Free to speak?

The head of the CDC testified before Congress yesterday about the connection between climate change and public health. Before she spoke, her testimony was reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). You may ask what financial people know about climate change and public health. Well, it turns out that OMB has an Office of Science and Technology Policy, the head of whom is one John Marburger. His concern was that the CDC testimony about climate change did not align with the thoughts of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. So, time being short, he cut the testimony from 12 to 6 pages, eliminating just about all of the stuff about climate change. The head of the CDC was okay with this, at least in a public statement.

However, scientists who sit on the UN Panel do not agree with Marburger, as reported in the Washington Post.

"That's nonsense," said University of Wisconsin at Madison public health professor Jonathan Patz, who served as an IPCC lead author for its 2007, 2001 and 1995 reports."Dr. Gerberding's testimony was scientifically accurate and absolutely in line with the findings of the IPCC."

Just as the CDC director predicted climate change could exacerbate air-pollution-related diseases, the IPCC 2001 report predicted that dangerous summer ozone levels may increase across 50 cities in the eastern U.S., and said, "The large potential population exposed to outdoor air pollution, translates this seemingly small relative risk into a substantial attributable health risk."