ClimateScienceWatch |
Promoting integrity in the use of climate science in government |
Climate Science Watch is a nonprofit public interest education and advocacy project dedicated to holding public officials accountable for the integrity and effectiveness with which they use climate science and related research in government policymaking, toward the goal of enabling society to respond effectively to the challenges posed by global warming and climate change. See Details |
Whistleblower Week in Washington DC panel May 12 on Scientific Freedom and the Public Good
Posted on Thursday, May 08, 2008
Scientific censorship on a range of issues including climate change will be the subject of a panel as Government Accountability Project Whistleblower Week in Washington DC events kick off on May 12. Panelists will include Celia Wexler and Tim Donaghy of the Union of Concerned Scientists, FDA drug safety whistleblower David Ross, and Climate Science Watch director Rick Piltz.
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Unreleased aviation report projects more than doubling of CO2 emissions from 2000-2025
Posted on Thursday, May 08, 2008
Greenhouse gas emissions from aviation are projected to trend sharply upwards, according to a suppressed report based on information contained in U.S., European, and UK government databases maintained by regulatory agencies (Environment News Service, May 7). The U.S. needs a strategic plan to limit aviation emissions associated with climate change.
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Questions for Climate Change Science Program Director William J. Brennan nomination hearing
Posted on Thursday, May 01, 2008
Here are some questions that members of the Senate Commerce Committee should have asked of William J. Brennan, acting director of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, at his May 1 nomination hearing to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere.
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Rockefellers call for change in ExxonMobil leadership
Posted on Wednesday, April 30, 2008
The UK Guardian reported on April 30: “The founding family behind ExxonMobil has embarrassed the board by joining critics of the world’s largest publicly-quoted oil company and called for a management shake-up which could change its attitude towards climate change. The Rockefeller family—which started Exxon’s predecessor, Standard Oil—are taking the unprecedented step of holding a press conference today at a hotel in New York where they will call for Rex Tillerson to hand over part of his responsibilities as both chairman and chief executive.” See Details for more on ExxonMobil and the global warming disinformation campaign.
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Judge orders Bush administration to stop delaying polar bear protection
Posted on Tuesday, April 29, 2008
A federal judge has found the Bush administration guilty of violating the Endangered Species Act and ordered the administration to issue a final listing decision for the polar bear by May 15, 2008. The administration is well beyond the legal deadline for a listing decision. The polar bear is threatened because global warming is causing its Arctic sea ice habitat to disappear. The Endangered Species Act requires the decision to be based solely on science. In September 2007 the U.S. Geological Survey predicted that two-thirds of the world’s polar bear population would likely be extinct by 2050, including all polar bears within the United States.
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Union of Concerned Scientists study: Hundreds of EPA scientists report political interference
Posted on Monday, April 28, 2008
An investigation of the Environmental Protection Agency released April 23 found that 889 of nearly 1,600 staff scientists reported that they experienced political interference in their work over the last five years. Hundreds of scientists reported being unable to openly express concerns about EPA’s work without fear of retaliation. A majority of respondents said EPA policies do not let scientists talk freely with the news media about their findings. The next President, Congress, and EPA administrator should act to ensure integrity in the treatment of scientific research and end practices that impede communication between agency scientists and the public. Scientists should be able to express concerns about inappropriate political interference and push back when necessary, without fear of retaliation.
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“Hot Politics” re-aired—PBS FRONTLINE program on global warming politics and online interviews
Posted on Sunday, April 27, 2008
The full PBS FRONTLINE hour-long program on global warming, “Hot Politics,” which first aired on April 24, 2007, and re-aired on April 22, 2008, can be viewed in its entirety online. We are in segment #6—Censorship, discussing the Bush administration’s treatment of the National Assessment of Climate Change Impacts. Extended text from a number of the interviews is also posted, including interviews with Jim Hansen of NASA and CSW Director Rick Piltz. FRONTLINE and the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) “go behind the scenes to explore how bi-partisan political and economic forces prevented the U.S. government from confronting what may be one of the most serious problems facing humanity today.”
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Ross Gelbspan review of new book on capitalism and the environmental crisis by Gus Speth
Posted on Sunday, April 27, 2008
“Contemporary capitalism and a habitable planet cannot coexist. That is the core message of The Bridge at the Edge of the World, by J. ‘Gus’ Speth, a prominent environmentalist who, in this book, has turned sharply critical of the U.S. environmental movement,” says Ross Gelbspan, writing in the April 27 Washington Post Book World.
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Interior Dept. announces further delay of months in decision on listing of polar bear as threatened
Posted on Wednesday, April 23, 2008
The Department of the Interior has told a federal court that it needs until June 30 to complete its Endangered Species Act listing decision on the polar bear, which is already more than three months overdue. What will it take to get the administration to abide by federal legal deadlines and court rulings, and act on scientific evidence about the harmful impacts of climate change?
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EPA releases draft strategy on response to climate change impacts on water resources
Posted on Wednesday, April 23, 2008
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water has made available for comment a public review draft of the National Water Program Strategy: Response to Climate Change. This draft document represents EPA’s “initial effort to identify potential impacts of climate change for clean water and drinking water programs and define actions to respond to these impacts.” Submit public comments by May 27. On May 8 the EPA Office of Water will host a Webcast to discuss and answer questions about this draft Strategy.
Bush climate speech aligns with disinformation campaign on stonewalling courts and environmental law
Posted on Monday, April 21, 2008
Buried in President Bush’s mostly empty speech on climate change April 16 was a signal that the White House is likely to continue to stonewall on compliance with the Supreme Court’s ruling on greenhouse gas regulation and clear requirements of the nation’s environmental laws. With this above-the-law posture he is adopting a position urged on him by the global warming disinformation campaign and its political allies.
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Will Bush acknowledge the harmful impacts of global climate disruption?
Posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Will there be a significant shift in the President’s approach to climate change when he gives another “Rose Garden speech” on April 16? Not unless we see administration political officials freely acknowledge scientific assessments of the harmful impacts of global climate disruption and begin to act on them. See Andy Revkin’s New York Times Dot Earth blog post ("Bush to State Climate Goals Wednesday"), a letter from the Competitive Enterprise Institute blaming the problem on climate change litigation and environmental laws that need to be “fixed” (comment #2), and our own comment (#14).
Comments on draft federal “Coastal Elevations and Sensitivity to Sea Level Rise” report
Posted on Sunday, April 13, 2008
Climate Science Watch submitted comments on communications and stakeholder interaction issues in the development of U.S. Climate Change Science Program Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.1, Coastal Elevations and Sensitivity to Sea Level Rise.
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CDC House hearing witness Frumkin submits CDC Director Gerberding’s previously censored testimony
Posted on Saturday, April 12, 2008
At an April 9 House committee hearing, witness Howard Frumkin of the federal Centers for Disease Control submitted the testimony on health effects of climate change that the White House had redacted from CDC Director Julie Gerberding’s Senate testimony in October 2007. What led the censors at the White House Office of Management and Budget and Council on Environmental Quality to let the testimony go forward this time? See Details for the Frumkin testimony and our analysis.
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American Public Health Association and World Health Organization: Climate change threatens health
Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008
Serious public health threats associated with global climatic disruption have been the focus of the World Health Organization April 7 “World Health Day”, the American Public Health Association April 7-13 National Public Health Week, and an April 9 Congressional hearing. This is what the White House didn’t want Centers for Disease Control director Gerberding to include in her Senate testimony last October.
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