The Bush administration is refusing to make public a scientific study that suggests global warming is responsible for the growing frequency and strength of hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, the journal Nature reported Tuesday. Just more than a year after Hurricane Katrina decimated New Orleans, experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have suggested that warming conditions may cause stronger storms to become stronger, the Journal reported. A seven-member panel at NOAA prepared a draft consensus report in May, which was subsequently blocked by a Commerce Department official (NOAA is a division of the department). Ants Leetmaa, the panel chair, told Nature that a Commerce official sent an e-mail insisting that the report needed to be made less technical and was not to be released. The incident is reminiscent of claims made in February by NASA climate scientist Jim Hansen, who said a Bush administration political appointee in the space agency s public relations had been trying to restrict his access. That appointee later resigned after the allegations were made public. The link between stronger hurricanes and global warming is politically sensitive because the administration has resisted proposals to restrict release of gases that can cause warming conditions.
