer very well, that human activity is largely to blame for the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere, in spite of the fact that both the oceans and the land biosphere respond to global warming. Sadly, the White House knowingly caters to the polluters that ought to be curbing their carbon emissions. With industry goals in mind, it’s not sound ‘public policy’ to look at the facts. However, among experts global warming is an ecological crisis. “We can either wait until the sciences come up with additional proofs that will put an end to uncertainties or we can consider uncertainty as the inevitable ingredient of crises in the environment and in public health” (B. Latour, Politics of Nature, p 63). I believe, and I am sure Latour would too, that the slowness to react to the cause and effect of climate change is only creating new difficulties.