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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 |
Obama on climate change action: Delay no longer an option, denial no longer an acceptable response
Posted on Tuesday, November 18, 2008
"Few challenges facing America and the world are more urgent than combating climate change,” President-elect Obama told the Bi-Partisan Governors Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles, California on November 18. “Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response.”
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CA Gov. Schwarzenegger to hold global climate summit: How will it mesh with Obama’s climate agenda?
Posted on Monday, November 17, 2008
This week California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will be hosting at least four governors and government officials from China, India, Australia, Mexico, Canada and several other countries at a “Global Climate Summit” in Beverly Hills. Will the outcome of this summit be helpful to President-elect Obama’s new climate change negotiating team (still to be named) moving forward to the December 2009 climate treaty talks in Copenhagen? Will Obama send a transition team representative to monitor the proceedings?
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“Bring on the Reality-Based Community”
Posted on Monday, November 17, 2008
“The truly poisonous legacy of the past eight years is one that spread to much of society and will therefore be much harder to undo: the utter contempt with which those in power viewed inconvenient facts, empiricism and science in general,” writes Sharon Begley in the November 17 Newsweek. “Look at how Bush justified inaction on greenhouse gases.” We talked about this problem with Newsweek for Begley’s August 2007 cover story, “Global Warming Deniers: A Well-Funded Machine.”
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Earthbeat interview: Looking ahead on climate science integrity
Posted on Tuesday, November 11, 2008
In an election day radio interview, CSW director Rick Piltz talked about climate science integrity issues and looked ahead to what’s needed from the next administration. See Details for text of Q&A.
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NASA’s James Hansen, et al, on what’s needed to avoid a total ice-melt on Earth
Posted on Monday, November 10, 2008
An important scientific paper by James Hansen of NASA and colleagues, released last week, suggests that the world must organize around achieving a maximum atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration of 350 ppm to avoid crossing over into the climate conditions that existed millions of years ago when the Earth was ice-free (the current level has already risen to about 385 ppm). An ice-free planet is nearly inconceivable: sea level would rise nearly 200 feet and many ecological systems as we know them would no longer exist. The article calls for nothing short of a Herculean effort, similar to the way the US rallied for World War II, with a grave warning that “the greatest danger is continued ignorance and denial, which could make tragic consequences unavoidable.”
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Obama: “I will never sanction any attempt to subvert the work of scientists.”
Posted on Sunday, November 09, 2008
In an October 20 letter to the President of the American Federation of Government Employees, Barack Obama said: “In an Obama Administration, the principle of scientific integrity will be absolute. I will never sanction any attempt to subvert the work of scientists.” We don’t recall President Bush making such a statement. The letter discussed the importance of the Environmental Protection Agency in an Obama administration.
Expected Obama early actions to reverse Bush on EPA greenhouse gas rules a first step
Posted on Saturday, November 08, 2008
The Washington Post reports on November 9 that the Obama transition is already “positioned to quickly reverse Bush actions” that have blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from reaching an “endangerment” finding that would trigger regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, and from granting California the necessary waiver to allow state regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles. A proposed new White House council to coordinate climate policy could be a first step toward a federal preparedness process for climate change mitigation and adaptation, but only if its scope is broader than an exclusive focus on energy.
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“One minute elevator speech” on climate policy to President-elect Obama
Posted on Saturday, November 08, 2008
Gristmill, the environmental news blog, asked us and several others to imagine we found ourselves in an elevator with the President-elect, giving us one minute of his undivided attention on how he should approach environment, energy, and climate policy. We said, “Mr. President-elect…
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President-elect Obama will need top climate and energy advice in the White House
Posted on Friday, November 07, 2008
In the flurry of activity to fill key posts in the Obama Administration and gear up for January 20, climate change and energy policy are ranking as top issues right alongside the US economy, for the first time in the history of Presidential transitions. Moreover, the “3Es” —energy, economy, and environment—are finally being talked about as being inextricably linked (and not just by environmental NGOs and progressive think tanks). We say: It’s about time! A “Climate Change Preparedness Council” (our suggested name)—or a “National Energy and Climate Council” in the White House (recently proposed by Clean Air-Cool Planet and others) will be essential (but not sufficient!) for carrying out the strong leadership the nation and the world need.
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Michael Crichton, author of State of Fear, leaves global warming disinformation legacy
Posted on Friday, November 07, 2008
We usually hold back on criticism of the recently deceased, but as the appreciation pieces are being written we’ll say for the record that the late Michael Crichton did a disservice with his denialist potboiler novel State of Fear, which abused climate scientists and environmentalists. President Bush met directly with Crichton while snubbing real scientists. President Obama can begin to set things right by showing that he is instead meeting directly with leading scientists and learning from them.
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“Science and the Next President—Addressing the Politicization of Science”
Posted on Thursday, November 06, 2008
After eight years of an administration that politicized science using a variety of methods, we look to the Obama administration for significant change – but fixing unhealthy relationships between the White House, federal agency officials, and government scientists will not happen automatically, we told the Washington Independent.
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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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