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 |
Wolfowitz deputy’s efforts to undercut climate change text in World Bank strategy paper
Posted on Thursday, April 26, 2007
One of Paul Wolfowitz’s two handpicked deputies, Juan José Daboub, tried to water down references to climate change in one of the World Bank’s main environmental strategy papers, the bank’s chief scientist Robert Watson told the Financial Times. In Dr. Watson, Daboub picked the wrong person to try to get around in Cooney-izing climate change text in an official report.
See Details
“Hot Politics”—PBS FRONTLINE program and extended interviews online
Posted on Thursday, April 26, 2007
The full PBS FRONTLINE hour-long program on global warming, “Hot Politics,” which aired on April 24, can be viewed online. We are in segment #6—Censorship, discussing the Bush administration’s treatment of the National Assessment of Climate Change Impacts. Extended text from a number of the interviews is also posted, including interviews with Jim Hansen of NASA and CSW Director Rick Piltz.
GAP and UCS call on Commerce Dept. to suspend new restrictive media policy
Posted on Monday, April 23, 2007
April 23—In a letter to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, the Government Accountability Project (GAP) and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) today attacked a new media policy affecting all departmental employees, including climate change scientists and meteorologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The policy was presented last month and was described as institutionalizing recent advances in scientific freedom at the Department of Commerce (DOC), including NOAA.
See Details
PBS FRONTLINE “Hot Politics” of global warming on April 24
Posted on Sunday, April 22, 2007
FRONTLINE and the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) “go behind the scenes to explore how bi-partisan political and economic forces prevented the U.S. government from confronting what may be one of the most serious problems facing humanity today.” Coming Tuesday, April 24, 2007, at 9pm (check local listings to confirm time). A CIR Web video segment deals with the Bush administration’s suppression of the National Assessment of Climate Change Impacts. [See UPDATED post, April 28, 2008: “Hot Politics” re-aired—PBS FRONTLINE program on global warming politics and online interviews]
See Details
“Dante’s Inferno: Green Edition”—The Eighth Circle
Posted on Sunday, April 22, 2007
It was called to our attention that, in its May 2007 Green Issue special section, Vanity Fair magazine presents a “Dante’s Inferno: Green Edition” graphic in which a number of global warming denialists are consigned to the Eighth Circle of Hell. The Eighth Circle is reserved for “The Fraudulent.” There we find, among others, James Connaughton of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and Phil Cooney.
See Details
Bush administration is #1 on 2007 annual list of Jefferson Muzzle “winners”
Posted on Saturday, April 21, 2007
The “unprecedented degree of political interference in communicating government-funded scientific research to the public” has earned the Bush Administration a 2007 Jefferson Muzzle from the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.
See Details
UPDATE on IPCC Working Group II Climate Change Impacts Assessment Report
Posted on Thursday, April 19, 2007
We note that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has temporarily removed on-line access to chapters of the Working Group II assessment report on climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation. These chapters are undergoing final copyediting prior to publication. It is our understanding that the IPCC may re-post the chapters in a few weeks, and the full report will subsequently be published in book form. It was unusual for the IPCC to post pre-publication chapters. We are not privy to the internal decisionmaking that led, either to the posting of almost-final chapters, or to the decision to take them down, but we are not aware of any wrongdoing in this regard. We will post a notice as soon as we find that the full draft is available again. In the meantime, the Summary for Policymakers is still available on the Working Group II Web site.
Upcoming screenings of global warming documentary “Everything’s Cool”
Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007
”Everything’s Cool,,” a new documentary film that is billed on its Web site as “A Real Life Disaster Movie...about the most dangerous chasm ever to emerge between scientific understanding and political action,” is scheduled to be screened during the next month in Santa Cruz CA, Durham NC, Ashland OR, Jackson WY, Toronto, and San Francisco. CSW Director Rick Piltz will appear in connection with screenings at the Ashland Independent Film Festival April 13-15 and the annual ECO-fair in Jackson April 27-28.
See Details
The Supreme Court, global warming, clean energy, and “Everything’s Cool”
Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007
Juliet Eilperin writes in the April 8 Washington Post that the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Massachusetts et al. v EPA—that the agency has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act—“Marked a watershed moment for the United States...Years from now, Massachusetts v. EPA may be seen as akin to the Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion, in which the Supreme Court answered a question that U.S. politicians were unable to resolve.” We appreciate her mention in the article of the global warming film, “Everything’s Cool”—our favorite new documentary. (We’re not biased, just because we’re in it.)
See Details
The IPCC scientists “Final Draft” on climate change impacts before government editing negotiations
Posted on Saturday, April 07, 2007
Before the 23-page Summary for Policymakers of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientific assessment of climate change impacts was approved for publication on April 6, a “Final Draft” by the lead-author scientists had to be revised and approved line-by-line in negotiations with government representatives from around the world. During a lengthy and contentious session, with interventions by government representatives from the United States, China, Saudi Arabia, and other countries, numerous edits were made to the scientists’ draft prior to final joint approval by scientists and diplomats. Numerous changes appear clearly to have the effect of “toning down” the scientists’ own draft language on likely damaging impacts of climate change. Climate Science Watch has obtained a copy of the scientists’ embargoed “Confidential Draft in preparation for Final Government Review,” i.e., the unedited draft, and posts it here as a public service. (See Details)
See Details
New IPCC report identifies observed and future impacts of global climate change
Posted on Friday, April 06, 2007
On April 6 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the Summary for Policymakers from the new IPCC Working Group II report, Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. This authoritative and comprehensive assessment by leading scientists in the international community now becomes the baseline statement to which public officials and other nonscientists should be held accountable in discussing and acting on the implications of global climate change for society and the environment. See “Details” for text on observed impacts.
See Details
NY Times reports on leaked IPCC assessment of climate change impacts
Posted on Wednesday, April 04, 2007
The New York Times reports that the forthcoming authoritative scientific assessment of climate change impacts by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “has found with ‘high confidence’ that greenhouse gas emissions are at least partly responsible for a host of changes already under way...The new report describes the specific effects of climate changes on people and ecology; identifies those species and regions at greatest risk; and describes options for limiting risks. Some of the changes could be beneficial, but most will prove harmful in the long run, the report says.”
Supreme Court rules Clean Air Act gives EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gases
Posted on Monday, April 02, 2007
Associated Press: In a 5-4 decision, the court said the Clean Air Act gives the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to regulate the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from cars.
See Details