bushgang stalled release of website on 'abrupt climate change'

[donsu]

http://www.gristmagazine.com/muck/muck060304.asp

The Day After Tomorrow Never Dies

Film plot rings true as NOAA runs up against White House

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Subtle is not how you'd characterize Roland Emmerich's cinematic portrait of a fierce struggle between warrior scientists from NOAA and the oppressive powers that be -- powers personified by a fictional vice president who happens to be the spitting image of his real-life counterpart.

In an amusing case of life imitating art (to use the term loosely), Bush administration officials stalled the release of a website on abrupt climate change, which was developed by a team at NOAA's paleoclimate program to coincide with the release of the film, according to insiders who worked on the project. The site was put together to make years of paleoclimate research on abrupt climate shifts accessible to Day After Tomorrow viewers attempting to make sense of the fact and fiction behind the movie's science (to use another term loosely).

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But the White House apparently didn't share McCaffrey's enthusiasm. After he got permission from high up the chain of command at NOAA to go live with the website, word then came down that the site was "indefinitely on hold -- with no further explanation," McCaffrey said. Several staffers at NOAA who spoke on condition of anonymity said the embargo came directly from the White House.

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And then there's the fact that the White House wants to chop the fiscal year 2005 budget for NOAA's paleoclimate program -- which was started during the first Bush administration.
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