Reconstructing Climatic and Environmental Changes FOIA Email 6.23.03

1. A'2
V sC~..Khary I. cauthen
0612312003 03:03:50 PM
Record Type: Record
Stolpe/CEQIEOP@EOP, Bryan J.
To: Dana M. PerinoICEQIEOP@EOP, Elizabeth A.
HannegaflICEQIEOP@EOP
cc: Phil Cooney/CEQIEOP@EOP
of th )se together---
Subject: Ponderous that the same paper ran both
2003 Monday
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution June 23,
on
Copyright 2003 The Atlanta Journal-Constitu
http://www.aic.cOM
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
June 23, 2003 Monday Home Edition
SECTION: Editorial; Pg. 10A
LENGTH: 640 words
at for hiding facts on global warming
HEADLINE: OUR OPINIONS: Give EPA h
SOURCE: AJC
BODY:
administration: if the facts don't suit
Th ere is a dangerous pattern emerging from he Bush
President Bush's policies, distort them.
that Bush and his aides hyped intelligence
Public attention has already been focused on charges
committees are investigating.
on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. TWO congressional
Protection Agency report leaves Out critical
Now comes news that an important Enviro mental
confirmed by a special study requested by t he
scientific facts on global warming --- even facts
the Earth's alarming temperature increase
president himself last year. That study substlatiated
carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of
over the last decade and its major cause, incjeased.
and coal-fired utilities.
fossil fuels. The biggest sources are automobiles
1 Quality and Bush budget officials changed the
The White House Council on Environment
on the nation's environmental challenges to be
global warming section of a comprehensive report
final contribution of EPA chief Christie
issued by the EPA next week. The report ws the
Whitman, who is stepping down as agency chministrator.

2. on environmental issues, continued her habit
Whitman, who came to her post with a good record
]-ouse slaps down science in favor of its corporate
of turning the other cheek whenever the White report.
te
oil friends. She said she is "comfortable" with
on the global warming issue shortly after
Ironically, Whitman suffered her first embarrassment
jonal co mmunity that the United States was
she was sworn in, when she assured the interna U.S.
reductions, only to have Bush rescind the
serious about its commitment to carbon dioxid departing
sad that in her last week at the agency, the
signature to the global warming treaty. It is
EPA chief must suffer a similar embarrassmefl.
from the
the human contribution to global warming
Among the deletions were conclusions about similar
Wijte House commissioned (after rejecting
2001 National Research Council report the in
scietists), one that Bush previously endorsed
conclusions by a United Nations panel of a respected
also. dbleted a reference to a 1999 study by
several speeches. White House officials
had gone up sharply in the last decade
panel of scientists showing that global temnperhitres to a
year. Instead, Bush officials added a reference
compared with levels over the past 1,000 conclusion.
P~troleum Institute, questioning that
new study, partly financed by the American
statement upon whi ch scientists agree:
Deleted from the report, for example, is even ~he simple
for human health and the environment." That
'Climate change has global consequences
and confuse;, it cites the complexities of the
statement is replaced with one meant to obfuscate
TI e White House changes were so extensive,
issue and the need to resolve uncertainties. that the
giv,-n to the media by a former EPA official,
,~~according to an April 29 EPA staff memo scientific consensus on climate change."
report's climate section "no longer accurately frepresents
other
psiden-tl-srefii sal~o face the~facts onggbal warming cannot be construed as anything facts
The - years minimizing scientific
thanblaantpandrin tohis fiedsifB'WO Mhey-have-spent
alternative energy sources that could save
and refusing to concede the need for conserv ition and
ronmental consequences.
our children from serious economic and envi
member on the Senate Enirnm nC~d Public
Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.), the ranking minoril
committee members4 ha s asked the White
Works committee, along with several Demoeratic
section. Members on both sides of the aisle
House for the original drafts of the climate c range at least
Aerican people are being misled on a matter
are obligated to find out to what extent the
as Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
as important to the future security of the nation
&nibs p;
3, 2003 Monday
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution June
Copyright 2003 The Atlanta Journal-Constiution
http://www.ajc.com
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

3. June 23, 2003 Monday Home Edition
SECTION: Editorial; Pg. I lA
LENGTH: 469 words
climate
HEADLINE: EQUAL TIME: Nature, not mar, to blam e for warmer
BYLINE: ROBERT GREGG
SOURCE: For the Journal-Constitution
BODY:
the groundbreaking research
it is true that the American Petroleum Institute helped sponsor
But API's role was relatively small.
referred to in The New York Times story on Elobal warming.
agencies, including NASA, the
Most of the funding for the research came fro riseveral federal
U.S. Air Force and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
is the critical substance of
But focusing on the funding misses the point. Muc h more important
Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas of
the research itself, which was done by two en iinent scientists,
Mass.
the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astroph-sics in Cambridge,
between 800 A.D. and 1300 A.D.
Their analysis suggests that the world was as warm or warmer
--- nature was more important than
as in the late 20th century. If that's true --- an Iit appears to be
era.
cars or coal-fired utilities in causing higher t mperatures in that
century was not unusual. They
Their work found that the warming experien~ed in the late 20th
coral, glaciers and other sources,
analyzed 240 separate studies of tree nings, ide cores, stalactites,
1,000 years.
including cultural and documentary records going back over
surrounding global climate
Their conclusions are important because for decade, the debate
only during the final
change has assumed that significant increase in temperature occurred
sour ce of energy for mankind.
decades of the 20th century when fossil fuel became the main
arm, the International Panel on
That has been the conclusion of the United ations' scientific
~
for producing the greenhouse
Climate Change, which says that human activity is largely to blame
gases that drive temperatures up.
of the debate about climate
Until now, the United Nations' work has set ~h agenda for much
based on a single tree-ring study
change. Its report constructed a mathematics l temperature model
of data collected mostly from Northern Henjisphere locatio ns.
was neither unique nor as
,,B'aliunas and Soon found that warming durijig the 20th century
was less than one-tnho
eteme as during those earlier simpler time when world population

4. 4*A
wsyet to come.
what it is today, and the Industrial Revolution
naturally
wetr minimal. So, if climate was changing
in other words, emissions caused by people not the main
do we know that forces of nature are
and significantly hundreds of years ago, how
causes of climate change today?
from
chE nge from that possibly caused by emissions
And how do we disting uish natural climate
f coal to generate electricity.?
the internal combustion engine, or the burning
i
change will help all of us to set the night
Intelligent discussion of the science surrounding climate
public policies on this highly complex issue.
prop ras for the American Petroleum Institute.
Robert Greco is director of global climate
******
&nb sp;
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution June 231 2003 Monday
on
Copyright 2003 The Atlanta Journal-Constitut
http://www.ajc. corn
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution