Washington, D.C.
Half of the federal government’s climate scientists say they had been ordered by Bush administration officials to eliminate references to global warming in their reports, according to a survey released this week. The poll of 279 government climate scientists, conducted by the nonpartisan Union of Concerned Scientists, was released this week during hearings by the House Oversight Committee. The panel’s chairman, Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman of California, accused the administration of doctoring scientific reports to “mislead the public by injecting doubt into the science of global warming.” Administration officials have said they merely wanted to add balance to reports on climate change. President Bush has acknowledged that climate change is occurring, but he opposes mandatory caps on the greenhouse gases that contribute to it.
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