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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 |
Study author accuses CEI global warming TV ads of misrepresenting science
Posted on Thursday, May 25, 2006
Recently, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) initiated a national television campaign claiming, among other things, that global warming is not causing ice sheets to shrink. Curt Davis, director of the Center for Geospatial Intelligence at the University of Missouri-Columbia, says CEI is misrepresenting his previous research to back their claims. “These television ads are a deliberate effort to confuse and mislead the public about the global warming debate,” Davis said. “They are selectively using only parts of my previous research to support their claims.”
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CEI TV spots continue global warming denial communications strategy
Posted on Thursday, May 25, 2006
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), an anti-regulation advocacy group that has received substantial funding from ExxonMobil, has begun running 60-second TV spots apparently timed as an attempt to counter favorable public response to the new film that centers on Al Gore’s communication of the global warming problem. With this action, CEI continues to act in accord with a long-standing communications strategy, developed by global-warming denial cadre in conjunction with oil industry interests, designed to misrepresent the scientific issues and manufacture an enhanced sense of scientific uncertainty about the global warming problem.
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NOAA predicts 4-6 major Atlantic hurricanes in 2006
Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006
On May 22 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced its forecast that a very active hurricane season is looming in the North Atlantic region. For the six-month 2006 North Atlantic hurricane season beginning June 1, NOAA is predicting 13 to 16 named storms, with eight to 10 becoming hurricanes, of which four to six could become “major” hurricanes of Category 3 strength or higher. The hurricane forecast announcement does not mention research that has linked global warming to increased hurricane intensity.
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“Bush doubts he’ll see Al Gore’s movie”
Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006
Reuters reported on May 22 (copyright 2006 Reuters) (archived):
Former oilman President George W. Bush sounds like a changed man when it comes to urging Americans to end their addiction to oil. But will he see Al Gore’s new movie about global warming?
“Doubt it,” Bush said on Monday when asked by a member of the audience during remarks in Chicago. “An Inconvenient Truth,” the movie by Gore, who lost to Bush in the 2000 presidential election, opens in U.S. theaters this week.
No comment.
Leading climate scientists’ U.S. Supreme Court brief in states’ greenhouse gas lawsuit
Posted on Monday, May 22, 2006
A group of 14 leading climate scientists filed an amici curiae brief on May 15 with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a petition by Massachusetts, Maine, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia contending that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should be required to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act. The brief criticizes the Court of Appeals for misrepresenting a key report issued in 2001 by the National Academy of Sciences / National Research Council by selectively citing material in the report “in ways that emphasize uncertainties in the details while neglecting fundamental areas of certainty or consensus, giving the impression that climate science is more uncertain than it actually is.”
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NPOESS weather and climate satellite crisis: Should heads roll at NOAA?
Posted on Thursday, May 18, 2006
An investigative report by the Commerce Department Inspector General is sharply critical of high-level federal management for failing to deal effectively with long delays and major cost overruns in the development and deployment of an essential satellite remote-sensing system under development by NOAA, the Defense Department, and NASA. The National Polar-orbiting Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) is intended as an operational system to provide state-of-the art data for weather forecasting and climate system monitoring. Some members of Congress are calling for the ouster of NOAA Administrator Lautenbacher in response to the IG’s report.
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Open U.S. Review of IPCC draft report is a good thing—Part 2: Press coverage
Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006
Critics suggested that the federal Climate Change Science Program had posted the government review draft of the IPCC assessment report, Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis, because the Bush administration was seeking to diminish its news value later when the final report is published. While understandable in light of the distrust the administration has engendered in its treatment of climate science, this interpretation—published in the journal Nature and subsequently picked up in other media outlets—is based on a misunderstanding of the open review procedure and its positive value. In addition, Nature and other publications violated the review protocol for the draft report by publishing specific references to the report’s findings.
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Rep. David Wu requests GAO investigation of science manipulation and censorship
Posted on Tuesday, May 09, 2006
The Climate Science Watch blog returns to action:
On May 2, Congressman David Wu (D-OR), ranking member of the Science Subcommittee on
Environment, Technology and Standards, requested a congressional Government Accountability Office investigation into allegations of scientific manipulation and censorship by the administration. The request raises questions about NASA, the Bureau of Land Management, EPA, NOAA, and the U.S. Geological Survey.
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Open U.S. review of IPCC draft report is a good thing, despite criticism—Part 1
Posted on Tuesday, May 09, 2006
After the federal Climate Change Science Program posted on its Web site the government review draft of the IPCC assessment report, “Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis,” critics suggested variously that the Bush administration is making it possible for the review process to be hijacked by special interest groups, and that the administration is posting the report in draft form to defuse its news value when the final report is published. Such concerns are off the mark and are based on a misunderstanding of the review procedure and its value. We should be on the side of an open process with broad-based input to the U.S. Government’s review of this extraordinarily important report. The Climate Change Science Program Office should be commended, not criticized, for making the report readily available for review.
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Climate Science Watch Director Awarded Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling
Posted on Thursday, April 13, 2006
The Third Annual Ron Ridenhour Awards were presented on April 4 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The Ridenhour Awards “seek to recognize and encourage those who persevere in acts of truth-telling that protect the public interest, promote social justice or illuminate a more just vision of society.” The 2006 awards were given to Gloria Steinem, Anthony Shadid, and Rick Piltz.
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IPCC Draft Climate Change Assessment Report Posted for Government and Expert Review
Posted on Thursday, April 13, 2006
The government review of the second-order draft of “Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis”—the Working Group I contribution to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report—has been initiated. The U.S. Climate Change Science Program Office is coordinating the solicitation of comments by U.S. experts and stakeholders to inform development of an integrated set of U.S. Government comments on the report. The question remains: How will the U.S. Government address the mainstream climate science synthesized in the report?
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House Science Committee Chair Calls for Reform of NOAA Public Affairs Policy
Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006
House Science Committee Chair Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) sent a letter on April 7 to Vice Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher, Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in response to an April 6 story in The Washington Post on concerns expressed by NOAA scientists. In the letter Mr. Boehlert says: “The issue of climate change is too important to countenance any scientists feeling intimidated or constrained about discussing the matter...” and calls on Lautenbacher to “swiftly” take five specific steps to remedy the problem.
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Thomas Jefferson Center gives 2006 “Muzzle” award to Rep. Joe Barton
Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006
On April 11, the 2006 Annual Jefferson Muzzle Awards were announced by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression in Charlottesville, Virginia. For 15 years, the Jefferson Muzzle Awards have “honored” those individuals and institutions that committed the more egregious or ridiculous acts of censorship in the past year. Among the “winners” of the 2006 Jefferson Muzzles is U.S. Representative Joe Barton—“For taking action that appears to blur the line between scientific research and politics.”
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Washington Post reports “Climate Researchers Feeling Heat From White House”
Posted on Sunday, April 09, 2006
On April 6 the Washington Post ran a 1400-word article on political interference with federal climate scientists, focusing primarily on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The article draws on interviews with several scientists who report instances in which they contend that administration political pressure has impeded the flow of scientific communication about climate change and its implications. Two of the cases discussed in the article involve James R. Mahoney, until very recently the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Director of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program.
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Temperature Trends Report Resolves Discrepancy Between Surface and Tropospheric Warming
Posted on Sunday, April 09, 2006
According to a new synthesis report on “Temperature Trends in the Lower Atmosphere,” previously reported discrepancies between the amount of warming near the surface and higher in the atmosphere that have been used to challenge the validity of climate models and the reality of human-induced global warming have been resolved. The report, commissioned by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and drafted by the leading scientists in this research area, concludes that recent evidence has increased confidence in the understanding of observed climatic changes and their causes.
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