Demagogue

From Harper's magazine -- deletions are striked-thru and additions are in bold:

From editorial revisions and marginal notations made to government reports on global warming by Philip A. Cooney, then chief of staff for the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality. Cooney’s previous employer had been the American Petroleum Institute, the largest trade and lobbying group of the petroleum industry. Soon after the documents were released by the Government Accountability Project in June, Cooney left the administration to take a public-relations job with ExxonMobil.

Many scientific observations point to the conclusion indicate that the Earth is may be undergoing a period of relatively rapid change.

Humans have become agents of environmental change, at least on timescales of decades to centuries, even as the quality of living standards for billions of people has improved monumentally in the past century and a half.

These models are useful for performing if-then scenario experiments that make it possible to begin to explore the potential implications of different technological and institutional conditions for future emissions, and climate, and sustained and expanded wealth and living standards.

Longer growing seasons are likely to be reflected in changes in plant life cycles and associated insects and disease, and possibly in the migratory patterns of associated wildlife. [Balance? How about more food and forest products for humanity? Lower prices for consumers of food and forest products throughout the U.S. economy and world.]

Briefings, forums, workshops, and other forms of engagement between researchers and stakeholders increase the likelihood that research will contribute to improved decision-making. At the same time, we should always be vigilant in ensuring the independence of research and resist its being influenced or biased by the policy agendas of decision-makers.