A Half Truth

By Theo O’Brien

White house officials deleted sections of Center for Disease Control Director Julie L. Gerberding’s testimony to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Wednesday, halving it to only a six page length. Though the Center for Disease Control denies that they were censored, Democrats—and Senator Boxer specifically—are pressing the for further explanation after White House Spokeswoman Dana Peretz acknowledged the redaction.

White House officials eliminated several successive pages of Gerberding’s testimony, beginning with a section in which she planned to say that many organizations are working to address climate change but that, “despite this extensive activity, the public health effects of climate change remain largely unaddressed,” and that the “CDC considers climate change a serious public concern.” (1)

Peretz said the reason for the deletion of several sections of written testimony was that it did not align with the findings of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.It is worth mentioning that earlier this year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services were accused of silencing two Alaska scientists who intended to speak of the harmful effects of climate change has on polar bears.

Although the argument could be made that Julie L. Gerberding is not qualified to refute the findings of the IPCC, I fear that those censoring her are deterring the very principle of science: to question what is perceived as fact. In this case, some scientific authorities “crying wolf” about impending threats may prove far more beneficial to the advancement of solutions to global warming. I neither dismiss nor accept the White House’s reasoning for the censorship, as I am hardly qualified, but I would prefer to have all the information available, even if it takes twice as long to read.