integrityofscience | March 14, 2007From Union of Concerned Scientists:
WASHINGTON (March 14, 2007) - The House of Representatives today overwhelmingly passed the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, which would, for the first time, grant federal scientists and contractors the right to expose political interference in their research without fear of retribution. The bill passed by a 331 to 94 vote, with 229 Democrats and 102 Republicans voting in favor.
The House soundly rejected an amendment from Rep. Bill Sali (R-Idaho) that would have stripped all protections for scientists from the legislation. Instead, the legislators…
integrityofscience | March 12, 2007In Friday NCAA men's hoops, Arkansas beat Vanderbilt 82-81, advancing the Razorbacks to the SEC Semi Finals and sending the Commodores back to class for now. Now imagine, if following his team's defeat, Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings had had this to say in the post-came news conference:
"If you look at the score since half time, we actually beat Arkansas." Despite the fact that Vanderbilt did, in fact, outscore Arkansas in the second half (42-39), Stallings would be the laughing stock of the league.
Yet that's essentially what the White House did last month when Press Secretary Tony Snow…
integrityofscience | March 7, 2007It's been more than 3 weeks, 6 flights, 4 states, 2 presentations, 1 AAAS meeting, 1 new nephew, and more than 1500 new e-mail messages since our last post. Sorry 'bout the lapse. It's a busy time in the world of scientific integrity, but we hope to be back up to pace shortly.
In the meantime, here's a nugget from last week's This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow. You can view the full cartoon over at Working for Change. It's a little ham-fisted, sure, but we love our weekly Tom Tomorrow fix, and we'll take his rants on science politicization any way we can get them.
Given all predicted hub…
integrityofscience | February 13, 2007Two House Committees are currently running a concurrent hearing to discuss revised Executive Order 12866, the January 18 Order that looks to delay and constrain several federal agencies' abilities to implement new regulations and provide guidance to businesses, doctors, and others. E&E Daily (subscription required) reports that the official in charge of implementing the new rule will testify.
Steven Aitken, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, will testify before the (House Judiciary Committee's) Commercial and…
integrityofscience | February 8, 2007Political distortions of the scientific process have undergone a dramatic rise in Washington over the past six years, according to the Senate testimony of Dr. Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute. Gleick's testimony (download - PDF) was provided to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing on Climate Change Research and Science Integrity Wednesday. Misuse of science and attacks on scientists, Gleick finds, have been pervasive and categorical.
Good, independent science - indeed good information in general - is crucial to making good political decisions…
integrityofscience | February 7, 2007Bill Brennan, acting director of the Climate Change Science Program, was spinning the White House's treatment of scientists at this morning's Senate Commerce Committee Hearing on Climate Change Research and Scientific Integrity.
"The administration takes the concerns of its scientists very seriously, and each department and agency is reviewing -- and modifying, if necessary -- its policies to ensure government scientists do not face censorship on any scientific matter," Brennan said. Source (subscription required)
Brennan's written testimony is available here (PDF). It does not address any…
integrityofscience | February 6, 2007The Daily Show is reporting that Punxsutawney Phil has been reassigned for statements he made during last week's Groundhog Day celebration in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.
After attempting to use media attention to warn against the dangers of anthropogenic climate change, Phil was put back in his hole. Not a week later, he has been reassigned to a Whac-a-Mole machine. Oh the indignity. You can view the video here.
Phil's fate is, of course, parody of the not-so-funny experiences of some federal agency scientists. Those real stories will likely come up at the Senate Hearing on Climate…
integrityofscience | February 2, 2007The American Enterprise Institute offered British and American scientists cash for critique of the just-released IPCC report, according to UK's Guardian newspaper.
Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world's largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today.
Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN's…
integrityofscience | February 2, 2007In Wednesday's column, Boston Globe opinion writer Derrick Z. Jackson draws an interesting contrast between two presidents' handling of the nation's body of science in the face of adversity.
Publicly, President Eisenhower downplayed the significance of Sputnik. A "useless hunk of iron." Privately, he rallied his cabinet under its guidance created NASA and expanded the NSF.
On the eve of the latest IPCC report and in the face of increasingly dramatic evidence of climate change, President George W. Bush has, well, done the opposite. From the column "Bush spaces out during Sputnik moment":
The…
integrityofscience | January 30, 2007The reports from today's hearing, "Political Interference with the Work of Government Climate Change Scientists," are coming in. Hosted by Representative Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing will be the first of many such investigative hearings. Part of the story is that documents demanded from the Council on Environmental Quality were not delivered on time, and then failed to meet the criteria of documents that were requested. So, in short, the Administration got off on the wrong foot ...
We're still digesting everything that happened today…
integrityofscience | January 29, 2007The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will be releasing the first of four reports on Friday, including a 12-page summary of policy recommendations. In its first report since 2001, it finds that the planetary warming observed since 1950 is 90% likely to be due from human activities.
Predictably, climate science deniers are already throwing stones. More surprising is the story that some scientists are predicting the report will be too optimistic. From the Associated Press:
Early and changeable drafts of their upcoming authoritative report on climate change foresee smaller sea…
integrityofscience | January 29, 2007A Congressional hearing on politicization of science will take place Tuesday morning.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by Representative Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), will be holding a hearing on "Allegations of Political Interference with the Work of Government Climate Change Scientists." For a preview of some of the material that will be discussed, check out the information that the Committee is requesting from the White House Council on Environmental Quality (letter - PDF) regarding editing of scientific reports and "other actions to minimize the significance…
integrityofscience | January 25, 2007Recently, Australia's leaders seem to have been second only to the Bush Administration in their denial of the consensus around climate science. Just in case anyone thought being a researcher in Australia was all toast and Vegemite (not that we've actually heard that anywhere), the Sydney Morning Herald paints a picture of Aussie scientists who look a bit like some of their beleaguered Yankee counterparts. From "California dreaming, to stop an environmental nightmare":
"Those of us who inherited this idea of Australia as a team player in the world have had to adjust over the last couple of…
integrityofscience | January 23, 2007Spinmeister Frank Luntz spoke with Salon recently, touching on a number of Washington buzz topics. If you're not familiar with him, check out the infamous Luntz memo, and you will understand why he is a chief enemy of transparent policy and scientific debate. At the end of the print interview, they touch on global warming:
(Salon) Bush plans to outline a global warming policy in his State of the Union address this week. The GOP spent years spreading doubt that there was consensus in the scientific community about global warming, but in recent years Bush has changed his position. So,…
integrityofscience | January 23, 2007The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has nominated "An Inconvenient Truth" for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. The announcement was made this morning. Prepare yourself for savage overuse of the phrase "liberal Hollywood elite" and its permutations between now and the February 28 awards show.
Al Gore, unsurprisingly, is thrilled that the 3rd highest-grossing documentary of all-time has been recognized by the academy.
"The film ... has brought awareness of the climate crisis to people in the United States and all over the world," Gore said in an e-mail statement. "I am so…
integrityofscience | January 19, 2007President Bush signed a whole heap of bad yesterday. Amendments to a Clinton-era executive order will substantially increase the influence of the President's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) over federal agencies such as NASA, the EPA, and the FDA. From Greenwire (subscription required):
Under revised Executive Order 12866, each agency must install a presidential appointee as its "regulatory policy officer," reporting to the agency head and involved "at each stage of the regulatory process." The Clinton order created the policy officer post but did not specify what type of agency…
integrityofscience | January 17, 2007On October 1 of last year, the EPA closed the libaries in its headquarters and several regional braches (Federal Record notice). The penny-pinching Bush Administration policy is now on hold, pending congressional review. According to Greenwire (subscription required):
Responding to a request from Democratic lawmakers, EPA will put on hold its plan to shutter facilities and destroy materials it deems to be duplicates or obsolete. EPA deputy press secretary Jessica Emond said the agency is waiting word from Congress on how to proceed.
The White House is seeking to cut $2 million from EPA's…
integrityofscience | January 17, 2007Some stories we're reading but won't have time to blog:
"Cutbacks Impede Climate Studies" from today's Washingotn Post
"Exxon meets green groups as climate focus surges" from Reuters
"How Should Scientists Work with the Media and How Should Journalists Report on the Debate Over Evolution?" from Evolution News & Views
integrityofscience | January 16, 2007This morning, we highlighted a story out of London that suggested the White House was about to make a "historic shift" on climate change. We were skeptical. As it turns out, it didn't take long for our skepticism to be realized.
The White House on Tuesday denied it was planning a U-turn on its climate change policy by embracing a system of formal caps on greenhouse emissions, despite rising pressure from European governments to change its stance.
Although energy security will be a key theme in President George W. Bush's State of the Union address next week, the White House issued an…
integrityofscience | January 16, 2007According to sources close to Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Bush is going to be signaling a "historic shift" on his administration's climate change policy during next Tuesday's State of the Union speech. According to The Observer
Bush and Blair held private talks on climate change before Christmas, and there is a feeling that the US President will now agree a cap on emissions in the US, meaning that, for the first time, American industry and consumers would be expected to start conserving energy and curbing pollution.
'We could now be seeing the beginning of a consensus on a post-…