NOAA scientists join NASA’s with accounts of global-warming censorship

Government censorship: It’s what’s for dinner. Some climate scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration whose views on global warming contradict Bush administration policy say they’re being prevented from giving particular interviews or being closely monitored by press handlers. A recent NOAA press release claiming “consensus” around the fact that global warming had nothing to do with the intensity of 2005’s hurricanes was recently changed after outraged protest from agency scientists who don’t share that view. Meanwhile, over at NASA, which has been plagued for weeks by censorship charges, some press officers are giving new accounts of interference from political appointees, including pressure to cut the flow of climate-related news during and after the 2004 presidential campaign. And the U.S. doesn’t have a monopoly on censorship: Australian climate scientists say their government is muzzling them too.