Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming [Hardcover]

Mark Bowen (Author)

Book Description

Release date: December 27, 2007

From acclaimed writer and physicist Mark Bowen, Censoring Science tells the true story of the Bush administration’s censorship of the world’s preeminent climatologist, and the science behind global warming that they do not want you to know.

The facts don’t lie:
• 2005 was the warmest year since the invention of the thermometer.
• 2006 is on track to become the hottest year ever recorded in the United States.
• The six hottest years on record have occurred in the last eight years, and the twenty-two hottest years on record have occurred in the last twenty-six years.

Preeminent climatologist and leading NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen has been studying climate for over three decades. It was his testimony to a Senate committee in 1988 that first brought the threat of global warming to the world’s attention. In January 2006, news broke that the Bush administration had been attempting to censor Dr. Hansen—obscuring his message and suppressing the vast body of his scientific work, which unequivocally demonstrates the reality and immense danger of global warming.

Now, for the first time and with unfiltered access, writer and physicist Mark Bowen finally tells the exclusive story of Hansen’s decades-long battle to bring the truth about global warming to light. Censoring Science illuminates the real science behind global warming and maintains that we can still prevent environmental disaster, while both strengthening our economy and our national security. In the tradition of Ron Suskind’s blockbuster bestseller, The Price of Loyalty, Censoring Science exposes the truth behind the administration’s spin doctors, and shares the inside story of one of the most important and influential scientists of our time.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This portrait of NASA climate scientist James Hansen and his decades-long struggle to alert the public about global warming's perils and potential solutions ranges from deeply disturbing and frightening to inspiring. Disturbing, as Bowen (Thin Ice) gives convincing evidence that the Bush administration did its best to control NASA scientists' communication with the public in order to undermine belief in global warming and belittle its consequences. According to Bowen, the administration set up ideological political loyalists in positions formerly held by career professionals, gutted NASA's earth science budget, then denied these actions. Frightening, as Hansen concludes that climate is significantly more sensitive than two years ago and that our choice may be not between no change and a significant change, but between a significant change and disaster. Inspiring, in Bowen's portrayal of Hansen, who obeys the Feynman admonition in both science and policy—describe the evidence very carefully without regard to the way you feel it should be. Bowen's in-depth treatments of politics and science, although hard going at times, give his arguments substance. Hansen's conviction that tools exist right now to mitigate the worst effect—if only we will use them—is surprisingly hopeful. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Mark Bowen is the author of the highly acclaimed book, Thin Ice, which was praised as "one of the best books yet published on climate change" (New York Review of Books) and named the best science book of 2005 by NPR’s Living on Earth. An avid climber with a Ph.D. in physics from MIT, Bowen has written articles for Climbing, Natural History, and Technology Review.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult; First Edition edition (December 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525950141
• ISBN-13: 978-0525950141
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,500,309 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Extremely tedious but informative. July 15, 2008

By J. Dykstra

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I struggle trying to decide what to write about this book. On the one hand, large portions of it are extremely tedious to get through and seem like overkill. On the other hand, a few parts are some of the best writing on the global warming issue I have read recently. The book begins with a section that covers about the first half, which is basically an almost blow-by-blow accounting of all sorts of censorship, editing, distortion, and intimidation by political appointees in NASA. I suspect many people will give up on this book before finishing this part. I think it is too long and detailed. Perhaps more summary with a few well-placed examples would have sufficed. Around the middle of the book, the tone changes greatly, and there is much more coverage of Hansen's actual work through the years and what it showed about global warming. In this section Hansen is depicted as a careful scientist who basically got it right 30 years ago and has been getting better since. This section contains some of the best descriptions of how real-world data and modeling fit the picture, and why global warming deniers are way off base. Finally, towards the end of the book emphasis shifts to Hansen's more recent advocacy in favor of doing something, and (the author's)dire predictions for what's in store if we don't. Curiously, the descriptions of how much Hansen has been doing found at the end of the book seem a little out of synch with the claims of censorship and muzzling found at the beginning of the book.

In the second half of the book, Bowen seems to rely on the work of Journalist Ross Gelbspan, who shares an interest in how political forces have tried to distort or derail the science of global warming, and some of the material from his own previous book on the study of ice....

I think the following extremely important points can be gleaned from the book:
1) Hansen is a very meticulous scientist who shys away from political involvement or spectacular claims in public, in spite of how is he generally characterized by those hoping to smear him.
2) Hansen is perhaps the most important global warming researcher in the US, and has an incredible 30+ year record of solid work and correct predictions or views on things.
3) We have essentially lost many years of attacking the problem of global warming by allowing short-term corporate interests to dictate a policy that puts profit above long-term stability of the environment.
4) There is overwhelming and basically unassailable evidence of what is going on, and a strong basis for solid predictions of what could happen.

I will conclude by suggesting this book, while being very important in some aspects could have been much better in many ways. It can't decide if it's a biography on Dr. Hansen, an investigative report on Bush administration attempts to stymie science, or a scientific wake-up call on global warming. I give it three stars because it's so hard to get through the first half. However, I do suggest that anyone interested in this topic give it a try. Read more ›

17 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Examination of Bush Administration Scientific Censorship At NASA March 8, 2008

By John Kwok HALL OF FAMEVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

The most important scientific issue confronting our fellow Americans, and indeed, all of humanity, is global warming. On a warm, humid afternoon in June 1988, NASA climatologist James Hansen alerted us to its ever present danger, testifying before a U. S. Senate committee, and then, afterwards, to a group of reporters. One mere sentence uttered by Hansen to these reporters, emphasized this danger, "It's time to stop waffling.... and say that the greenhouse effect is here and is affecting our climate now." It is an ever present danger that has garnered the keen interest of diplomats and other politicians worldwide, including those here in the United States. But it is also an ever present danger whose very significance has been ignored by the current administration of President George W. Bush, which has instead, been engaged in scientific censorship of the most virulent kind. Physicist and writer Mark Bowen's "Censoring Science" takes a cold, hard look at the Bush administration's undeniable scientific censorship of NASA climatologist James Hansen in a fast-paced literary style that's more reminiscent of a well-plotted Ian Fleming espionage thriller, than a serious, rather credible, work of investigative scientific journalism. "Censoring Science" offers compelling evidence as to how that censorship worked, trying to cast "doubt" on superb climate science in extensively-edited scientific reports that "demonstrated" the "uncertainties" of this science, not the undeniable facts pointing to the reality of global warming.... Bowen offers an inspirational portrait of Hansen, his research, and his colleagues at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies - the research center headed by Hansen - that's located at the southern end of Columbia University's Morningside Heights campus; ones which are among the most important reasons to acquire this splendid book.

Bowen demonstrates how Bush administration political appointees fostered this censorship, especially through "editing" of press releases of newly published scientific research, and in determining how scientists like Hansen could speak to professional journalists. One of these political appointees was a new appointee, college dropout George Deutsch, who soon announced his keen interest in and support of Intelligent Design by noting in an e-mail to NASA science writer Flint Wild, "... it is not NASA's place, nor should it be, to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator.... We, as NASA, must be diligent here, because this is more than a science issue, it is a religious issue. And I would hate to think that young people would only be getting one half of this debate from NASA." Regrettably, an e-mail such as this one merely reflected the political mindset of those Bush administration appointees like Deutsch, who regarded global warming as "just a theory" unsubstantiated by actual scientific evidence; actual scientific evidence which was being presented by Hansen, other NASA climatologists, and their colleagues across the globe. In his unflinching, unsympathetic depiction of NASA scientific censorship of James Hansen and his research, Bowen deserves ample praise for writing what is truly one of the most important books published this year; one that ought to be read by a wide readership. Read more ›

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Important Book on the Recent History of Climate Science at NASA December 10, 2009

By Roger D. Launius VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

This important book tells one of the most troubling stories of 2005, the attempted silencing of scientific findings about global climate change at NASA in a ham-handed effort to control the story of scientific findings. "Censoring Science" outlines the battle between science and politicians in a very specific incident. Mark Bowen sets an impressive agenda for this book, and generally he does a credible job of explaining three related issues as they came together at NASA Headquarters in the middle part of the decade.

The first is the tragicomic efforts of the Bush administration to control scientists associated with the federal government and attempts to keep them from taking positions on hot-button issues, such as global warming, that would necessitate policy decisions anathema to the conservative political base. This was a broad-based effort involving scientists at NASA, NOAA, and other government agencies. The focus here, however, was on NASA and one particular scientist. This is the second issue that Bowen discusses thoroughly; James R. Hansen has been involved in research about global warming since the 1970s. His organization, NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Manhattan, has a long tradition of tracking the annual global temperatures and has been finding a slow rise over the decades since the space age began. A third area, less well handled by Bowen but certainly a useful overview for general readers, is the manner in which scientific disciplines and questioning has led to the current state of understanding about the phenomenon of global warming.

The story begins with James Hansen, a global climate change scientist at NASA's Goddard institute for Space Studies in Manhattan, N.Y., and he is clearly the star of "Censoring Science...." Throughout he battles bureaucrats, ideologues, and contrarians to ensure that his research findings about global warming are neither bowdlerized nor buried under mountains of pressure from those seeking to minimize changes that might result from knowledge about this threatening crisis of the twenty-first century. "Censoring Science" makes the case that the evidence is compelling for global warming and that concerted efforts existed in the Bush administration to keep it from being presented. This took several forms: questioning the quality of the science or emphasizing that consensus on the meaning of the scientific data did not exist or in some instances bald-facedly altering reports and press releases to cast doubt on what the vast majority of scientists are convinced is the undeniable fact of global warming.

Hansen has been sounding the alarm for many years. For example, in June 1988 he told a U.S. Senate committee of the potential hazard of climatic changes. One sentence to reporters caught the public's attention: "It's time to stop waffling....and say that the greenhouse effect is here and is affecting our climate now." Such strident statements did not endear Hansen to political leaders who had responsibility for implementing changes to mitigate these changes because of the manner in which they would affect U.S. business interests. Bowen makes clear that this was not specifically a partisan issue at first. Some in both political parties believed action needed to be taken and others on both sides also believed no action was required. That has changed over the years, and the response to global warming has taken on the color of the two parties and their priorities, with the Republicans either denying it or questioning the science or, as we see in this book, manipulating the presentation of findings to reflect ideological biases. Hansen stands in "Censoring Science" as the resolute advocate of the integrity of science, eventually going over his NASA handler's heads to speak directly to the public through the media.

The villains in this story are several political appointees in the White House and at NASA who tried to counteract both the science and the fears concerning global warming. The associate administrator for public affairs at NASA, David Mould, is center stage in this discussion. So is Dean Acosta and Glenn Mahone. All were Bush administration political appointees. As Bowen quoted David Steitz at NASA Headquarters, "Glenn was evil and smart; Dean was just evil" (p. 123). Mark Bowen documents well the manner in which they ensured that the global warming science that Hansen issued was censored, especially through "editing" press releases of newly published scientific research, and in trying to box Hansen so that his access to the media was limited.

There are others also involved in censoring the science of global climate change. The person that received the most attention, although he was essentially a flunky, was a young political appointee named George Deutsch, who was not clevor enough to cover his tracks and resigned his job when his actions were exposed. As a junior public affairs officer at NASA Headquarters he exerted more pressure on the system than his position in the bureaucracy would have justified. He modified press releases, tried to control who spoke with scientists, and repeatedly put partisan loyalties above seemingly inviolate ethical considerations in the pursuit of science. His actions went far beyond global warming. He sent an e-mail to Flint Wild, a NASA educator, arguing that the Big Bang should not be mentioned unless NASA emphasize that "it is only a theory" and that "intelligent design" should have equal standing. "...it is not NASA's place, nor should it be," he wrote, "to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator....We, as NASA, must be diligent here, because this is more than a science issue, it is a religious issue. And I would hate to think that young people would only be getting one half of this debate from NASA" (p. 66).

It was Deutsch's ham-handed approach to scientific censorship that ignited the public debate that eventually led to the reversal of these actions. Andrew Revkin's bombshell of a front-page "New York Times" article on Sunday, January 29, 2006, opened this story to public scrutiny. It led to official NASA policy statements affirming scientific independence.

But this came only after the actions of several careerists both inside NASA and out who worked, often quietly, to make sure scientists could report their findings without censorship. The chief among them is James Hansen, but Mark Hess, Public Affairs head at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and Leslie McCarthy, the public affairs officer at the Goddard Institute for Space Sciences, are two others. Hess and McCarthy consistently asked for written guidance, and rarely got it. Failing that, they wrote notes of their telephone conversations with Mould, Acosta, and others, documenting what had been discussed. These proved critical in showing that NASA Public Affairs had ridden off the rails in carrying out its primary task, as stated in the National Air and Space Act of 1958, to "provide for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning its activities and the results thereof."

"Censoring Science" is a fascinating and cautionary account of one of the saddest episodes in the history of NASA, the subversion of the search for scientific knowledge to a political agenda. NASA officials have made many mistakes over the agency's history; the agency heads' devotion to certain programs and priorities might be questioned but I am aware of no instance in NASA's past (and I have spent many years close to the space agency) in which there was a cabal in place systematically seeking to change scientific findings to fit some pre-ordained position. It reminds me of the great soliloquy by Randy Quaid from Ron Howard's feature film, "The Paper," about the tabloid nature of a major New York City daily newspaper: "We run stupid headlines because we think they're funny. We run maimings on the front page because we got good art. And I spend three weeks bitching about my car because it sells papers. But at least it's the truth. As far as I can remember we never ever, ever knowingly got a story wrong, until tonight."

This censorship episode was NASA's "tonight." I hope the agency does not allow such a thing to happen again. If Mark Bowen's account of what took place at NASA serves as a smack to the forehead of agency leaders and employees it will serve a valuable purpose. It also points directions for historical research in the future, as that community must work to explore the theme of the creation and dissemination of scientific and technological knowledge and its control in space history. Read more ›