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

Science-Policy Interaction

Successfully confronting the challenge of climate change will require a more functional relationship between scientists and policymakers, with greater accountability and integrity in the translation of research into effective response strategies.

Ehrlich on Schneider: Being a scientist doesn’t relieve one of the obligations of a citizen

Posted on Monday, August 23, 2010

In a fine remembrance of his friend Stephen Schneider, Paul Ehrlich notes how he and Schneider “had many discussions of the responsibilities of ‘public scientists.’” They agreed: “Being a scientist does not relieve one of the obligations of a citizen to speak out,” Ehrlich says. “In my experience, no scientist felt that obligation more strongly, or showed more dedication and courage in meeting it, than Steve Schneider.”

Latest NRC report charts path for federal government in supporting national climate preparedness

Posted on Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Informing an Effective Response to Climate Change, the latest report in the National Research Council’s America’s Climate Choices suite of studies, is a commendable effort to draw more attention to an issue that is often overlooked in mainstream climate policy discussions: the tools, networks, and coordination needed to build a national response to climate change and inform climate decisions at all levels.

Climate Science Watch guide to climate reports

Posted on Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The sheer number, depth, and breadth of the climate science assessments and U.S. government program reports released each year can be daunting, so we prepared an annotated guide to clarify the distinctions among some of the key reports: State of the Climate 2009; America’s Climate Choices; Fifth U.S. Climate Action Report; Our Changing Planet; Global Climate Change Impacts on the United States; U.S. National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change; and Climate Change 2007: Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

EPA denies all petitions for reconsideration of its Endangerment Finding on greenhouse gases

Posted on Thursday, July 29, 2010

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today issued a “Denial of Petitions for Reconsideration of the Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act.” EPA had received 10 petitions challenging its December 2009 finding that climate change caused by emissions of greenhouse gases threatens the public’s health and the environment. These petitions came from fossil fuel interests, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, anti-regulatory ideologue NGOs, and the state governments of Texas and Virginia. EPA flatly rejected every issue raised by petitioners, with detailed responses and a hard-hitting 3-page “Fact Sheet” summary of essential points.

With the collapse of climate change policy in a U.S. Senate that has become profoundly dysfunctional at performing essential governance, the EPA regulatory process becomes increasingly essential, and the protection of EPA’s ability to move forward with aggressive regulation to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and transportation becomes the new front line of climate policy trench warfare in the Nation’s capital—and a litmus test of the integrity and accountability of the Obama Administration and the Congresssional majority party in translating the science behind the Endangerment Finding into action commensurate with the challenge.

Supporting Science, Benefiting Society

Posted on Friday, July 23, 2010

Panelists at the Netroots Nation conference talked about how climate change, evolution, and pandemic flu exemplify the problematic relationship between scientific expertise, the public, and the machinations of those who deny and misrepresent scientific understanding.

Stephen Schneider, 1945-2010

Posted on Friday, July 23, 2010

Interview with Stephen Schneider on climate science expert credibility study

Stephen Schneider: Eulogies and Tributes

Stephen Schneider in 1979

Posted on Monday, July 19, 2010

NRC: emissions choices today have implications for global climate on the scale of millennia

Posted on Sunday, July 18, 2010

Climate Stabilization Targets: Emissions, Concentrations, and Impacts Over Decades to Millennia, a new report released by the National Research Council (the operational arm of the National Academy of Sciences) on July 16, starkly highlights the long-term global consequences of present-day choices about anthropogenic carbon emissions. The report concludes that “the world is entering a new geologic epoch, sometimes called the Anthropocene, in which human activities will largely control the evolution of Earth’s environment.”

Interview with Stephen Schneider on climate science expert credibility study

Posted on Monday, July 12, 2010

Climate Science Watch talked with Stanford University Prof. Stephen Schneider about his co-authored article, “Expert Credibility in Climate Change,” published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Schneider discussed the rationale and implications of the study and responded to several criticisms that have been raised. See Details for video and text from the interview.

UPDATE July 19: Stephen Schneider, 1945 - July 19, 2010, R.I.P.

AAAS initiative, Chris Mooney paper ask: do scientists understand the public?

Posted on Wednesday, June 30, 2010

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (two AAAS’s) hosted a seminar in Washington DC on June 29 to unveil a new initiative to understand the knowledge gap between scientists and the public, and how it relates to associated public policy conflicts. Science writer Chris Mooney began by saying, “The study is driven by a sense that there is something not quite right, not quite healthy, about the relationship between scientists and the public.”

Ocean Acidification in litigation, legislation, and research – What’s the status?

Posted on Friday, June 25, 2010

On June 23 CSW attended a panel on Ocean Acidification: Managing the Marine Impacts of Climate Change, at which experts from the scientific, nongovernmental and regulatory communities imparted a greater understanding of the science of ocean acidification, the enormity of the problem, and current action being taken to address the causes and effects of it.

New study finds striking level of agreement among climate experts on anthropogenic climate change

Posted on Monday, June 21, 2010

“Expert Credibility in Climate Change,” a new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that 97-98% of climate researchers examined who are most actively publishing in the field support the IPCC conclusions, i.e., are convinced by the evidence for human-caused climate change, and that the relative climate expertise and scientific prominence of researchers questioning the findings is significantly below that of convinced researchers. The authors of this first-of-its-kind study used metrics of climate-specific expertise and overall scientific prominence to examine expert credibility among scientists who agree with or question the primary conclusions of the IPCC.

Large, consistent majority of Americans believe climate change is happening, want government to act

Posted on Friday, June 11, 2010

We checked out a June 10 briefing held by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, “Have Americans’ Views on Global Warming Changed? A New Look at Public Opinion,” a report by Jon Krosnick on the latest iteration of public opinion polls on climate change. The data strongly suggest that leaders who champion climate policy can reap political gains, and indicate that the ‘climategate’ stolen e-mail and IPCC controversies are having very little impact on public opinion.

New national survey: Public concern about global warming is once again on the rise

Posted on Wednesday, June 09, 2010

77 percent of Americans now favor regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant, including 64 percent of Republicans, according to a new national survey released June 8 by researchers at Yale and George Mason Universities – even as the U.S. Senate prepares to vote on a resolution to block the EPA from doing so. By 61-18 percent a majority believe that global warming is happening, but a plurality are under the impression that “there is a lot of disagreement among scientists” about this.

AMS Climate Briefing Series takes on national security implications of climate change

Posted on Tuesday, June 08, 2010

On June 4 CSW was on Capitol Hill attending an American Meteorological Society (AMS) briefing – part of the Climate Briefing Series – on Climate Change and National Security. The event featured Rear Admiral David Titley, Oceanographer and Navigator of the US Navy and Dr. Jeffrey Mazo, Managing Editor of the journal Survival and Research Fellow for Environmental Security and Science Policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Rear Admiral Titley stressed that we simply cannot wait any longer to take serious action on climate change. A reasonable probability of risk is enough, he said – true to the proactive preparedness approach of those who think in terms of national security. It is not wise to wait for a “perfect knowledge” of how things will play out.

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