I don’t really cover the environmental beat. Not that I don’t care (I care, really, I do…), but because there are plenty of other people who know far about these issues than I do.

But, prompted by the announcement today of the new British Report on climate change and their hiring of Al Gore as a consultant, I thought I’d highlight an interesting story on the front page of the Sunday Rutland Herald this weekend.

Here it is…

Leahy: President censored warming research

October 29, 2006

By KEVIN O’CONNOR Staff Writer

BURLINGTON — U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., joined the world’s leading researcher on global warming Saturday to charge that the Bush administration’s use of censorship to foil terrorism is hurting the fight against climate change and other environmental threats.

“If you have information that points out a problem, the only way you’re going to make a correction is if you find out about it,” Leahy said. “I have never seen an administration, either Republican or Democratic, as secretive as this one. It has become absolutely farcical, except that the country has been damaged by it.”

Leahy, speaking in Burlington, punctuated his point by sitting beside top NASA climate scientist James Hansen, who alleged in January that the government was trying to stop him from speaking out after he called for prompt reductions in pollution emissions linked to global warming.

“There’s a huge gap between what is understood by scientists and what is known by the public and policymakers,” Hansen said Saturday. “I think people are unaware how close we are to the tipping point. That’s not speculation. The science is clear.”

Leahy and Hansen made their comments at the Society of Environmental Journalists international conference at the Sheraton Burlington Hotel, which drew 800 participants from around the world. Hansen is known as the man who testified before Congress in 1988 about a strong “cause and effect relationship” between temperature and pollution emissions into the atmosphere, sparking the first news reports about global warming.

UPDATE: And, of course, this is all in the context of a repeated pattern of meddling with scientific data for political gain…

Like that Carpetbagger fellow writes in his “Bush administration snubs scientists — Part MMCXVIII” post of today…

It is, unfortunately, a familiar tale. Career officials and scientists urged the Interior Department to base decisions on evidence and empirical research; a Bush political appointee ignored the staff reports and followed the advice of industry interests.

What struck me as slightly different about this instance was that MacDonald was, well, mean. According to the WaPo, she not only overruled scientists’ conclusions, she “mocked rank-and-file employees’ recommendations.”

First, where does the Bush gang find these people for influential government posts?

Second, I’ve completely lost count of how many times Bush appointees have taken credible scientific research and disregarded it for political purposes. Plan B emergency contraception, stem-cell research, global warming … I sometimes get the impression that the Bush gang reflexively believes, “If a scientist can prove it, we don’t like it.”