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

Whistleblowers

White House Ends Climate Change Gag Order: EPA Whistleblowers Now Free to Speak Out

Posted on Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The Government Accountability Project (GAP), counsel for EPA and climate change whistleblowers Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel, sent a letter to President Obama yesterday thanking the White House for causing the EPA to withdraw its censorship orders that effectively gagged the two enforcement attorneys. CSW director Rick Piltz said: “The culture in federal agencies of inappropriately restricting communication is dug in. It won’t be changed overnight and it won’t change all by itself. It’s going to take sustained, hands-on White House leadership and oversight.”

Government Whistleblower Protection: the Long Ignored Way to Better Connect the Dots

Posted on Monday, May 31, 2010

“The politicians need to stop stalling in the end game to restore a credible Whistleblower Protection Act,” write Government Accountability Project legal director Tom Devine and former FBI special agent Coleen Rowley. “In the wake of our national security and intelligence agencies’ failures to stop Christmas passenger Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and ‘Times Square Bomber’ Faisal Shahzad from attempting to ignite bombs, will any Congressman recognize why the glaring dots are still not being connected? Bureaucratic breakdowns and needless disasters keep recurring, in huge part, because government whistleblowers have been silenced. They do not even enjoy the simple freedom to communicate within the chain of command and defend themselves against near certain retribution.

2010 recipients of the Ridenhour Prizes

Posted on Sunday, April 18, 2010

Matthew Hoh, the State Department official who resigned in protest from his post in Afghanistan, was awarded The Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling on April 14 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Historian and activist Howard Zinn was posthumously awarded the Ridenhour Courage Prize. The Ridenhour Book Prize honored Joe Sacco for his illustrated book Footnotes in Gaza. Climate Science Watch attended the awards program and, as with each year’s event, found renewed inspiration.

Obama should end delay in appointing new federal whistleblower rights protection official

Posted on Monday, April 12, 2010

Fifteen months into this administration, the White House has yet to nominate someone to head the Office of Special Counsel, an independent oversight agency charged with protecting federal employees from prohibited personnel practices, including retaliation for whistleblowing. It has now been 18 months since the disastrous Bush appointee Scott Bloch was forced out of the position.

Anyone Can Whistle: The Essential Role of the Whistleblower in American Society

Posted on Saturday, February 20, 2010

On February 17 the Government Accountability Project teamed up with Participant Media and the Paley Center for Media in New York City for a televised, long-format special featuring legendary whistleblowers. The program detailed and analyzed what whistleblowers are, the six stages of whistleblowing they typically experience, and their lack of legal protections. Noted guests for the event included Daniel Ellsberg, former FDA commissioner David Kessler, former NYPD whistleblower Frank Serpico, FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley, and others. See Details for more information and link to video of the event.

Shameful treatment of whistleblower who exposed Pentagon failure to protect troops in Iraq

Posted on Thursday, December 24, 2009

Marine Corps whistleblower Franz Gayl says military officials are trying to force him from his job for exposing the Pentagon’s unconscionable delays in delivering lifesaving equipment to troops in Iraq. This shameful treatment suggests that the White House has yet to fulfill Obama’s campaign pledge to see to it that whistleblowers are treated as patriots instead of pariahs.

Two whistleblowers who exposed misconduct further endangering Katrina victims are honored today

Posted on Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Two courageous individuals will each receive meritorious awards today for blowing the whistle on two separate instances of misconduct that put Hurricane Katrina victims in unnecessary jeopardy, reports Government Accountability Project colleague Jess Radack on the Daily Kos today. Maria Garzino, a mechanical/civil engineer and team leader with the US Army Corps of Engineers, will receive the Public Servant of the Year award from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel for exposing the intentional installation of faulty pumps in flood-prone areas of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Dr. Ivor van Heerden will receive an award for civic courage for speaking out against systematic incompetence and negligence in planning and preparing for Gulf coast hurricanes, despite resistance from his former employer, Louisiana State University. Click on details for the crosspost.

New Orleans pumps unsafe on Katrina anniversary, report concludes: Army Corps preparedness cover-up?

Posted on Friday, August 28, 2009

The mainstream media, including the New York Times and the New Orleans Times-Picayune, have not covered an independent evaluation recently released by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) that there are serious safety and reliability issues with hydraulic pumps that were installed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The Government Accountability Project (GAP) says the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is misrepresenting the situation and failing in preparedness to protect New Orleans in the event of another hurricane.

NASA climate scientist Jim Hansen arrested today for civil disobedience against WV coal mining

Posted on Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Breaking news…. Along with actress Daryl Hannah, 94-year old former US Congressman Ken Hechler, coal mining activist Judy Bonds, and dozens of others protesting mountaintop removal for coal mining, Dr. James Hansen was arrested this afternoon for trespassing onto the private property of Massey Energy Company in Coal River Valley, West Virginia. Hansen is slated to debate Massey CEO Don Blankenship tomorrow on climate change and coal burning (see yesterday’s post). Now it is unclear whether the debate will proceed; Blankenship has not confirmed despite his instigating challenge to Hansen late last week, nor has Massey issued a statement about the arrest. Media links below.

Update on defense strategy in the Tim DeChristopher monkey-wrench BLM oil lease case

Posted on Thursday, May 21, 2009

You be the judge. The University of Utah student who threw a monkey wrench into a controversial oil and gas land lease auction administered by the Bureau of Land Management by buying up parcels he couldn’t afford and now faces severe jail time and fines is working up his legal defense for a July trial that is referred to in legal circles as “necessity” or “choice of evils.” His lawyers are betting that DeChristopher will be able to satisfy four legal requirements in mounting a successful defense.

GAP testifies at House hearing for government whistleblowers

Posted on Friday, May 15, 2009

At a May 14 House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on whistleblower protection, Government Accountability Project legal director Tom Devine called for quick action on the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, HR 1507, a bill that would give federal workers the right to jury trials when they are harassed for blowing the whistle on waste, fraud, and abuse.

Jim Hansen rallies for monkey-wrench activist Tim DeChristopher at his arraignment today in Utah

Posted on Tuesday, April 28, 2009

NASA climate scientist James Hansen is in Utah today to speak at a rally in support of University of Utah economics student Tim DeChristopher as he faces arraignment at 11:45 am MDT (1:45 pm EDT) in Salt Lake City. DeChristopher was charged with two felony counts, each carrying up to five years in prison and a possible $750,000 fine, after he intervened in an oil lease auction held by the Bureau of Land Management in December 2008 by bidding on parcels he knew he could not afford (see our April 15 post). The sales were later canceled by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar who questioned BLM’s handling of the sale in the last days of the Bush administration. Hansen will argue that this creative act of nonviolent civil disobedience was a legitimate act of moral protest, justified by the urgent need to rapidly curtail CO2 emissions primarily from coal and oil combustion. The outcome of the arraignment will be posted later today on DeChristopher’s website.

Update: DeChristopher plead “not guilty” to two felonies at his April 28 arraignment; the trial date is set for July 6, 2009.

Ridenhour Truth-Telling Prize to whistleblower Thomas Tamm for exposing secret wiretapping program

Posted on Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Former Justice Department lawyer Thomas Tamm will be awarded The 2009 Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, on April 16. Tamm courageously exposed the existence of the government’s secret warrantless wiretapping program to the New York Times. This year’s 6th annual Ridenhour Prizes also will go to Bob Herbert, New York Times columnist; Jane Mayer, author of The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals; and reporter Nick Turse, author of “A My Lai a Month.”

Should Utah student activist Tim DeChristopher go to jail for nonviolent monkey-wrench tactics?

Posted on Wednesday, April 15, 2009

On Friday December 19, 2008, University of Utah economics student and environmental activist Tim DeChristopher, 27, made a spur-of-the-moment decision to disrupt a controversial Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oil lease auction by bidding on parcels of land near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, bidding on land he knew he could not afford, driving up prices, and winning about 22,500 acres worth $1.8 million. He was summarily arrested for this monkey-wrench variety of civil disobedience and has said he is willing to risk jail time as a result of his actions. One of the Obama administration’s first actions was to cancel the questionable sale, making his purchases moot, but now DeChristopher has been indicted on two felony counts and faces up to 10 years in prison. Will justice be served by turning DeChristopher into a criminal?

Whistleblower TV now available online

Posted on Monday, April 06, 2009

“Whistle Where You Work,“ produced by the Government Accountability Project, is a multimedia program focusing on issues of accountability. All episodes of the 30-minute program may now be viewed online. In “The Assault on Scientific Integrity,” part of Episode #4 in the series, GAP Executive Director Mark Cohen interviewed Francesca Grifo of the Union of Concerned Scientists and Rick Piltz of Climate Science Watch during the fall 2008 election campaign.

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