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 |
Congratulations to President-Elect Obama
Posted on Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Climate Science Watch congratulates President-Elect Barack Obama and his 64+ million supporters on their victory yesterday. We will do whatever we can to encourage his new administration to bring about the change we need in dealing with the threat of global climatic disruption—including restoring integrity to the relationship between climate science and policymaking and supporting climate change preparedness in communities across the country. We look to the coming period with renewed hope tempered with an awareness of the extraordinary magnitude of the challenges we face.
McCain and Palin scored political points by misrepresenting science project funding
Posted on Monday, November 03, 2008
In presidential debates and stump speeches, John McCain and Sarah Palin attacked several specific worthwhile science projects and mocked federal support for them as pork-barrel spending. Why did they do this? Was it due to ignorance of the actual purpose of the projects? Or did they know, but put pressing their attack on congressional earmarks ahead of good judgment or honest communication?
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US Climate Change Science Program posts final draft report warning of rising seas, damaged coasts
Posted on Monday, October 27, 2008
The US Climate Change Science Program has posted a final (third) review draft of a key report, Coastal Sensitivity to Sea-Level Rise: A Focus on the Mid-Atlantic Region (available in .pdf). Nearly 800 pages long and 3 years in the making, the draft study concludes that the Mid-Atlantic Coast “is a region where high population density and extensive coastal development is likely to be at increased risk due to sea-level rise.” Led by the US EPA with strong contributions from NOAA, USGS, and other experts, the study could have been stronger with more active participation from the Army Corps of Engineers and FEMA. Despite this limitation, the study is packed with useful information. EPA as lead agency should conduct press events, congressional briefings, arrange interviews with reporters, and conduct outreach to communities along the Atlantic Coast.
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Jim Hansen on “Obstruction of Justice”
Posted on Sunday, October 26, 2008
The science of climate change is clear and we no longer have the excuse of not realizing the “inter-generational injustice and inequity” of allowing more coal-fired power plants to be built, says Jim Hansen. Commenting on the arrest on charges of “obstruction of justice” of nonviolent protestors opposing the construction of a coal-fired power plant in Virginia, he says that government officials and candidates who talk about “clean coal” as though it exists don’t get the essential point.
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Report on ATSDR health warning failure on FEMA trailers and whistleblower retaliation
Posted on Saturday, October 25, 2008
According to a damning House Science & Technology Committee investigative staff report, the leadership of the federal Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry (ATSDR) is responsible for a systematic failure to provide public health protection in connection with assessing the risk of toxic formalehyde in trailers provided by FEMA to house Hurricane Katrina vicitms, and for retaliation against agency whistleblower Christopher De Rosa for raising issues that pointed essentially to how ATSDR was colluding with FEMA to present a misleading assessment to play down health risks.
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Good riddance to Special Counsel Scott Bloch: Enemy of whistleblowers forced out of office
Posted on Friday, October 24, 2008
We applaud the belated White House decision to finally remove the disastrous Special Counsel Scott Bloch from office. Government Accountability Project: “We look forward to the appointment of a Special Counsel who will prioritize protecting whistleblowers from retaliation over pursuing personal political agendas.”
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New study of media policies finds some federal agencies stifle scientists’ contact with reporters
Posted on Sunday, October 19, 2008
The Union of Concerned Scientists issued a report on October 17 grading 15 federal agencies on their policies controlling communication between staff scientists and the news media and the public. The report concluded that one of the agencies with the worst policies is the Environmental Protection Agency. A majority of EPA survey respondents indicated that they can’t speak freely to the media, and interviews with journalists indicated that EPA is an especially restrictive agency. We have repeatedly called attention to restrictive media policies as a significant method of political interference with climate science communication.
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New GAP whistleblower series debuts on Free Speech TV with panel on scientific integrity
Posted on Sunday, October 19, 2008
“Whistle Where You Work,” a series dedicated to whistleblowers and occupational free speech, accountability and transparency issues, produced by the Government Accountability Project, has begun airing on the Free Speech TV network. We are interviewed on one of the first programs, which looks at the assault on scientific integrity by the Bush administration and asks, will the new administration advance scientific freedoms?
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Federal climate science program ill-equipped to measure impacts: Better focus, more support needed
Posted on Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Our nation’s federal Climate Change Science Program “has been plagued by a stagnant budget, poor coordination between participating agencies, and a lack of White House leadership” reported Eli Kintisch in the October 10 Science magazine. The article underscores the need for the next President to renovate and revitalize US capabilities to assess impacts, essential for enhancing US preparedness for global climatic disruption.
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Climate disruption can’t be avoided, will require adaptation, says new study published by NAS
Posted on Thursday, October 09, 2008
At this point, even the most optimistic scenarios of worldwide reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will not be enough to avoid significant global warming—and thus the concomitant set of climate impacts that will disrupt our way life—according to a study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Over a dozen scientists in research institutions across Europe and the US contributed to the study, which concluded that “even the lowest scenarios available in the scientific literature, based on optimistic assumptions with respect to international cooperation in climate policy, lead to considerable increases in global mean temperature.” Adaptation, they say, is inevitable. The scenarios studied and the conclusion reached support our view that the US needs to embark on a course of climate change preparedness that embraces adaptation alongside emissions reductions.
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Environmental groups force “critical habitat” designation for polar bears, despite Palin’s lawsuit
Posted on Monday, October 06, 2008
The Center for Biological Diversity, along with the Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace have garnered a partial legal settlement as part of a lawsuit against the Department of Interior to use the provisions of the Endangered Species Act to protect the polar bear, Ursus maritimus, from the devastating effects of sea ice melt caused by climate change. After Interior Sec. Kempthorne’s court-ordered, May ruling declaring the polar bear a threatened species, Gov. Sarah Palin and others sued the Interior Dept. to get the decision overturned. The federal government has now agreed to finalize a rule designating “critical habitat” for polar bears off Alaska’s coast by June 30, 2010—a step that will also serve to restrict offshore oil exploration and drilling near these areas. This is a positive step, but is it enough to save the polar bear from extinction?
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In V-P debate, ask Biden and Palin for science and policy views on human-driven global warming
Posted on Thursday, October 02, 2008
The vice-presidential candidates debate tonight should include questions that enable viewers to compare and contrast the candidates’ positions on the fundamental challenge of human-driven global climate disruption. While Obama and McCain differ less radically in their stated positions on climate change than on many other issues, McCain’s running mate has given interview responses ranging from denialist to incoherent on the subject.
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Regional CO2 cap-and-trade program (RGGI) is launched: how will auction revenues be spent?
Posted on Thursday, October 02, 2008
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)—the first mandatory market-based system in the US for reducing CO2 emissions—got off to an official start last week. Ten northeastern and mid-Atlantic states have opted into this regional cap-and-trade program designed to curb carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by 10% over the next decade. Under RGGI the right to emit CO2 must be purchased; the first auction of “allowances” on Sept. 25 generated nearly $40 million in total revenue for the six states that participated. Nearly every dollar will go toward programs supporting energy demand reduction and renewable energy; only three of the states in RGGI so far have plans to spend a minor portion on adaptation measures. We ask, is this the wisest choice?
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Inspectors General Reform Act strengthens federal agency watchdogs
Posted on Tuesday, September 30, 2008
The Inspectors General Reform Act of 2008, passed unanimously by Congress last week, will give federal scientists a safe place to report political interference, on independent Web sites set up to receive anonymous reports about misconduct at federal agencies.
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Sierra: On staffing to restore integrity to the environmental and public lands agencies
Posted on Tuesday, September 30, 2008
“Profiles in Courage,” an article in the September/October issue of Sierra, the magazine of the Sierra Club, says “When it comes time to staff the environmental agencies, the next president could do worse than pick from those who stood up for public health and lands at the expense of their own careers.”
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