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

U.S. Climate Change Science Program

The public interest calls for knowledgeable, independent investigation of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, through which federal agencies coordinate $1.7 billion in annual support for research on climate and global change.

Flawed communications in U.S. Climate Change Science Program

Posted on Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Two major federal climate science reports – one on climate change-induced extreme weather, the other on increasing difficulties in dealing with climate impacts on federal lands -- were released last week with two nearly opposite communication strategies. The ad hoc manner in which communication with the media and the public is currently handled in the Climate Change Science Program and its 13 participating agencies is highly dysfunctional and in need of a complete overhaul to meet the informational needs of society in addressing and preparing for global climatic disruption.

New climate report counters Bush administration record of denial, disinformation, cover-up and delay

Posted on Thursday, May 29, 2008

A report released May 29 by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Scientific Assessment of the Effects of Global Change on the United States, summarizes evidence of global climate disruption, the harmful impacts it is already having on society and the environment, and future projections of potential damages. The report, years overdue under a requirement of law, was produced only in response to an August 2007 federal court order that an assessment be produced by May 31, 2008. After seven years of denial, disinformation, cover-up, and delay, in its waning months, the Bush administration is finally beginning to allow the publication of reports that acknowledge scientific reality on the impacts of climate change.

Questions for Climate Change Science Program Director William J. Brennan nomination hearing

Posted on Thursday, May 01, 2008

Here are some questions that members of the Senate Commerce Committee should have asked of William J. Brennan, acting director of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, at his May 1 nomination hearing to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere.

Comments on draft federal “Coastal Elevations and Sensitivity to Sea Level Rise” report

Posted on Sunday, April 13, 2008

Climate Science Watch submitted comments on communications and stakeholder interaction issues in the development of U.S. Climate Change Science Program Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.1, Coastal Elevations and Sensitivity to Sea Level Rise.

GAP press release on stealth release of climate change transportation impacts report

Posted on Friday, March 14, 2008

A March 14 news release by the Government Accountability Project leads with: “This past Wednesday, March 12, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the U.S. Climate Change Science Program quietly released a major assessment report on the likely impacts of global climate disruption on a wide range of transportation infrastructure in the Gulf Coast region. This report release was buried by the DOT, and officials have been blocking journalists from speaking with the report’s lead author.”

Stealth release of major federal study of Gulf Coast climate change transportation impacts

Posted on Thursday, March 13, 2008

On March 12 the U.S. government released a major assessment report on the likely impacts of global climate disruption on a wide range of transportation systems and infrastructure in the U.S. Gulf Coast region. The report was released in a way that was clearly intended to minimize public attention to it, and our media sources say the Department of Transportation is blocking journalists from talking with the lead author at the agency about the findings in the report. Why? Read on....

Water Utility Climate Alliance calls on federal climate research to aid with impacts preparedness

Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2008

An alliance of eight major water utilities that provide drinking water to 36 million people is calling on the US Climate Change Science Program and the science community to aid in assessing and managing risks to water infrastructure and supply from impacts of warming, diminishing snowpack, bigger storms, drought, rising sea level, and potential abrupt climate change. Climate Science Watch has called attention to water issues as a high near-term priority in linking the federal climate research program to decisionmaking intelligence and preparedness needs.

Review of the Summary of Revised Research Plan for the US Climate Change Science Program

Posted on Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Climate Science Watch and the Center for Biological Diversity formally submitted sets of critical public review comments on the draft summary of a revised research plan for the US Climate Change Science Program. CCSP’s issuing of a revised plan for the federal research program is pursuant to a federal court order in the Center for Biological Diversity et al. lawsuit against the President’s Office of Science and Technology Policy and the leadership of the program.

President’s FY 2009 climate science budget proposal remains below the 2001 level

Posted on Friday, February 08, 2008

While President Bush has requested an increase in funding for the Climate Change Science Program for Fiscal Year 2009, the inflation-adjusted program budget still remains below what it was in 2001, and significantly below the mid-1990s level. This despite growing observed signs of global climatic disruption, and the President’s recurrent insistence that scientific uncertainties needed to be resolved as a precondition to backing a requirement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

For a National Climate Change Preparedness Initiative

Posted on Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Climate Science Watch director Rick Piltz put forward our proposal that the next administration undertake a National Climate Change Preparedness Initiative, at a national conference on “Climate Change: Science and Solutions,” in Washington, DC. He spoke on January 17 as part of a panel on the future of the the federal global change research program.

A strategy session on the future of the US Global Change Research Program

Posted on Tuesday, February 05, 2008

A process for developing a set of recommendations to the next administration and Congress in January 2009 was kicked off on January 17 at a national conference on Climate Change: Science and Solutions, in Washington, DC. Climate Science Watch participated in and reports on the session, chaired by Dr. Robert Corell: “The US Global Change Research Program: What do we want from the next Administration?”

CCSP Synthesis Reports are years behind schedule as program scrambles to meet court deadline

Posted on Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Geotimes reports: “Four years ago, the U.S. Climate Change Science Program agreed to prepare 21 reports on various topics related to climate change and its impacts by the end of September 2007. As of December, however, only four had been released. And now, Congress and many scientists are taking the program to task.” The program is not connecting with the real needs of society’s decisionmaking, CSW director Rick Piltz says in the article.

“The US Global Change Research Program – What do we want from the next administration?”

Posted on Monday, January 14, 2008

Dr. Robert Corell, Director of the Global Change Program at the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, invites comments on “The US Global Change Research Program – What do we want from the next administration?” a scoping paper drafted for discussion on January 17 at a national conference on Climate Change: Science and Solutions, being held in Washington, DC. CSW Director Rick Piltz will participate on a panel that will lead a discussion of topics covered in the paper, and will call for changes in the federal climate and global change research program.

Climate Change Science Program acting director William Brennan to face Senate confirmation hearing

Posted on Saturday, January 12, 2008

On January 10 the President announced his intention to nominate Bill Brennan, current acting director of the Climate Change Science Program, to fill the position previously held by James Mahoney as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere. This is a Senate-confirmed political appointment and offers the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation an opportunity to get his answers to questions about the problems and direction of the program before voting on confirmation.

Call for public comments on revised U.S. climate science research plan

Posted on Sunday, January 06, 2008

A summary of a revised research plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program has been posted for public review and comment during January and February. Following our August 2007 victory in federal court in the Center for Biological Diversity et al. lawsuit against the Bush administration, the administration is scrambling to meet a court ordered deadline to produce by May 2008 a new federal research plan and a scientific assessment focusing on global change impacts—two documents that they previously had no intention of producing during this year.

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