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

Assessments of Climate Impacts and Adaptation

The U.S. "National Assessment"; the impacts and adaptation chapter of the U.S. National Communication required by Article 12 of the U.N. Climate Convention; and other major assessments.

World Wildlife Fund statement on the IPCC and WWF’s scientific work

Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010

The World Wildlife Fund has issued a statement on the results of the organization’s inquiry into statements about Himalayan glaciers and the climate change threat in the Amazon attributed to WWF in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change impacts assessment report. The statement indicates steps WWF will take to ensure that the scientific community and the public can more easily distinguish between WWF’s voluminous peer-reviewed scientific reports and their general communications products, and to ensure their scientific publications continue to meet the highest standards for accuracy, and notes the broader context of the strong scientific basis for understanding climate change.

Questions to an IPCC co-chair on ensuring the credibility of IPCC leadership and communications

Posted on Friday, February 05, 2010

We asked Christopher Field, co-chair of IPCC Working Group II on Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability: To counter the effort by the global warming disinformation campaign to discredit and delegitimize the IPCC, how will the IPCC ensure that the public and policymakers see it as being impeccable, not in an advocacy mode, without conflicts of interest, and highly credible going forward? In his reply, Dr. Field said the IPCC “has been slow – is in the middle of being slow – to come up with a comprehensive strategy for the challenges that are being raised,” and stated his personal commitment to making needed changes.

Worldwide glacier melt a real concern; Himalaya controversy leaves questions about IPCC leadership

Posted on Thursday, January 21, 2010

The IPCC on January 20 officially acknowledged “poorly substantiated rates of recession and date for the disappearance of Himalayan glaciers.” The controversy over the erroneous paragraph in the IPCC Working Group II Fourth Assessment Report should not overshadow the large body of evidence about anthropogenic climate change and its likely disruptive consequences, nor the overall IPCC synthesis conclusion that “Widespread mass losses from glaciers and reductions in snow cover over recent decades are projected to accelerate throughout the 21st century, reducing water availability … in regions supplied by meltwater from major mountain ranges (e.g. Hindu-Kush, Himalaya, Andes), where more than one-sixth of the world population currently lives.” But, as we said to ClimateWire, the IPCC should re-examine how it vets information when compiling future assessment reports. And, while the official IPCC mea culpa statement on January 20 is a necessary step in the right direction, it is not dispositive of questions this incident raises about the IPCC leadership and the organization’s public communications capabilities.

IPCC slips on the ice with statement about Himalayan glaciers

Posted on Tuesday, January 19, 2010

In a chapter on climate change impacts in Asia, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fourth Assessment Report (2007) relied on an error-riddled online article when it discussed the likely state of Himalayan glaciers in 2035. It did so despite questions raised by some reviewers. Details about the incident have come to light since early November when the Indian government published a report that contradicted the IPCC. The error and the IPCC’s initial response highlight the need to strengthen the IPCC review process, and its capacity to respond quickly and appropriately to such problems. Failure to do so may undermine public confidence in the IPCC and invite opportunistic attacks by those opposing meaningful action on climate change.

Capitol Hill briefing draws needed attention to challenges of climate change impacts and adaptation

Posted on Tuesday, January 12, 2010

A January 8 Capitol Hill briefing by four leading analysts on Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation reflected a growing awareness that scientific research and assessment per se don’t necessarily lead to effective action to enhance resilience to the impacts of global climatic disruption. The briefing began with the scientific foundation for understanding climate change impacts and moved to an insightful discussion of the challenges of putting adaptive preparedness into practice.

White House Science Office reactivating U.S. National Assessment of Climate Change

Posted on Sunday, January 10, 2010

Katharine Jacobs, who chairs the forthcoming National Academy of Sciences report on Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change, is moving to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to play a lead role on climate change assessment and adaptation. OSTP is taking the first steps to reactivate the National Assessment of Climate Change Impacts, nine years after the first National Assessment was issued, then later essentially suppressed by the Bush Administration.

A New Year’s resolution for Obama: Figure out how to talk to the public about climate change

Posted on Thursday, December 31, 2009

In the U.S., public understanding of and support for climate science and its findings about the likely consequences of global climatic disruption is seriously underdeveloped, and even appears to have slipped during 2009. This may be due in part to the decision by President Obama and some of his strongest supporters to focus their message narrowly on the mantras of clean energy and green jobs, and their tactics narrowly on cap and trade legislation….

The economic costs of climate adaptation escalate with inaction, says bipartisan energy group

Posted on Tuesday, November 17, 2009

“Pay now, or pay more later” is the increasingly substantiated wisdom of addressing—and failing to address—the threat of global climate disruption. The bipartisan National Commission on Energy Policy (NCEP) pulled together the findings of seven climate change impacts studies conducted around the country, and recently issued what amounts to yet another fair warning. Climate change impacts are wide-ranging and affect key resources Americans care about; the greater the warming, the greater the economic costs will be to society; but—we can avoid the worst impacts by ratcheting down heat-trapping pollution and planning for unavoidable impacts. Planning, preparing for, and building resilience against climate impacts is not getting the public policy attention it deserves. Today we cross-post from Nick Sundt at the World Wildlife Fund’s climate blog.

New report says many adaptation measures can be half as expensive as doing nothing

Posted on Saturday, September 19, 2009

Not only that, but doing nothing, thus further incurring myriad risks associated with climate change, could cost nations up to one-fifth (19%) of their GDP by 2030, with developing countries most vulnerable, according to a new report from the Economics of Climate Adaptation Working Group, created by the World Bank’s Global Environment Facility and the UN Environment Programme. The report says that some cost-effective adaptation measures already exist—some that are half as expensive as the eventual cost of inaction on climate change—and can prevent between 40 and 68 percent of the expected economic loss. Even higher levels of prevention are possible in certain areas, according to the report. As we debate climate legislation and head for international climate negotiations in Copenhagen, this report is a must-read for US policymakers—including President Obama, who so far has not warned US residents of the hazards and costs associated with unchecked climate disruption.

New Global Framework for Climate Services should strengthen preparedness

Posted on Thursday, September 10, 2009

More than 2,000 climate experts and decisionmakers from 155 countries have established a Global Framework for Climate Services—“to strengthen production, availability, delivery and application of science-based climate prediction and services.” The Declaration creating the Framework adopted at last week’s World Climate Conference-3 (WCC-3) in Geneva calls on the Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization to convene a meeting of WMO member states for creating a task force to address and report on actions needed to implement the Framework by 2011. This is a step in the right direction, and should be supported by the Obama administration, with the condition that it be accountable to stakeholders and decisionmakers and responsive to their needs for information, and embrace the overall goal of strengthening preparedness for climate change impacts worldwide.

Assessing the costs of adaptation to climate change: A critique of the UNFCCC underestimates

Posted on Sunday, August 30, 2009

Scientists led by a former co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warn in a new report that the UN negotiations aimed at tackling climate change are based on substantial underestimates of what it will cost to adapt to its impacts. The real costs of adaptation are likely to be 2-3 times greater than estimates made by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), say Professor Martin Parry and colleagues in a new report published by the International Institute for Environment and Development and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London. The report adds that costs will be even more when the full range of climate impacts on human activities is considered. These findings raise profound issues of climate change preparedness, national security, and international equity in the climate change treaty negotiations.

Warming in the Heartland: Is the nation’s “breadbasket” toast?—Another preparedness challenge

Posted on Friday, August 28, 2009

Yields of three of the most important crops produced in the United States – corn, soybeans, and cotton – are predicted to “fall off a cliff” if temperatures rise due to climate change, according to a paper published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Global warming impacts on agricultural production should be included in the adaptation component of the Senate climate and clean energy bill—and estimates of potential CO2 “offsets” in the agricultural sector should factor-in the potential crop loss due to climate change-induced heat stress and drought.

Climate change impacts in our backyards: the Southwest

Posted on Saturday, July 18, 2009

New Mexico is under such severe drought this July that state politicians are appealing to the federal government for drought relief for seven counties. Meanwhile, the rain that does fall occurs in strenuous downpours that damage agricultural crops. Record-breaking drought has hit southern Texas. And California is in such dire straits with water shortages that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar flew out last week to hear directly from farmers and other water-dependent groups. For the American Southwest, prolonged drought with critical water shortages and searing heat are the climate change signatures. This 6th post in our series delving into Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States takes a look what is happening now and what might be in store.

Climate change impacts in our backyards: the Great Plains

Posted on Thursday, July 02, 2009

How great will the Great Plains still be in the face of global climate disruption? What can we expect to see in the this vast swath of land, bordered on the west by the Rocky Mountains and on the east by Mississippi River, ranging from Wyoming and North Dakota abutting Canada all the way down to the southern tip of Texas? How will US agriculture be impacted? What are decisionmakers doing to prepare in this region? This 5th post in our series delving into Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States takes a look what is in store for the Great Plains, and how people are beginning to deal with climate consequences in this region.

Climate change impacts in our backyards: the Midwest

Posted on Monday, June 29, 2009

This fourth post in our series delving into Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States, a landmark report issued June 16, highlights the climate change consequences we can expect to see in the Midwest. While this region will likely escape the prolonged droughts that are projected to plague the West and the Southeast, midwestern states will be exposed to the hazards of more frequent deadly heat waves, more frequent, heavier downpours, and disruption of freshwater lake ecosystems. Already there have been two record-breaking floods in the past 15 years: the Great Flood of 1993, and a record-breaking 24-hour rainstorm in July 1996, which resulted in flash flooding in Chicago and its suburbs, causing extensive damage and disruption.

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