As Wildfires Rage, White House Talks Up 'Public Health Benefits' Of Global Warming

The Carpetbagger Report:

Following up on an earlier item, Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testified before a Senate panel yesterday on the impact of climate change on public health, but the White House altered her testimony before it was delivered. References to potential health risks were removed; one CDC official said Gerberding's draft "was eviscerated"; and details on how many people might be adversely affected because of increased warming were deleted.

This afternoon, reporters asked White House Press Secretary Dana Perino to explain what happened.

Q: On the CDC testimony, you said this morning on Dr. G's testimony was not "watered down." Can you tell us why it was altered to leave out any discussion of serious health effects related to global warming, and to leave out her original comment, that "CDC considers climate change a serious public health concern"?

PERINO: I haven't seen the specific edits.... As I understand it, in the draft there was broad characterizations about climate-change science that didn't align with the IPCC. And we have experts and scientists across this administration that can take a look at that testimony and say, "This is an error," or, "This doesn't make sense." And so the decision was made on behalf of CDC to focus that testimony on public health benefits.

Well, there are public health benefits to climate change, as well, both benefits and concerns, that someone line Dr. Gerberding, who is the expert in the field, could address. And so that's the testimony she provided yesterday....

"Public health benefits." Seriously. The White House touched up the director of the CDC's Senate testimony, coincidentally taking out the information the Bush gang finds politically inconvenient, and the president's press secretary is left talking about the silver lining of global warming.

Read the whole story: The Carpetbagger Report

Comments

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

11:57 PM on 10/25/2007

How about Ms. P tell us all about the public health benefits of cancer? Her predecessor would be all ears.

[ohiomark]

10:49 PM on 10/25/2007

The only thing that these fires have in common with global warming is how HOT the hills get while on fire.

Wildfires = global warming
Drought = global warming
Hot weather = global warming
Cold weather = global warming
Rain = global warming
Snow = global warming
Hurricanes = global warming
No hurricanes = global warming

Britney Spears = global warming
Lindsey Lohan = global warming

Get over yourselves Libs, you can't change the climate.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

11:56 PM on 10/25/2007

Ohio is still a pit = global warming

[average joe]

09:16 AM on 10/26/2007

Ohio not a bad pit. Libby land the pits after the infreno comes the rain then mudslides maybe God will toss in a quake or two. The wise man build his house upon a rock the libby not that smart.

[RFuqua]

09:55 AM on 10/26/2007

I agree with ohiomark, but that's funny

[totalliberal]

02:14 PM on 10/26/2007

ohiomark babbles:
"Get over yourselves Libs, you can't change the climate."

Anyone who spends their life sucking-up to a sky-fairy, would believe anything Bush told them.

Get some balls man. You don't need a guy in the sky to run your life.

[withowlseyewatch]

07:28 PM on 10/25/2007

Wow! Huffington can do photoshop magic of California on fire. Very creative reptilian smoke critter with a porky smile on its face. Well done flaming red fingernails.

[starrianna]

09:20 PM on 10/25/2007

time to put down the pipe, honey.

=]~

[withowlseyewatch]

09:35 PM on 10/25/2007

Is that the only imaginative response you can muster, Honey Pipe?

[NuAgeDok]

06:55 PM on 10/25/2007

You know - even a Nuc-U-lar war can have some positive health benefits - all that radiation will cause a bunch of new mutations and some of those are bound to helps adapt faster to global warming - like flippers and fins instead of hands and feet.

sounds like a win-win sit-E-ation to me.

[Dandy12]

05:17 PM on 10/25/2007

Selective editing, selective intelligence, selective science, selective morality, selective truth. Obama's "enough is enough" rings true!

[starrianna]

05:34 PM on 10/25/2007

You know who I blame?

BARBARA BUSH!

You KNOW she never spanked that brat of a kid!
Barbara Bush may be the single worst mother on the face of this earth.

Thanks, Mom!

You KNOW that when the teachers sent Georgie home with a note, "Your Son Is A TERROR!" she laughed, gave him a cookie and a firecracker and let him go play with his frogs.

[starrianna]

04:44 PM on 10/25/2007

Let's give Miss Dana Perino:

(1) A fancy bikini
(2) Bottle of olive oil
(3) A lounge chair at a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, right on the edge of a beautiful canyon!

Breathe it in, baby!

[Grannysue]

04:43 PM on 10/25/2007

I say let's send Bush/Cheney/Rice/Rove/etal to the artic on vacation, they can lay upon the floating ice blocks and warm themselves in the nice hot sun. Then maybe they can leave there and go into the rain forrest which is being devasted. Bush likes cutting brush, give him a machete and have at it Opie! What a bunch of stupid people Repukins are, they think global warming will only affect the poor and Democrats, there all going to be safe cause Bush is their protector, besides they can always use their money to float on!

[desertdweller]

03:52 PM on 10/25/2007

A 2-3 degree average increase in temperature would have an imperceptable effect on reducing the number of cold-related deaths in winter. A 2-3 degree average increase in temperature would however, have a potentially enormous effect on melting of polar ice, subsequent perturbation of the Atlantic Gulf Stream or other thermohaline circulation, and an attendant rapid cooling of northern lattitudes, resulting in a profound, net increase in cold-related deaths. So you see Ms. Perino, you should have paid attention in high school science class instead of doing your nails.

[realitytrumpsbull]

02:39 PM on 10/25/2007

It's time to drug-test the White House...

[Grunty1]

01:47 PM on 10/25/2007

This makes perfect sense in Bush World.

Waterboarding (drowning) isn't torture, so being put under water by melting ice is certainly healthy!

[godlessclif]

12:24 PM on 10/25/2007

Marijuana calms you down. The symptoms you describe sound like crystal meth. Just look at any of the videos of Ted Haggard, who is completely heterosexual.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZmHC75FDqQ

[godlessclif]

12:25 PM on 10/25/2007

answer to mercedes

[Mercedes]

12:39 PM on 10/25/2007

godlessclif:

I guess you may be right. I've tried weed in the past and it didn't do anything to me, but make me want to eat everything in sight.

Chrystal Meth--never tried it; never will. Must be in the water in DC because of all the wide-eyed chickens running around in both political parties; trying to use scare tactics at gullible US citizens to keep us in this "war on terra".

But this problem--taking out 10 pages of a 14 page report by the Director of the CDC is plain weird. What kind of people are running this government? These people are allowed to take out important info before this doctor TESTIFIES (under oath, I presume) in front of a Senate panel? Then she goes in front of the Senate panel and still testifies? Incredible and Unbelieveable--but to the Repubs, just another day at the office, trying to con the world with lies.

[bluesnot]

12:43 PM on 10/25/2007

Explains everything, bunch of tweakin' neocons.

"Salton Sea". Add it to your Netflix list.

[NoblesseOblige]

12:17 PM on 10/25/2007

To the Bu$h administration, black is white; up is down; negative is positive; lying and obfuscation is truth; and global warming is a political myth. In today's bizarre world, just consider the opposite of whatever they say to be true. It works every single time.

[bluesnot]

12:40 PM on 10/25/2007

You missed "war is good".

Bizarre, surreal, disheartening. It isn't so much the world, as it is the people who are spending the taxpayer dollars.

[Mercedes]

11:35 AM on 10/25/2007

Let me try to understand this: there were 10 pages of this Dr. Gerberding's findings that were removed before she testified because there were other scientists and experts across "this administration" that could look at the testimony and say "This is an error" or "This doesn't make sense" so the decision was for the CDC testimony to be about public health benefits to climate change.

Just one question: What the heck are they smoking over there in the White House? That Dana Perino sure looks like she's been breathing in a LOT of smoke--the marijuana kind. Just watch her when she speaks, she's always jittery and glassy-eyed. She tries to justify everything by claiming that the things she says are "The Facts". I never thought I'd say this--but bring back Tony Snow! At least he was kind of credible and apologized for his mistakes. This Perino just follows the script and kisses Repub ass. So what if she is "eye candy" to the men--she is just another Bush kisser...

[ErnestineBass]

11:22 AM on 10/25/2007

Good God! We don't have a government anymore, just the makings of a really good Monty Python movie.

[UnionJok]

12:30 PM on 10/26/2007

Will Shrubya play the Secretary of Silly Walks?

[wadenelson1]

11:22 AM on 10/25/2007

>Public health benefits. Seriously.

Any intelligent person today should automatically assume ANYTHING this administration purports is a lie.

To do otherwise is to show yourself a fool.