Cheney Edits Testimony on Consequences of Climate Change on Public Health

The Washington Post reported yesterday, in an attempt to play down the facts on the harmful impact of global warming, the office of Vice President Dick Cheney pushed to delete references to the consequences of climate change on public health from congressional testimony.

The proposed testimony came last October from Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Julie Gerberding.

The White House explanation for the edited testimony came in alleged concerns in the accuracy of the science by advisor John Marburger of the White House Office of Science & Technology.

Jason Bernett, former senior EPA official, claimed in a letter to Sen. Barbara Boxer, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, that the White House was concerned that the testimony might make it harder to avoid regulating greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

Hiding the truth has become a terrifying habit of this administration. Their failure to put the safety of the American public before their ties to the oil and gas industries is an embarrassment to the oaths that they took to serve the best interests of the nation.

The evidence is in the science that has been indisputable for years. The devastating implications of global warming must be addressed, and the administration is doing everything in its power to make sure that they are not.

To read the Washington Post article, go to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/08/AR2008070801442.html

The Cartoon is from Roll Call

High Temperatures

Today the Center for American Progress released a summary detailing global warming’s projected effects on human health. Cases of vector-born diseases, respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses, heat waves, food scarcity, wildfires and floods all threaten to increase in a hotter world.

Fortunately several major health organizations will draw attention to the upcoming challenges. The Center for American Progess says:

“The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions holds a hearing this morning on the public health challenges of climate change. The World Health Organization has declared the theme of this week’s annual World Health Day ‘protecting health from climate change.’ And this week’s National Public Health Week is themed ‘Climate Change: Our Health in the Balance.’”

While solving some health issues will be difficult, others can be controlled with wise investments. For example, numbers of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, already rampant in parts of Africa, are rising the with the temperature. However, distributions of insecticide-filled nets in countries like Ethiopia and Kenya have produced miraculous drops in malaria cases.

Last night on a special charity episode of American Idol, British Prime Minster Gordon Brown announced that his government would supply the funds for 20 million mosquito bed nets. “That's one in six of the 120m bed nets the world needs," Brown said. “And I'm challenging the rest of the world - governments, business and anyone else who wants to end this killer disease - to join us in this effort by donating money for nets.”