Climate Change Research Distorted and Suppressed

The report details multiple instances where the George W. Bush administration intervened in federal scientific reporting to downplay the human role in global warming. Key examples include the removal of climate sections from EPA reports, the censorship of a USDA brochure on carbon sequestration, and the editing of scientific summaries by a non-scientist former oil industry lobbyist to increase perceived uncertainty. The document asserts that these actions undermined the integrity of federal agencies and contradicted the scientific consensus established by the IPCC and the National Academy of Sciences.

• The George W. Bush administration consistently worked to undermine the scientific consensus that human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases contribute to global warming, despite confirmations from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
• In June 2003, the White House attempted to force the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to alter its draft Report on the Environment by deleting a 1,000-year temperature record, removing references to the NAS review, and inserting a discredited study funded by the American Petroleum Institute.
• The EPA eventually deleted the entire climate change section from its report to avoid compromising its credibility by misrepresenting scientific consensus due to White House demands for qualifying language that would insert uncertainty where none existed.
• The administration extended its censorship to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), where the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) dropped a proposal to reprint and translate a successful informational brochure on carbon sequestration after objections from the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ).
• Philip A. Cooney, a lawyer with no scientific training and former employee of the American Petroleum Institute, edited government climate research summaries to overstate uncertainty and remove projections regarding the reduction of mountain glaciers and snowpacks.
• Whistleblower Rick Piltz resigned in March 2005, alleging that political appointees were working to impede the forthright communication of climate science and undermine the integrity of the federal climate change program.

APA

Union of Concerned Scientists (2005). Climate Change Research Distorted and Suppressed. https://www.ucs.org/resources/climate-change-research-distorted-and-suppressed

Chicago

Union of Concerned Scientists. Climate Change Research Distorted and Suppressed. 2005. https://www.ucs.org/resources/climate-change-research-distorted-and-suppressed.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Union of Concerned Scientists |title=Climate Change Research Distorted and Suppressed |date=30 June 2005 |url=https://www.ucs.org/resources/climate-change-research-distorted-and-suppressed |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{unionofconcernedscientists2005climate, author = {{Union of Concerned Scientists}}, title = {{Climate Change Research Distorted and Suppressed}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2005}, month = jun, url = {https://www.ucs.org/resources/climate-change-research-distorted-and-suppressed}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }