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 |
Did Gov. Palin misrepresent views of Alaska scientists on threat to polar bear?
Posted on Friday, August 29, 2008
“Alaska’s marine mammal scientists agreed last year with federal researchers who concluded polar bears are threatened with extinction because of a shrinking ice cap,” the Anchorage Daily News reported on May 25. “The state’s in-house dispute seems to refute later statements by Gov. Sarah Palin that a ‘comprehensive review’ of the federal science by state wildlife officials found no reason to support an endangered-species listing for the northern bears.”
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Gov. Sarah Palin on polar bears, climate change, and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Posted on Friday, August 29, 2008
In September 2007 Governor Palin formed the Alaska Climate Change Sub-Cabinet and charged it with preparing and implementing an Alaska Climate Change Strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and responding to the effects of climate change. But Palin opposed listing the polar bear as threatened by global warming and loss of sea ice habitat, in spite of the findings of a scientifically based status assessment put together by the the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Marine Mammals Management Office in Alaska and the clear requirements of the Endangered Species Act.
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Climate science advice to next administration is good start, broader focus needed for preparedness
Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008
Climate change and energy policy have finally risen to the ranks of top national policy issues. Concerned that our federal climate science and technology capabilities have suffered under the Bush administration, leaving the nation more vulnerable and less equipped to deal with the challenges posed by global climatic disruption, several groups are forming recommendations for the next President and Congress to renovate and revitalize our federal climate programs. One such proposal was released August 20 by a group of science-based organizations specializing in climate and weather, including the American Meteorological Society, the American Geophysical Union, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, and others. The proposal makes some excellent points but is not broad enough to serve as a stand-alone work product; rather it should serve as an important component to a larger blueprint, still being articulated by Climate Science Watch and other groups.
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US Senators go to bat for the Center for Capacity Building at NCAR
Posted on Monday, August 18, 2008
Four US Senators —Robert Menendez (D-NJ), John Kerry (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Bob Casey (D-PA) —are protesting the decision by the National Center for Atmospheric Research and its parent organization (University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) to shut down the Center for Capacity Building and to abruptly discharge its director, Dr. Mickey Glantz, a 35-year NCAR veteran, citing budget constraints. (See our recent post.) The Senators sent a strongly worded letter to President Bush urging him to “rededicate [the] administration to global warming research, to fund the Center for Capacity Building, and to increase international aid for adaptation and mitigation.”
... by Anne Polansky, Sr. Associate (CSW Director Rick Piltz is on a book-writing sabbatical until the end of August)
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Draft synthesis report on US climate impacts from lame duck Bush administration raises questions
Posted on Monday, August 18, 2008
A draft report, ”Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States,” is being offered by the Bush administration as a ”single coherent analysis of the current understanding of climate change science.” Written in plain English and full of graphic illustration, the Unified Synthesis Product presents a range of troubling consequences we can expect in the US from climate disruption. A closer look reveals that important procedural corners are being cut, presumably to streamline production for a September or October debut, inviting wide criticism. What is the White House motive behind this compelling digest of climate impacts? While the effort is laudable and the authors some of the best in the land, it is difficult not to wonder why this administration is rushing to release a portrayal of climate-related impacts that, taken together, can only be viewed as a call to action by an administration known for climate inaction.
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Abrupt termination of NSF-funded climate humanitarian program raises fundamental questions
Posted on Friday, August 08, 2008
Citing budget constraints, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) announced this week it will shut down its Center for Capacity Building, a small group of experts headed by Dr. Michael “Mickey” Glantz, a 35-year veteran of NCAR and a well-known champion of helping human beings adapt to climate change. The Center was dedicated to assisting communities in Asia, Africa, and other areas less fortunate than the US in dealing with the societal impacts of weather and climate. The abrupt announcement was met with vociferous protest within the social science community and amongst colleagues in the climate policy arena. What does this move say about overall support for the role of social sciences in climate research and policy development?
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EPA union officials: Stephen Johnson subverted staff on global warming sound science and policy
Posted on Wednesday, August 06, 2008
McClatchy Washington Bureau reported: “Environmental Protection Agency chief Stephen Johnson stunned his staff last month when he publicly opposed their proposals for regulating greenhouse gas emissions, four union officials representing EPA staff working on global warming policies said in a letter [to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson].” The letter, released on August 5 by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), alleges that Johnson subverted the work of EPA staff and damaged the agency’s reputation for “sound science and policy.” A news release by PEER says: “The professional staff charged with developing greenhouse gas regulations at the Environmental Protection Agency want Administrator Stephen Johnson to come clean on how decisions were reached on key climate change issues.
Speaking Truth to Power: Why on earth is EPA whistleblower Jason Burnett standing alone?
Posted on Monday, July 28, 2008
... by Anne Polansky, Sr. Associate (CSW Director Rick Piltz is on a book-writing sabbatical until the end of August)
It took only one EPA whistleblower (Jason Burnett) to help Congressional Committee chairs Boxer, Waxman, Markey, et al conduct basic oversight and expose the blatant sidestepping of the Clean Air Act under White House pressure, and nefarious acts to subvert environmental law at levels all the way up the chain to President Bush and VP Dick Cheney. Why aren’t more EPA officials standing up with Burnett? More importantly, why has EPA Administrator Steve Johnson not stood up for public health and the environment—as he swore he would do?
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Michael MacCracken’s analysis of errors in Robinson, Robinson, and Soon 2007 contrarian article
Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2008
Michael MacCracken of the Climate Institute, in an analysis posted here for the first time, identifies dozens of scientific errors and misleading statements in a 2007 paper by Arthur B. Robinson, Noah E. Robinson, and Willie Soon entitled “Environmental Effects of Increased Carbon Dioxide” – a contrarian effort that exemplifies the sort of work that provides fodder for the global warming disinformation campaign.
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Report for state legislators describes costly damages in 8 states from global climatic disruption
Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2008
A report prepared for state legislators by the National Conference of State Legislatures and the University of Maryland Center for Integrative Environmental Research presents damages amounting to billions of dollars in eight states (CO, GA, KS, IL, MI, NV, NJ, OH) from a host of observed and predicted climate-related impacts: drought and water shortages; impacts on shipping and tourism; agricultural losses; sea level rise; and drier, hotter weather. Many of these impacts are occurring now, and predicted to get worse and more costly the longer they go unaddressed. With support from the Environmental Defense Fund, this survey of climate threats adds to the growing body of climate change assessments for policymakers conducted absent federal funding. Notably, each report cites the 2000 US National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change.
Climate change science and government action: Interview on KPFK-FM Los Angeles
Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2008
CSW director Rick Piltz was interviewed on July 21 on the new federal scientific assessment of the effects of climate change on human health and welfare in the US, the Bush administration’s record, Al Gore’s speech on transforming the energy system, and the role of government.
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Canadian government mimics US “quiet release” method for major climate and health report
Posted on Wednesday, July 23, 2008
The Globe and Mail (Canada) reported on July 23: “The Conservative government is planning a quiet release for a major Health Canada report that warns of the harmful impact of climate change on the health of Canadians, particularly the young, elderly and aboriginals.” Only days after the “quiet release” of a major US climate science program report on the same topic, Canada appears to be following the Bush administration’s bad example: Instead of highlighting these reports and using them to advance broader public awareness of the consequences of unchecked global warming, current US and Canadian government “leaders” leave them to be released by middle management and discussed by a relatively few experts.
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Combatting an attempt by the disinformation campaign to hijack an American Physical Society forum
Posted on Sunday, July 20, 2008
Thanks to Joe Romm and his excellent Climate Progress blog for exposing (also see follow-ups here and here) how the editor of the American Physical Society’s Forum on Physics and Society newsletter is acting essentially as an agent of the global warming disinformation campaign and in direct contradiction to the statement on anthropogenic climate change of the 46,000 member physicist’s organization—not to mention the formidable body of scientific evidence and analysis developed by the mainstream climate science community in the IPCC and other climate change assessments. Romm points out how the denial machine jumps into action (here and here) to seek to amplify the APS newsletter editor’s abuse of science. We hope the leadership of the APS will take appropriate action within its Forum on Physics and Society to protect the organization’s intellectual credibility.
EPA report on climate change health & welfare impacts: Interview comments on Free Speech Radio News
Posted on Sunday, July 20, 2008
In a July 18 interview on Free Speech Radio News, CSW director Rick Piltz commented on the release by EPA of a new federal scientific assessment of climate change impacts on human health and welfare, and how the administration is determined to avoid regulating greenhouse gas emissions in spite of the research findings. See Details for comments.
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Media coverage of EPA release of climate change health effects assessment
Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008
The Washington Post, the Associated Press, and Reuters covered EPA’s release on July 17 of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program synthesis report, Analyses of the Effects of Global Change on Human Health and Welfare and Human Systems. USA Today (archived) cited our statement questioning why the report released today was held up until after EPA had issued its Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on greenhouse gas regulation. As the federal government’s most comprehensive assessment of the harmful impacts of climate change on human health and public welfare in the United States, this report, years in the making, should have been used in developing EPA’s required “endangerment” finding as a step toward regulating greenhouse gases, instead of keeping the work of the Climate Change Science Program disconnected from this decision support role.