The WHite House's Climate Change Palimpset

"Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary." -- George Orwell; 1984.

Chris Mooney (author of "The Republican War on Science") highlights an attempt by White House Science Advisor John Marberger and Council on Environmental Quality chair James Connaugton to rewrite history. In a letter likely to be quoted blindly in the media and on right-wing blogs they claim

"Beginning in June 2001, President Bush has consistently acknowledged climate change is occurring and humans are contributing to the problem."

Mooney demonstrates this is totally false, as even last year Bush was (dishonestly) claiming that there existed a valid debate over whether the unprecedented climate change in the 20th century was "manmade[sic] or naturally caused."



Mooney also demonstrates how Marburger and Connaugton's letter cherry picks phrases from the 2001-era speech they mention in order to make it appear as if Bush acknowledged the man-made nature of recent climate change - when in fact he was trying to argue there was no evidence connecting the fact of man-made changes in greenhouse gas concentrations to the observed climate changes.