Nineteen years ago, on this day, September 30th, 2006,
A group of 14 Democratic lawmakers, led by Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, sends a letter to the inspector generals of both the Commerce Department and NASA requesting formal investigations into allegations that Bush administration political appointees suppressed evidence linking global warming to increased hurricane intensity…
http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=DemsCll4InvstgtnGWEvdncSpprssn#DemsCll4InvstgtnGWEvdncSpprssn
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 382ppm. As of 2025, when this post was published, it is 430ppm. This matters because the more carbon dioxide in the air, the more heat gets trapped. The more heat, the more extreme weather events. You can make it more complicated than that if you want, but really, it’s not. Fwiw, I have a tattoo of the Keeling Curve on my left forearm.
The broader context was that until about 1989 concern over climate change was broadly bi-partisan (this is NOT to say that the people running Reagan were ‘greenies’ – they were not). From 1989 we see serious efforts to silence or sideline top scientists (Hansen, Bolin) and to rile up a culture war. This was under George H.W. Bush.
The specific context was HW’s son, Dumbya – sorry, Dubya – took it to the next level. James Hansen, for example, was on the receiving end of many efforts to sideline/silence him.
What I think we can learn from this is that the people running the show are greedy, stupid, selfish, have no respect for impact science (while loving production science).
What happened next –
Launtberg held hearings the following year –
The War on Science went on, and has accelerated dramatically in the nine months – everybody knows the good guys lost…
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day:
September 29, 2007 – World’s first nuclear power station is demolished