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 |
Hansen shoots back on NASA head Griffin’s “incredibly ignorant and arrogant statement”
Posted on Thursday, May 31, 2007
In response to NASA Administrator Michael Griffin’s incredible statement on NPR’s Morning Edition today questioning whether global warming is a problem or long-term concern needing to be dealt with, NASA’s James Hansen fired back with a straightforward and welcome example of speaking truth to power. “It’s an incredibly arrogant and ignorant statement,” Hansen told ABC News. “It indicates a complete ignorance of understanding the implications of climate change.” Now it would be good to hear from other NASA scientists, the U.S. Climate Change Science Program leadership, and the scientific research community. Jim Hansen should not be alone in calling Griffin down for misrepresenting the intelligence on climate science.
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NASA Administrator Griffin “not sure” global warming is a problem or long-term concern
Posted on Wednesday, May 30, 2007
In an interview to be aired tomorrow morning, May 31, on NPR Morning Edition, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin says: “I’m aware that global warming exists....Whether that is a long term concern or not, I can’t say....To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of Earth’s climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had....I think that’s a rather arrogant position for people to take.” Now there’s a framing that’s worthy of Phil Cooney.
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Congressional investigation into science editing of Smithsonian Arctic climate exhibit
Posted on Thursday, May 24, 2007
The chair of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming has announced he is investigating the handling by Smithsonian Institution officials of science text for the Smithsonian’s exhibit on Arctic climate change. Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-MA) has asked the acting head of the Smithsonian Institution to turn over relevant information about just about everything except what we called for on May 22: the actual text as it was drafted by scientists, and the specific changes made by Smithsonian officials prior to the exhibit.
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Rachel Carson, the Bush administration, and “the ant wars all over again”
Posted on Tuesday, May 22, 2007
In a piece on Rachel Carson (whose centennial is this year), Elizabeth Kolbert in the May 28 issue of The New Yorker likens Carson’s horror at the USDA’s ill-conceived, environmentally damaging, pro-special interest, seemingly impervious to evidence, failed pesticide war on imported fire ants in the 1950s to the horror of the current administration’s handling of global warming and other environmental science-meets-policy issues.
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Smithsonian officials altered Arctic climate change exhibit to cut link with human-induced warming
Posted on Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Smithsonian Institution executives ordered a politically motivated rewrite of science in a 2006 exhibit on climate change in the Arctic, says Robert Sullivan, who was associate director in charge of exhibitions at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. The Associated Press reported that Sullivan, who resigned, says that, among other things, the text of the exhibit was edited to minimize the relationship between global warming and humans. Our own review of the exhibit finds that, in fact, it discusses climate change and its impacts on the Arctic but, with evident evasiveness, avoids ANY mention of human-induced global warming as a driver.
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House Science investigations chairman calls on Exxon to account for global warming denial funding
Posted on Monday, May 21, 2007
On May 17 the Chairman of the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science and Technology sent a letter to ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson calling for a full accounting of ExxonMobil’s financial support of the global warming denial and disinformation political campaign. Denialist operatives and their allies will no doubt launch their usual bogus complaint that raising this issue this is somehow an effort to suppress honest scientific discussion and analysis. The opposite is the case, as AAAS President-elect Prof. James McCarthy’s March 28 testimony before the subcommittee clarified.
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Critical public review comments on the administration’s Fourth Climate Action Report
Posted on Sunday, May 20, 2007
Critical comments by guest contributor Lynne Carter (Co-Director, Adaptation Network) on the draft U.S. Fourth Climate Action Report, submitted to the State Department as part of the public review process, offer one good example of the kind of input that we would like to see more of from individuals and organizations. [Editor’s Note: See also the 30 July 2007 posting, Bush Administration submits evasive Climate Action Report to the UN.]
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Greenpeace report on Exxon’s continued funding of global warming denial and disinformation machine
Posted on Sunday, May 20, 2007
A May 2007 report by Greenpeace USA concludes that, in 2006, Exxon spent $2.1 million on 41 groups that are part of the climate change denial and disinformation campaign. The report says Exxon has now given $22 million to these groups since 1998.
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15 House Committee Chairmen urge Bush to stop efforts to weaken G-8 climate change declaration
Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007
On May 18 fifteen House Committee Chairmen sent a letter calling on the President to stop U.S. efforts to weaken a proposed G-8 declaration on global climate change. A draft of the declaration leaked to the press showed that the U.S. pushed for changes that would delete text on targets for reducing greenhouse gases, on environmental impacts and security implications of climate change, and on the need for urgent action.
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Comment deadline on U.S. Fourth Climate Action Report extended until June 1
Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007
The State Department has extended the deadline for public review comments on the draft Fourth Climate Action Report to the Framework Convention on Climate Change from May 18 until June 1 at noon. This is good, since the original two-week comment period was too short. [Editor’s Note: See also the 30 July 2007 posting, Bush Administration submits evasive Climate Action Report to the UN.]
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Wolfowitz resignation follows release of multiple documents by the Government Accountability Project
Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2007
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz is leaving the international organization in the wake of wide-ranging scandals following the release of multiple internal Bank documents by the Government Accountability Project (GAP). This debacle shows the need for a whistleblower protection policy at the Bank. Climate Science Watch is a program of GAP. On April 26 we posted a news report on a Wolfowitz deputy’s efforts to undercut climate change text in a World Bank strategy paper. See Details for the full text of GAP’s press release.
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National academies of science call on G8 to address global climate change now
Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2007
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences joined 12 other national science academies on May 16 in issuing a statement calling on world leaders—particularly G8 leaders who will meet in June—to address global climate change and energy-access issues by promoting low carbon-emission energy systems and more efficient use of energy. This Joint science academies’ statement on growth and responsibility: sustainability, energy efficiency and climate protection, says: “Our present energy course is not sustainable...The problem is not yet insoluble, but becomes more difficult with each passing day.”
C-Span webcast of Whistleblower Week panel on “Scientific Integrity and Individual Conscience”
Posted on Tuesday, May 15, 2007
C-Span has an archived webcast of the May 14 Washington Whistleblower Week panel on “Scientific Integrity and Individual Conscience.”
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MacCracken on Lindzen’s misleading Newsweek Op-Ed
Posted on Saturday, May 12, 2007
Michael MacCracken says Richard Lindzen’s April 16 op-ed in Newsweek, “Why So Gloomy?” contains numerous misleading statements and statements that are contrary to the international scientific consensus. MacCracken takes Lindzen’s argument apart, line by line.
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Whistleblower Week in Washington: Panel on “Scientific Integrity & Individual Conscience”
Posted on Wednesday, May 09, 2007
CSW Director Rick Piltz will participate on a panel on “Scientific Integrity & Individual Conscience” to help kick off “Whistleblower Week in Washington,” May 14-18, a week of activities designed to promote protections for government and corporate whistleblowers. This is billed as the largest gathering of whistleblowers and related public interest groups in U.S. history. We invite you to attend the events.
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