The Big Meltdown

In an enlightened future, assuming there is one, G. W. Bush will have plenty to answer for, but his most enduring legacy will probably be as the first (and hopefully last) anti-science president.

Under Bush, science has become a partisan tool, ignored or subversed when it doesn't fit the agenda.

The issue of Global Warming is the most dangerous example. Thousands of scientists around the world have studied the situation for decades and concluded that the climate is changing at an alarming rate. Most believe that our very civilization is at risk -- not in some far-off future but in this century.

It's not simply a matter of opinion whether glaciers are melting. They either are or they aren't. And they are -- by the mile. The hole in the ozone is real -- actual photos are available to anyone willing to look -- and the best explanation as to cause is greenhouse gas emissions, the byproducts of burning fossil fuels.

Finding best explanations is what science is all about, but solving the problem of Global Warming will take more than just a consensus of scientific opinion. Countries will have to make hard choices, invest extensive resources into developing alternative fuel sources, and perhaps above all, educate their citizens. How is our government doing on that score?

Jun 11, 4:17 PM (ET)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior official at the White House Council on Environmental Quality has resigned, days after a newspaper reported he changed some government reports to downplay links between greenhouse gas emissions and global warming.

Philip Cooney, the council's chief of staff and a former energy industry lobbyist, resigned on Friday, two days after The New York Times reported he edited some descriptions of climate research in a way that cast doubt on links between greenhouse gas emissions and rising temperatures.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino confirmed Cooney had resigned from the council but said it was unrelated to the Times story.

"Mr. Cooney has long been considering his options following four years of service in the administration," she said. "He had accumulated four weeks of leave and decided to resign and take the summer off to spend time with his family."

The Times said it obtained the environmental documents from the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit group that provides legal help to government whistle-blowers.

The White House has denied Cooney had watered down the impact of global warming.

The newspaper noted Cooney previously worked at the American Petroleum Institute, a lobby group for the oil industry.

We have in that story a glimpse of what Paul Krugman called 'the design for confusion.' The general idea is to use pseudo-scientific 'research' and whisper campaigns to counter scientific fact. 'Fair and balanced' corporate media reports both fact and propaganda with equal weight. A whisper campaign equates Global Warming science with tree-huggers, PETA extremists and John Kerry's Purple Hearts. The public is properly confused. Nothing gets done.

In the meantime, while noxious gases pour into our air, huge corporations gouge huge profits from rapidly depleting oil reserves.

Future generations, if there are any, will surely see this era not only as a reign of stupidity but as the epitome of evil.