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

Coming Dec. 27: “Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen”

Posted on Saturday, December 22, 2007

Here’s something we’ve pre-ordered for New Year’s reading: Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming, by climate science author Mark Bowen, “tells a chilling story of deliberate efforts by senior NASA managers, acting in concert with the Bush White House, to play up uncertainties and minimize dangers regarding global warming....A must-read not just for environmentalists but for all politically conscientious readers.” (Kirkus Reviews) The book, published by Dutton, is scheduled for release on December 27.

EPA decision controlled by White House CEQ in denial of California CO2 rules?

Posted on Thursday, December 20, 2007

In denying California and 16 other states the right to set their own standards for carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles, we believe the Environmental Protection Agency was suborned by White House politics to make a decision that appears to be without either good legal or scientific justification. Ask Marty Hall, Phil Cooney’s successor as chief of staff at the White House Council on Environmental Quality and former top staffer for global warming denialist Sen. James Inhofe, what role CEQ and the Vice-President’s office played in manipulating what should have been an independent professional decision by EPA.

James Hansen letter to UK Prime Minister Brown: “We must solve the coal problem now.”

Posted on Wednesday, December 19, 2007

NASA climate scientist James Hansen sent a letter on December 19 to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling on him to lead a moratorium in the West on new coal-fired power plants that do not capture and sequester the CO2. A phase-out of coal use that does not capture CO2 is “80% of the solution” to the global warming problem, Hansen says. “We must solve the coal problem now.”

House Oversight approves report on political interference with climate science communication

Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007

On December 12 the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee approved a majority report that concludes that the Bush Administration politically interfered with climate change science communication and misled policymakers and the public about the dangers of global warming. The Committee was divided. The Republican minority put forward a “Preliminary Minority Views” report that draws conclusions based on unquestioningly accepting at face value misleading statements by Phil Cooney and other current and former administration officials.

A climate scientist in the “reality-based community” finds science advisor Marburger talk “scary”

Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007

In his critical review on the RealClimate site of a December 11 talk by White House science advisor John Marburger, Prof. Ray Pierrehumbert sees political slant continuing to trump climate science.

House Oversight Committee report contradicts NOAA Administrator Lautenbacher’s testimony

Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007

On 16 February 2006, the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., was asked in a Senate Hearing whether there was White House censorship of communication by NOAA scientists. Lautenbacher responded that he was "not aware that there is any truth to that at all," that he had "never seen anybody to be able to muzzle a scientist," that scientists say "whatever they want to say," and that "we don’t interfere with the ability of our scientists to discuss their peer reviewed science." His statement is contradicted by a report issued on Monday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

CSW director: White House under Clinton-Gore “was not at war with the mainstream science community”

Posted on Tuesday, December 11, 2007

In an article on the House Oversight Committee majority report on White House political interference with climate change science, released December 10, the Christian Science Monitor reports: “Rick Piltz, director of the climate science watch program at the Government Accountability Project...[says] the White House’s efforts this time were about more than organizing a coherent policy message.” No administration is above criticism, but under the previous administration the White House “was not at war with the mainstream science community.”

House Oversight report on administration political interference with climate change science

Posted on Monday, December 10, 2007

On December 10 the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), released a proposed report on the results of a 16-month investigation of allegations of political interference with government climate change science under the Bush Administration. The report draws on more than 27,000 pages of documents obtained by the Committee from the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the Commerce Department. The report draws on and validates information we and others brought forward, and includes material that has not previously been published. On the corrupting influence of CEQ, we told Greenwire: “Everybody was complicit. Everybody knew what was going on, although nobody had the full story, because the tentacles of CEQ were out in so many different directions.”

IPCC Chairman Pachauri and Al Gore Nobel lectures: Climate change and government accountability

Posted on Monday, December 10, 2007

R. K. Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and Al Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on December 10. Pachauri: “Will those responsible for decisions in the field of climate change at the global level listen to the voice of science and knowledge, which is now loud and clear?” Gore: “We have everything we need to get started, save perhaps political will, but political will is a renewable resource.” Their Nobel Lectures, and the Presentation Speech by the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, deserve to be read in full….

2007 Bali Climate Declaration by Scientists

Posted on Thursday, December 06, 2007

A consensus Bali Climate Declaration, signed by more than 200 members of the international climate science community, says that the goal of a new climate treaty regime “must be to limit global warming to no more than 2º C above the pre-industrial temperature,” and lays out targets for achieving this goal. The signers of the Declaration include about 75 U.S. scientists, in both universities and government labs.

States and enviro groups petition EPA to regulate aviation greenhouse emissions

Posted on Wednesday, December 05, 2007

A coalition of California and other states, along with Earthjustice and other environmental groups, is filing formal petitions calling on the the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to exercise its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from domestic and foreign aircraft departing or landing at American airports. On July 18 Climate Science Watch published a report critical of the administration’s failure to address aviation’s contribution to global warming in the federal aviation planning and development program. We called for aviation emissions to be addressed in U.S. climate change policy and regulation. The action to petition EPA is a significant step forward in advancing the issue of aviation and climate change, which has been neglected for too long in the debate on climate policy.

Presidential Climate Action Project proposes 300-point climate action agenda for the next President

Posted on Wednesday, December 05, 2007

The Presidential Climate Action Project has issued a Presidential Climate Action Plan, proposing an action agenda for the next President with 300 specific changes in federal policies, programs, and statutes. Among the key proposals: Modifications in the federal Climate Change Science Program to restore funding for the Earth sciences and to pay more attention to regional and local impacts of climate change so that states and communities can better prepare.

Climate Change Science Program assessment failures aired at Senate Commerce oversight hearing

Posted on Monday, December 03, 2007

We examine key issues raised in the November 14 Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing on federal climate change science research, set the record straight on a few matters—in particular, on some of White House science advisor John Marburger’s misleading answers to questions from Sen. Kerry, and review testimony by a panel of nongovernmental witnesses that pointed to needed reforms in the Climate Change Science Program.

Marburger vs. Connaughton rhetoric on need for “urgent” action on climate change

Posted on Sunday, December 02, 2007

In his exchange with Sen. John Kerry at a recent hearing on climate change research, White House science advisor John Marburger resisted acknowledging the need for “urgent” action on climate change. Kerry said, “I think you need to resign.” Two days later, White House environmental advisor James Connaughton said climate change “requires urgent action.”

Non-native jellyfish wipe out salmon fishery in Northern Ireland – another warning sign?

Posted on Sunday, December 02, 2007

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, a massive bloom of “mauve stinger” jellyfish, in a dense pack covering 10 square miles 35 feet deep, thousands of miles north of their preferred ocean habitat, feasted on about a half a million pounds of gourmet, organic salmon being raised in pens off the coast of northern Ireland and slated for market during the upcoming holiday season. All indications are that climate change played a key role in the fatal intrusion. The incident raises important questions for the US climate science programs and our overall level of climate change preparedness.

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