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

A look at EPA’s new climate change Web site, unveiled after 4 years of suppression

Posted on Friday, October 20, 2006

On October 19, EPA announced the activation of the agency’s revamped climate change Web site, which (although the EPA news release doesn’t mention this) had been essentially moribund for the past four years. Political pressure silenced the EPA Web site in 2002. A look at the new site reveals limitations that point to continuing political interference with climate change communication at EPA.

Briefly noted: Holdren interview, Northeast Climate Impacts, BBC Climate of Fear transcript

Posted on Thursday, October 19, 2006

Interview on climate change with Prof. John Holdren, Harvard University, President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (video, 6 minutes) (Windows Media)) (RealVideo))

Union of Concerned Scientists, Climate Change in the U.S. Northeast—A report of the Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment

BBC Panorama, “Global Warming: Bush’s Climate of Fear”—transcript of program first aired June 4, 2006.

House Science Committee ranking member seeks answers on Commerce Dept. cover-up of hurricane report

Posted on Tuesday, October 10, 2006

House Science Committee ranking member Bart Gordon (D-TN) has initiated an inquiry relating to a “FAQ” fact sheet on “Atlantic Hurricanes and Climate” that was developed by NOAA scientists. The science journal Nature reported on September 26 that the document “has been blocked by officials at the US Department of Commerce.” NOAA administrator Lautenbacher told Nature that it was simply an internal exercise designed to get researchers to respect each other’s points of view. However, Rep. Gordon released an internal NOAA e-mail that directly contradicts that statement and has sent investigative correspondence to Lautenbacher that asks for a response this week.

Briefly Noted—Climate science and government accountability

Posted on Monday, October 09, 2006

“Heed This Warning” (Washington Post, September 28, 2006)
“Beneath its dry scientific lingo, a new analysis of global climate change by a group of NASA scientists is terrifying....Most of all, it will require an end to denial...”
“Land’s End Founder Comer Dies at 78” (AP, Oct. 5, 2006)
”Gary Comer Profile: An Entrepreneur Does Climate Science” (Science, Feb. 24, 2006, subscription; see Details)
“Accountability determined to strike in U.S.” (Tom Toles, Washington Post, Oct. 9, 2006)

The “Vanishing” National Climate Change Assessment, Part 1: The Administration

Posted on Sunday, October 08, 2006

An October 3 story in Greenwire on the continuing controversy over the administration’s actions to bury the first National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change quotes Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute as saying: “To the extent that it has vanished, we have succeeded.” Here we clarify a few points about the actions of the administration to make the National Assessment “vanish”.

The unfinished business of the National Climate Change Assessment scandal

Posted on Wednesday, October 04, 2006

On October 3, the Greenwire daily news report on environmental and energy policy featured in its #1 position a story on the continuing controversy over the administration’s decision to kill the National Assessment of Climate Change Impacts process and suppress official use of the first National Assessment reports issued in 2000-2001. The article quotes Climate Science Watch Director Rick Piltz as calling this “the central climate science scandal of the Bush administration.”

Pat Michaels, Virginia “State Climatologist”? A critical perspective on the issues

Posted on Sunday, October 01, 2006

The Washington Post ran an article on September 17 on the controversy over whether Pat Michaels, long-time voice of the global warming denial machine, was entitled to continue to identify himself as the Virginia State Climatologist. Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine doesn’t want Michaels appearing to speak for the state on global warming issues. This guest contribution provides a critical perspective that goes beyond what was developed in the Post’s coverage—about the legitimacy of Michaels’ designation as state climatologist, about Michaels’ funding sources and think tank affiliation, and about the meaning of “climatologist” in the contemporary scientific context.

The White House is stonewalling the House Government Reform Committee on climate documents

Posted on Thursday, September 28, 2006

The White House Council on Environmental Quality has been stonewalling a July 20 request from the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Government Reform Committee for documents relating to interactions between CEQ and other government agencies and outside parties about the Administration’s communications on climate science and related matters. What is CEQ concealing? From our experience we were able to supply a piece of the answer. The Government Reform Committee wants to know more about the activities of CEQ Chairman James Connaughton, former Chief of Staff Phil Cooney, and other key CEQ personnel.

Why the administration buried a NOAA scientists’ statement on hurricanes and climate

Posted on Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Officials at the Department of Commerce have been blocking the release of a new statement by federal climate scientists at NOAA on Atlantic hurricanes and climate. On September 27 a leaked copy of the statement was posted on the web (see “Details” for the text). We believe they decided to bury the statement because, albeit in a low-profile way, it acknowledges that global warming can increase hurricane intensity, and also the possibility that, because of global warming, the current active hurricane period could persist. That is a linkage the administration has taken pains to keep the public from making, for reasons having to do with the political fallout from Hurricane Katrina and the administration’s desire to fend off public pressure for a stronger global warming mitigation policy.

Questions about White House nominee to replace Jim Mahoney at NOAA

Posted on Tuesday, September 26, 2006

The White House announced September 26 that the President intends to nominate corporate lawyer Jane Luxton to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and deputy administrator of NOAA. If confirmed, Luxton would replace Jim Mahoney, who retired last spring, leaving this position vacant for 6 months so far. Mahoney was also the director of the interagency U.S. Climate Change Science Program from 2002 until his retirement. This announcement raises questions about both the nominee and the leadership of federal climate science research.

New Hansen et al. study: Earth’s temperature within 1 degree C of highest in past million years

Posted on Monday, September 25, 2006

A new study, led by James Hansen of NASA and published on-line today (September 25) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, concludes that, because of a rapid global warming trend over the past 30 years, Earth is now reaching and passing through its warmest level in nearly 12,000 years—since the end of the last ice age. The most important result found by the study is that the warming in recent decades has brought global temperature to a level within about one degree Celsius (1.8 F) of the maximum temperature of the past million years. According to Hansen, “That means that further global warming of 1 degree Celsius defines a critical level.”

Royal Society letter to ExxonMobil: Exemplary citizen-science for public accountability

Posted on Saturday, September 23, 2006

U.S. climate scientists, the National Academy of Sciences, and other science institutions should think about the remarkable recent letter from the British Royal Society to ExxonMobil in terms of their own role as guardians of public accountability. Shouldn’t ExxonMobil and other participants in the U.S. global warming misinformation machine also be hearing from U.S.-based scientists and their organizations?

UK science academy letter tells ExxonMobil to stop funding global warming denial machine

Posted on Saturday, September 23, 2006

The UK Guardian reported on September 20 that a letter from the Royal Society, Britain’s national academy of science, has called on ExxonMobil Corp. to stop funding dozens of organizations that have “misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence”. Exxon has been distributing millions of dollars to what Climate Science Watch terms the global warming denial machine. See “details” for the full text of the Royal Society’s no-nonsense letter, which exemplifies the role we have called on the science community to play in promoting accountability for how climate change research is used in the public arena.

Where is the U.S. Climate Action Report required under the climate treaty?

Posted on Monday, September 18, 2006

The fourth U.S. Climate Action Report, required to fulfill a climate treaty commitment, was due no later than January 1, 2006. A public review draft of the report announced by the State Department as upcoming in the summer of 2005 is now more than a year overdue. What has happened to this missing-in-action report? Has it been held up at the political level of the Administration? Climate Science Watch calls for the fourth Climate Action Report to be submitted expeditiously for public review. We call on the Administration and the leadership of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program to ensure that the report contains an honest discussion of U.S. vulnerability to climate change impacts. [Editor’s Note: See also the 30 July 2007 posting, Bush Administration submits evasive Climate Action Report to the UN.]

“Stealth repeal” of Clean Water Act whistleblower protections could affect science reporting

Posted on Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Citing legal documents obtained by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) showing how “the Bush administration has reversed two decades of precedent and declared that important whistleblower protections in the Clean Water Act do not apply to federal workers,” the science journal Nature called the administration’s action “pernicious.” Nature says scientists could feel the chilling effect particularly strongly, and calls government whistleblowers “a key defence against further erosion of environmental standards.”

Page 25 of 31 pages « First < 23 24 25 26 27 > Last »