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.

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.

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.”

Webcast and Written Testimony from Senate Hearing on U.S. Global Change Research Program

Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007

On November 14, 2007, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation held a hearing on “A Time for Change: Improving the Federal Climate Change Research and Information Program.” We provide links to an archived Webcast and to the written statements of the witnesses; soon we’ll have more to say about this interesting hearing. Stay tuned.

Senate subcommittee approves cap-and-trade bill – New climate assessment and adaptation provisions

Posted on Friday, November 02, 2007

This week a subcommittee of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved by a narrow margin the first major “cap-and-trade” climate change bill to be considered formally in the 110th Congress. In addition to establishing a framework for capping carbon emissions and trading carbon credits, the bill includes provisions for scientific assessment, adaptation, and mitigation of climate change. However, there appears to be a disconnect between Congress and the federal Climate Change Science Program.

Eileen Claussen: “The first thing the CCSP needs is strong and independent leadership”

Posted on Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Speaking at a National Academy of Sciences workshop on Future Priorities for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, Eileen Claussen, President of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, laid down this challenge: “If this program cannot produce a comprehensive and integrated national assessment on the climate issue, who can? You cannot communicate effectively until you have something to communicate, until you can produce an up to date, integrated national assessment. And you cannot do that until you have independent leadership that is not subject to either bureaucratic or political interference.”

Two questions on the IPCC and Al Gore being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

Posted on Friday, October 12, 2007

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 “in two equal parts” to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Al Gore “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.” We have two questions.

Washington Post feeds global warming disinformation campaign with Bjorn Lomborg feature

Posted on Thursday, October 11, 2007

On October 7, the Washington Post Sunday Outlook section featured a 1,900-word page one article by the notorious Danish statistician, adjunct business school professor, and “skeptical environmentalist” Bjorn Lomborg. The article exemplifies how the global warming disinformation campaign is shifting its focus from outright denialism to a more complex and misleading downplaying of harmful climate change impacts and positing of misleading arguments about mitigation. And its publication, with no alternative perspective from someone with scientific credentials, or at least a stronger reputation for accuracy and intellectual honesty than Lomborg has, shows a lack of good professional judgment by the Post’s Outlook editors, in their shaping of public discussion of the climate change problem.

Give the Nobel Peace Prize to the IPCC

Posted on Tuesday, October 09, 2007

We note that Betsafe.com, the Scandinavian online betting site, has the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) and its chairman Rajendra Pachauri currently listed as of this posting as the favorite for the Nobel Peace Prize, to be awarded Friday, with odds of 3.25-to-1. Al Gore is a close second at 3.35-to-1. Inuit climate change activist leader Sheila Watt-Cloutier is third, at 4-to-1. We believe it would be an excellent choice for the Nobel committee to award the prize to the IPCC.

Environmental groups petition EPA for rulemaking to limit greenhouse gas emissions from ships

Posted on Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Earthjustice, the leading U.S. public interest environmental law firm, on behalf of a coalition of environmental advocacy groups, filed a first-ever petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on October 3, calling on EPA to exercise its regulatory authority under the Clean Air Act, which was clearly established by an April 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision, to make greenhouse-gas emissions-reduction rules for ocean-going marine vessels in U.S. territorial waters, including container ships, tankers, and cruise ships, or provide a required legal justification for its inaction. California Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a similar petition.

Hillary Clinton addresses Climate Science Watch issues on integrity of science communication

Posted on Monday, October 08, 2007

We note that, in her remarks on “Scientific Integrity and Innovation” at the Carnegie Institution for Science on October 4, Sen. Clinton took up several issues that Climate Science Watch has raised and stated positions in line with what we have been advocating—including a revived and expanded National Assessment on Climate Change, ending inappropriate political interference with climate science program reports, strengthening protections for whistleblowers who disclose political interference with science, and dealing with the emerging crisis in the space-based global climate observing system.

Examining the U.S. climate change budget—Part 1

Posted on Tuesday, September 25, 2007

[Revised September 25] Is $37 billion in total federal “climate expenditures” over 7 years—for all climate change science research, global observing systems, energy technology R&D related to reducing emissions, international assistance, and alternative energy tax breaks—a lot of money?

The Iraq war and climate change mitigation: National security and cost of action

Posted on Saturday, September 22, 2007

An American Enterprise Institute “scholar” says that, if you think national security is helped by continuing the Iraq war, “the question of focusing on how much money we are spending there is irrelevant”—even if the price tag is an estimated $720 million a day in immediate and ongoing costs. A study by a blue-ribbon panel of retired admirals and generals concluded that projected climate change poses a serious threat to national security. If so, then how to weigh the cost and value of mitigating climate change?

When it comes to climate change, should we leave the FAA on auto-pilot?

Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is facing changes this month as new leadership is installed and as Congress provides it with new legislative authorization and direction. Will these changes lead to a shift in direction away from resistance and obfuscation on the challenge of climate change?

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