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

The “Fallen Legion”—Whistleblower thanksgiving

Posted on Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving to all. A “recommended diary” posted November 26 on the DailyKos website thanks a long list of “public servants who were fired or resigned in protest to the Bush/Cheney/Rove administration.”

Report on ATSDR director’s health warning failure on FEMA trailers and whistleblower retaliation

Posted on Saturday, October 25, 2008

Federal Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry (ATSDR) director Howard Frumkin is responsible for a systematic failure to provide public health protection in connection with assessing the risk of toxic formalehyde in trailers provided by FEMA to house Hurricane Katrina vicitms, and for retaliation against agency whistleblower Christopher De Rosa for raising issues that pointed essentially to how ATSDR was colluding with FEMA to present a misleading assessment to play down health risks, according to a damning House Science & Technology Committee investigative staff report. We note that Frumkin is also the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) liaison to the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. We call on the next administration to shake up the ATSDR leadership and CDC representation to the CCSP to ensure that the nation’s public health agencies are represented with integrity on issues including the health impacts of global climate disruption and response to extreme events, as well as on whistleblower protection.

Good riddance to Special Counsel Scott Bloch: Enemy of whistleblowers forced out of office

Posted on Friday, October 24, 2008

We applaud the belated White House decision to finally remove the disastrous Special Counsel Scott Bloch from office. Government Accountability Project: “We look forward to the appointment of a Special Counsel who will prioritize protecting whistleblowers from retaliation over pursuing personal political agendas.”

Inspectors General Reform Act strengthens federal agency watchdogs

Posted on Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The Inspectors General Reform Act of 2008, passed unanimously by Congress last week, will give federal scientists a safe place to report political interference, on independent Web sites set up to receive anonymous reports about misconduct at federal agencies.

CREW: “Those Who Dared: 30 Officials Who Stood Up for Our Country”

Posted on Saturday, September 20, 2008

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington released its report, Those Who Dared: 30 Officials Who Stood Up for Our Country, on July 16, “recognizing the brave individuals who have acted and spoken out against unethical and dishonorable conduct in the Bush administration.” (news release) (full report, 3.2 MB)

Speaking Truth to Power: Why on earth is EPA whistleblower Jason Burnett standing alone?

Posted on Monday, July 28, 2008

... by Anne Polansky, Sr. Associate (CSW Director Rick Piltz is on a book-writing sabbatical until the end of August)

It took only one EPA whistleblower (Jason Burnett) to help Congressional Committee chairs Boxer, Waxman, Markey, et al conduct basic oversight and expose the blatant sidestepping of the Clean Air Act under White House pressure, and nefarious acts to subvert environmental law at levels all the way up the chain to President Bush and VP Dick Cheney. Why aren’t more EPA officials standing up with Burnett? More importantly, why has EPA Administrator Steve Johnson not stood up for public health and the environment—as he swore he would do?

Dr. James Hansen calls for fossil industry disinformants to be tried for “high crimes”

Posted on Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Twenty years after delivering his landmark testimony to the US Senate declaring a detectable fingerprint for global warming, Dr. Hansen appeared June 23, 2008 before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming chaired by Rep. Ed Markey. In his briefing (here [PDF], and here [MS Powerpoint]), Hansen pleaded for a rapid transition away from carbon-based fuels to avoid total climate catastrophe, and harshly castigated those in the fossil fuel industries responsible for deliberately and methodically spreading untruths and purposely misleading society, thus dangerously delaying an effective response and actions to avert global climatic disruption. The CEOs behind this massive disinformation campaign of the last several decades, he claims, “should be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature.”

National conference on The Emerging Era in Whistleblower Rights and the Public’s Right to Know

Posted on Friday, June 06, 2008

The Government Accountability Project and the American University Washington College of Law are hosting a national conference in Washington, DC on June 23: The Emerging Era in Whistleblower Rights and the Public’s Right to Know. This exciting legal conference will focus on the current state of federal whistleblower rights and pending legislation. See Details for the conference agenda.

Have things changed? What reforms are needed? Remarks at Whistleblower Week in Washington

Posted on Thursday, May 15, 2008

Climate Science Watch director Rick Piltz spoke at a Whistleblower Week in Washington event May 12, on a panel on “Scientific Freedom and the Public Good.” In addition to comments in response to questions about his own experience, he talked about the current situation with the Bush administration and the future direction of the federal climate research program and its relationship to society. See Details for full text.

Whistleblower Week in Washington DC panel May 12 on Scientific Freedom and the Public Good

Posted on Thursday, May 08, 2008

Scientific censorship on a range of issues including climate change will be the subject of a panel as Government Accountability Project Whistleblower Week in Washington DC events kick off on May 12. Panelists will include Celia Wexler and Tim Donaghy of the Union of Concerned Scientists, FDA drug safety whistleblower David Ross, and Climate Science Watch director Rick Piltz.
[UPDATE posted on May 15: “Have things changed? What reforms are needed? Remarks at Whistleblower Week in Washington”

Bill Moyers speech on receiving 2008 Ridenhour Courage Prize

Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008

In his acceptance speech Moyers said: “You will learn more about who wins and who loses in the real business of politics, which is governance, from the public interest truth-tellers of Washington than you will from an established press tethered to official sources. The Government Accountability Project…and from whistleblowers of all sorts… See Details for the full text of his incisive and inspiring remarks at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, on April 3.

House subcommittee hearing April 1 on FEMA toxic trailers and mistreatment of CDC whistleblower

Posted on Monday, March 31, 2008

Tomorrow (April 1) the House Science Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee will hold a hearing (“Toxic Trailers: Have the Centers for Disease Control Failed to Protect Public Health?”) to further investigate the belated discovery of high levels of formaldehyde in trailers that FEMA provided to displaced Katrina victims. The hearing (also webcast) will feature testimony by Dr. Christopher De Rosa, former toxicology director at the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, testifying after being unfairly demoted and placed on a termination track for fighting to tell the truth about formaldehyde’s toxicity. We applaud DeRosa’s public service, including his decision to be a whistleblower.

House-Senate conferees should report strong Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act bill

Posted on Thursday, January 03, 2008

A January 3 editorial in the St. Petersburg (FL) Times, “Protect the Whistleblowers,” calling on Congress to strengthen the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act and override a presidential veto if necessary, leads with: “Were it not for the disclosures of Rick Piltz of the White House Climate Change Science Program, the public might never have known that Bush administration appointees, including an oil industry lobbyist, altered the conclusions of the country’s top scientists in order to subvert concern over global warming. Piltz is one of thousands of whistleblowers who help make our government more accountable.” But: “The Whistleblower Protection Act is no longer serving its initial purpose....According to the Government Accountability Project, a nonpartisan organization devoted to protecting whistleblowers, in the last 13 years whistleblowers have suffered a 2-to-183 losing streak before the one federal appellate court to which they may appeal.” See Details for full text and Piltz note.

Screw-up at House Judiciary Committee sends whistleblower e-mail addresses to Cheney

Posted on Thursday, November 01, 2007

The Washington Post reported on October 31 that “the House Judiciary Committee, after promising strict confidentiality, inadvertently sent the e-mail addresses of Justice Department whistle-blowers out to all those who have used a special tip line.” Vice President Cheney’s office got all 150 of the e-mail addresses. The Committee’s failure to design an effective system for dealing with confidential information strikes at the heart of one of the key reasons people hesitate to become whistleblowers—that they won’t be protected.

“The War on Whistleblowers”

Posted on Thursday, November 01, 2007

An excellent November 1 article in Salon details the current degenerate state of federal whistleblower protections. Whistleblowers cannot rely on their legal rights for an official victory, no matter how valid their charges nor how important the issues. The article points to the need for legislative reform and also suggests to us that, in addition to legal counsel, whistleblowers with strong cases should have the support of skilled, aggressive public interest advocacy, the media spotlight, and political pressure in order to get favorable results.

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