Scientists revolt over Texas censorship

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AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Scientists in Texas say they want their names removed from a report on climate change and sea-level rise censored by the state's environmental agency.

The scientists accused Gov. Rick Perry's appointees at the agency of political interference and censorship involving a report on Galveston Bay.

Every single scientist associated with the 200-page report has reportedly demanded his/her name be taken off.

"None of us can be party to scientific censorship so we would all have our names removed," Jim Lester, a co-author of the report and vice president of the Houston Advanced Research Center, told Britain's The Guardian newspaper Friday.

Officials from the agency allegedly made numerous changes to a report chapter discussing climate change, sea-level rise and wetlands destruction.

"They just simply went through and summarily struck out any reference to climate change, any reference to sea level rise, any reference to human influence -- it was edited or eliminated," said John Anderson, an oceanographer at Rice University who wrote the chapter. "That's not scientific review. That's just straightforward censorship."