US Censors Arctic Scientists’ Findings as it Prepares for Oil and Gas Auction

[Echo In Light]

US Censors Arctic Scientists’ Findings as it Prepares for Oil and Gas Auction
By Daniel Howden

The United States has blocked the release of a landmark assessment of oil and gas activity in the Arctic as it prepares to sell off exploration licences for the frozen Chukchi Sea off Alaska, one of the last intact habitats of the polar bear.

Scientists at the release of the censored report in Norway said there was “huge frustration” that the US had derailed a science-based effort to manage the race for the vast energy reserves of the Arctic.

The long-awaited assessment was meant to bring together work by scientists in all eight Arctic nations to give an up-to-date picture of oil and gas exploitation in the high north. In addition to that it was supposed to give policy makers a clear set of recommendations on how to extract safely what are thought to be up to one quarter of the world’s energy reserves.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/22/6547/

[alarimer]

1. And the Republican war on science continues

the assholes are afraid of the truth. Someone needs to publish that report on the web.

[Echo In Light]

2. "Afraid" of how life affirming changes would impact profits