Titled "Our Changing Planet," the 172-page document was created by The U.S. Global Change Research Program along with the Subcommittee on Global Change Research, and was submitted as a supplement to President Obama's fiscal 2010 budget.
As such, its contents not only impact future and current legislation involving global warming, but also how tax dollars are spent to research and address it.
The report began with an introduction by White House science czar John Holdren, a man directly involved in ClimateGate (h/t Right Pundits via NB reader George):
Members of Congress:
We herewith transmit a copy of Our Changing Planet: The U.S. Climate Change Science Program for Fiscal Year 2010. The report describes the activities and plans of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) established under the Global Change Research Act of 1990. The USGCRP coordinates and integrates scientific research on climate and global change supported by 13 participating departments and agencies of the U.S. government. [...]
The document describes a range of activities including examples of the USGCRP's contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as well as progress in understanding Earth system components of the global climate system, how these components interact, and the processes and forces bringing about changes to the Earth system. [...]
USGCRP is committed to its mission to facilitate the creation and application of knowledge of the Earth's global environment though research, observations, decision support, and communication. We thank the participating agencies for their close cooperation, and we look forward to working with Congress in the continued development of this important program.
Respectfully,
Dr. John P. Holdren,
Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy
Assistant to the President for Science and Technology
The subsequent chapters addressed a number of topics involving climate, and concluded with "Chapter References and Endnotes" where the following names appeared:
- Phil Jones, Director of the British Climate Research Unit
- Gavin Schmidt, NASA climatologist and climate modeler
- Michael Mann, Penn State professor and author of the Hockey Stick graph
- Benjamin Santer, Lawrence Livermore Lab climate modeler
- Raymond Bradley, professor at University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research
- Peter Stott, climate scientist at the UK Met office
- Tom Wigley, climate scientist at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
To be sure, that papers by these scientists would be cited in such a report is by no means shocking. They have been preparing high-profile documents about global warming for years including for the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
In reality, it would have been shocking if this report DIDN'T include them.
However, what is disturbing is that America's news media haven't cross-referenced this high-profile report with all the names in the e-mail messages obtained from the computers of the University of East Anglia, and reported to the American people just how connected to the United States government these people are.
Or would that be too much like journalism?
Before you answer, consider how the press would be all over this report if the scandal involved policies advocated by leading Republicans that were not supported by the media, and the man in the White House was also a Republican.
