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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.
Griffin’s NASA vision: Colonize outer space with American cultural values
Posted on Monday, June 11, 2007
On May 30 we noted NASA Administrator Michael Griffin’s dubious comments on global warming, which were aptly characterized by Jim Hansen as “incredibly ignorant and arrogant,” and by Jerry Mahlman at the National Center for Atmospheric Research as showing that Griffin is either “totally clueless” or “a deep antiglobal warming ideologue.” We were a bit surprised that, at the time, none of the media coverage recollected Griffin’s far stranger statements about the purpose of human space flight, in an interview with the Washington Post a few months after he assumed his position as the head of the space agency.
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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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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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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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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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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.”
IPCC North America climate change impacts chapter shows evasiveness of U.S. Climate Action Report
Posted on Tuesday, May 08, 2007
The current draft of the Bush administration’s U.S. Fourth Climate Action Report (CAR) has a chapter on climate change impacts that fails to engage in an adequate substantive discussion of the current state of knowledge on that subject. As an indicator of the shortcomings of the administration’s chapter, compare it with the North America chapter of the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group II assessment report on Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. We are posting our copy of the final review draft of the IPCC North America chapter because we believe U.S. reviewers of the CAR should have it as a reference during the State Department’s too-brief public comment period. Note the climate change impacts on North America identified in the IPCC report that are omitted, or barely touched upon, in the CAR. [Editor’s Note: See also the 30 July 2007 posting, Bush Administration submits evasive Climate Action Report to the UN.]
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“Impacts and Adaptation” chapter of U.S. Climate Action Report 2007 is an evasive failure
Posted on Monday, May 07, 2007
The U.S. Fourth Climate Action Report (CAR), issued in draft on May 4 for a 2-week public comment period, contains a chapter on “Vulnerability Assessment, Climate Change Impacts, and Adaptation Measures” that simply does not come to grips with what is expected in satisfying the U.S. “national communication” commitment under the climate treaty. This chapter is a big step backward from its predecessor, Chapter 6 in the U.S. Third Climate Action Report (2002), which drew heavily on the now-suppressed National Assessment, and signals the administration’s fundamental evasiveness about engaging in a forthright discussion of climate change impacts on the United States. [Editor’s Note: See also the 30 July 2007 posting, Bush Administration submits evasive Climate Action Report to the UN.]
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Public review of administration’s Fourth U.S. Climate Action Report until May 18
Posted on Sunday, May 06, 2007
On May 4 the State Department issued for public review a draft of the U.S. Fourth Climate Action Report to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, with a deadline of noon, May 18, for submitting comments. This report, which is already 16 months beyond its original deadline for fulfilling a U.S. commitment under the climate treaty, calls for critical scrutiny, especially of how the chapter on Impacts and Adaptation was handled. [Editor’s Note: See also the 30 July 2007 posting, Bush Administration submits evasive Climate Action Report to the UN.]
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PBS FRONTLINE “Hot Politics” of global warming on April 24
Posted on Sunday, April 22, 2007
FRONTLINE and the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) “go behind the scenes to explore how bi-partisan political and economic forces prevented the U.S. government from confronting what may be one of the most serious problems facing humanity today.” Coming Tuesday, April 24, 2007, at 9pm (check local listings to confirm time). A CIR Web video segment deals with the Bush administration’s suppression of the National Assessment of Climate Change Impacts. [See UPDATED post, April 28, 2008: “Hot Politics” re-aired—PBS FRONTLINE program on global warming politics and online interviews]
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UPDATE on IPCC Working Group II Climate Change Impacts Assessment Report
Posted on Thursday, April 19, 2007
We note that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has temporarily removed on-line access to chapters of the Working Group II assessment report on climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation. These chapters are undergoing final copyediting prior to publication. It is our understanding that the IPCC may re-post the chapters in a few weeks, and the full report will subsequently be published in book form. It was unusual for the IPCC to post pre-publication chapters. We are not privy to the internal decisionmaking that led, either to the posting of almost-final chapters, or to the decision to take them down, but we are not aware of any wrongdoing in this regard. We will post a notice as soon as we find that the full draft is available again. In the meantime, the Summary for Policymakers is still available on the Working Group II Web site.
The Supreme Court, global warming, clean energy, and “Everything’s Cool”
Posted on Sunday, April 08, 2007
Juliet Eilperin writes in the April 8 Washington Post that the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Massachusetts et al. v EPA—that the agency has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act—“Marked a watershed moment for the United States...Years from now, Massachusetts v. EPA may be seen as akin to the Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion, in which the Supreme Court answered a question that U.S. politicians were unable to resolve.” We appreciate her mention in the article of the global warming film, “Everything’s Cool”—our favorite new documentary. (We’re not biased, just because we’re in it.)
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The IPCC scientists “Final Draft” on climate change impacts before government editing negotiations
Posted on Saturday, April 07, 2007
Before the 23-page Summary for Policymakers of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientific assessment of climate change impacts was approved for publication on April 6, a “Final Draft” by the lead-author scientists had to be revised and approved line-by-line in negotiations with government representatives from around the world. During a lengthy and contentious session, with interventions by government representatives from the United States, China, Saudi Arabia, and other countries, numerous edits were made to the scientists’ draft prior to final joint approval by scientists and diplomats. Numerous changes appear clearly to have the effect of “toning down” the scientists’ own draft language on likely damaging impacts of climate change. Climate Science Watch has obtained a copy of the scientists’ embargoed “Confidential Draft in preparation for Final Government Review,” i.e., the unedited draft, and posts it here as a public service. (See Details)
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