Journal says agency blocked report on hurricanes, warming
WASHINGTON -- A government agency blocked release of a report that suggests global warming is contributing to the frequency and strength of hurricanes, the journal Nature reported yesterday.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration disputed the Nature article, saying there was not a report but a two-page fact sheet about the topic. The information was to be included in a press kit to be distributed in May as the annual hurricane season approached, but wasn't ready.
``The document wasn't done in time for the rollout," NOAA spokesman Jordan St. John said in responding to the Nature article. ``The White House never saw it, so they didn't block it."
The possibility that warming conditions may cause storms to become stronger has generated debate among climate and weather specialists.
In the new case, Nature said weather specialists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration -- part of the Commerce Department -- in February set up a seven-member panel to prepare a consensus report.
According to Nature, a draft of the statement said that warming may be having an effect. In May, when the report was expected to be released, panel chairman Ants Leetmaa received an e-mail from a Commerce official saying the report needed to be made less technical and was not to be released, Nature reported.
Leetmaa, head of NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in New Jersey, did not respond to calls. NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher was out of the country, but Nature quoted him as saying the report was merely an internal document and could not be released because the agency could not take an official position on the issue.
The journal said in its online report that the study was a discussion of the current state of hurricane science and did not contain any policy or position statements.
The report drew a response from Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat, who charged that ``the administration has effectively declared war on science and truth to advance its anti-environment agenda . . . The Bush administration continues to censor scientists who have documented the current impacts of global warming."
