Memo to Congress: Deny, Deny, Deny

We earlier reported that scientists are complaining that the Bush administration is promoting junk science in order to justify its programs. Now an internal memo that was sent to Republican congressmen about the upcoming Presidential election has been leaked. It tells them to say things like “global warming is not a fact,” “links between air quality and asthma in children remain cloudy,” and “The U.S. Environment Protection Agency is exaggerating when it says that at least 40% of streams, rivers and lakes are too polluted for drinking, fishing or swimming.”

Antony Barnett writes in the Observer that the memo advises their press secretaries to say that “air quality is ‘getting better,’ the world’s forests are ‘spreading, not deadening,’ oil reserves are ‘increasing, not decreasing,’ and the ‘world’s water is cleaner and reaching more people,'” despite the fact that most legitimate scientists disagree with all of the above statements.

The memo cites dubious sources, such as a report from Pacific Research Institute that was funded with $130,000 from Exxon Mobil. Its only global warming source is Richard Lindzen, who has also received money from major oil companies. Most scientists disagree with his opinions.

Not all Republicans agree that by denying unpleasant facts, you can make them go away. Republican Mike Castle says, “If I tried to follow these talking points at a town hall meeting with my constituents, I’d be booed.”

Those of us who are justly worried about global warming and pollution would like to be able to vote in the upcoming election according WHAT KIND of plans each party might have when it comes to solving these problems; we don’t want to be forced to vote for one party because the other one is denying these problems exist. When will the current administration wake up and realize that we are not as dumb and easy to manipulate as they seem to think?

How can we trust the government when they set up a bioweapons lab in the middle of surburbia, where they may have unleashed West Nile and Lyme disease on an unsuspecting public?

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