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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.
“An Inconvenient Truth”—Best Documentary Feature
Posted on Monday, February 26, 2007
Congratulations to Vice-President Gore, director Davis Guggenheim, and Laurie David and the other producers of the film for winning the Academy Award this year for Best Documentary Feature.
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Vice President’s global warming views at odds with majority of climate scientists
Posted on Friday, February 23, 2007
In an exclusive February 23 interview, ABC asked Vice President Cheney about the topic of global warming, a subject Mr. Cheney has rarely addressed in the past. The Vice President agreed that the Earth is warming but, like President Bush, maintained there is debate over whether humans or natural cycles are the cause—a position that puts the administration at odds with the vast majority of climate scientists.
AAAS Board Statement: Climate change caused by human activities is a growing threat
Posted on Tuesday, February 20, 2007
The American Association for the Advancement of Science Board of Directors released a strong, unequivocal statement on global climate change, its societal and environmental consequences, and the pressing need for mitigation and adaptation response strategies, on February 18 during the AAAS Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
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AAAS President John Holdren urges action on climate change, energy system, and sustainability
Posted on Saturday, February 17, 2007
In his February 15 Presidential Address to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, “Science and Technology for Sustainable Well-Being,” Harvard Prof. John Holdren called on scientists and engineers to get personally involved in developing solutions and suggested that fundamental changes on a global scale are needed. In talking with reporters he reflected our concerns in noting the Bush administration’s “tendencies toward fact-averse governance” and cutback in support for climate change research in the past four years.
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House Science Committee to hold IPCC hearing
Posted on Sunday, February 04, 2007
The first Congressional hearing on the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report will be held Thursday, February 8, 2007.
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Interview with BBC: Keeping the Administration honest on the IPCC report conclusions
Posted on Friday, February 02, 2007
BBC World Service Radio interviewed us (in Washington, D.C.) and the leader of the U.S. delegation to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change meeting in Paris on the February 2 release of the IPCC Working Group I report Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. A transcript follows.
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Reporters: Will senior administration officials embrace the IPCC report’s key conclusions?
Posted on Thursday, February 01, 2007
Here’s a first test case: At their media availability on Friday, February 2, will Secretary of Energy Bodman, EPA Administrator Johnson, and NOAA Administrator Lautenbacher be willing to forthrightly acknowledge what the new IPCC climate change assessment report says about attribution of observed global warming over the past 50 years to human activity, in particular the burning of fossil fuels, and about projected greater 21st century warming? We’re predicting they’ll instead engage in the evasiveness that has characterized administration representatives on this subject for the past six years. Please prove us wrong.
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Polar bear decision “a rare case of science actually triumphing over politics”
Posted on Tuesday, January 09, 2007
The Center for Biological Diversity, which brought the lawsuit that forced the Interior Department to make a decision under the Endangered Species Act about proposing to list the polar bear as threatened, says in an Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times: “This proposal marks the first legally binding admission by the Bush administration of the reality of global warming....The Bush administration could refuse only by denying the science of global warming. So protecting the polar bear was the only decision it could legally make.”
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Interior Secretary misrepresented agency report deeming polar bears threatened
Posted on Monday, January 08, 2007
In discussing his department’s proposed designation of the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, Secretary of the Interior Kempthorne said to reporters: (1) that the conclusion in the report by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service scientists that the threat to the polar bear’s survival due to loss of critical sea ice habitat is not related to analysis of the causes of climate change; and (2) that sea ice loss was the sole “factor” leading to the designation of the polar bear as threatened. Neither of these assertions is accurate. This is another example of why, in order to get past Administration spin, Congress and the media need to be able to talk directly with federal scientists.
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Congress: Ask Condi Rice, Why has the U.S. Climate Action Report been held up for more than a year?
Posted on Sunday, January 07, 2007
On January 11 Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is scheduled to appear before both the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House International Relations Committee to talk about the Administration’s position on Iraq. While Iraq is certainly more than enough of a problem to consume the committees’ attention, some committee member (Committee Chair Sen. Biden? Ranking Member Lugar? Boxer? Kerry? Obama? Hagel?) might want also to ask Secretary Rice a question about why the Administration has failed to issue the fourth U.S. Climate Action Report, a national communication that is required by the climate treaty to which the U.S. is a party. U.S. stonewalling on global warming cooperation has only added to the low regard in which the Administration is held internationally and has not helped U.S. relations with allies. Prolonged holding up of the Climate Action Report exemplifies the Administration’s failure to communicate. [Editor’s Note: See also the 30 July 2007 posting, Bush Administration submits evasive Climate Action Report to the UN.]
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Polar Bears, Pt 2: “Habitat loss and inadequate regulatory mechanisms to address sea ice recession”
Posted on Friday, December 29, 2006
In support of its December 27 announcement of a proposed rule under the Endangered Species Act to list the Polar Bear as threatened throughout its range, the Fish and Wildlife Service issued a document for public review and comment. The document uses climate science findings on observed and projected Arctic sea ice loss and its relationship to global warming. The bottom line finding: “We have determined that the polar bear is threatened by habitat loss and inadequate regulatory mechanisms to address sea ice recession.” The proposed rule has made it through the Administration’s process so far without being blocked, bringing the link between climate change impacts and endangered species into a high-profile regulatory proceeding.
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Interior Dept. proposal to list polar bear as threatened due to loss of sea ice
Posted on Thursday, December 28, 2006
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced on December 27 that it is proposing formally to list the polar bear as “threatened” with extinction, because rising Arctic temperature is causing the loss of sea ice, on which polar bears depend for hunting. The proposal, now being published for public review and comment, results from a scientifically based analysis conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It was announced just in time to meet a deadline stemming from the settlement of a lawsuit brought against the administration by three environmental groups, who challenged Interior’s dilatory response to their initial petition almost 2 years ago.
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ExxonMobil CEO says global warming poses significant potential risks, emissions reductions needed
Posted on Friday, December 08, 2006
There was much business-as-usual in ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson’s recent speech to the Chief Executives Club of Boston, but considering Exxon’s leading role in funding the global warming disinformation campaign for the past eight years, we found it interesting that he now says: “[W]hen it comes to the issue of climate change....the potential risks to society could prove to be significant, so despite the areas of uncertainties that do exist, it is prudent to develop and implement strategies that address the potential risks....Consistent with this approach, we should take steps now to reduce emissions in effective and meaningful ways.”
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Documents in Supreme Court case on greenhouse emissions regulation
Posted on Thursday, November 30, 2006
On November 29 the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Commonwealth of Massachusetts et al. v. Environmental Protection Agency, on the issue of EPA’s refusal to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from new vehicles. The case presented the questions of (1) whether EPA has authority to regulate air pollutants associated with climate change under the Clean Air Act, and (2) whether EPA may decline to issue emission standards for motor vehicles based on policy considerations. Much of the case revolves around “standing” and other legal issues, but as documents in the case, the hearing transcript, and media coverage make clear, the case raises questions about how to translate climate science into decisionmaking.
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“California’s Changing Climate: The Politics of Climate Change”
Posted on Thursday, November 30, 2006
KPCC-FM (89.3), Southern California Public Radio, is airing a 9-day series on California’s Changing Climate. A Webcast of today’s program (November 30, 2006), on The Politics of Climate Change, is posted on the KPCC Web site. Climate Science Watch director Rick Piltz was among those interviewed.
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