AGU 2006 Fall Meeting

Four of the five presentations from last week's American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting panel discussion, "Defining and Protecting the Integrity of Science: New Challenges for the 21st Century," are now online. Peter Gleick President, Pacific Institute (presiding); “The Integrity of Science: Identifying Logical Fallacies, Deceitful Tactics, and Abuse of the Public Trust” (PDF) Judith Curry Professor and Chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology “Falling out of the Ivory Tower: a Case Study of Mixing Hurricane Science, Politics, and the…
We're playing catch-up from last week's meeting and getting ready for the holidays, so no commentary today, just links to some interesting stories. More from AGU: Al Gore Urges Scientists to Speak Out on Climate Change Live Science Gore Tells Scientists to be Vocal About Climate Change DailyTech Stories about science integrity: On a swift boat to a warmer world (Daniel Schrag op-ed) Boston Globe UK noble to senators: Apologize to Exxon or resign Raw Story When science is not science, blame politics Pocono Record The Hockey Stick is broken Gristmill
There was one particularly good talk we weren't able to blog on Thursday. Between media magnets Jim Hansen and Vice President Al Gore, we caught a terrific talk from Dr. Naomi Oreskes entitled "Deflecting Disinformation about Climate Change." More science, Oreskes finds, has only a limited effect of erasing Americans' doubts about climate change. Knowing the true nature of the problem - namely an organized two-decade-plus misinformation campaign - will lead scientists and advocates in the right direction. A TIME magazine/ABC News/Stanford University poll finds that while 85% of Americans…
This week's American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting is quickly coming to a close. We've attended our last panel, an interesting couple hours on educating the public including folks from RealClimate.org, the Knight Science Journalism Tracker, BBC, and more. This will be the first of two posts that will serve as a bit of an epilogue to the week. It was exciting to be able to cover Al Gore's talk yesterday, and it has been more exciting to see the breadth of coverage the talk received -- shining quite a light on the issue of political tampering of science. Here's a sampling of stories we've seen…
Earlier today at the 2006 American Geophysical Union's Fall Meeting in San Francisco, the former Vice President introduced himself, "I am Al Gore. I used to be the next President of the United States." Those who have seen "An Inconvenient Truth" will know the line, which predictably drew laughs. However, today's lecture, Climate Change: The Role of Science and the Media in Policymaking was stripped down and refocused. There were no PowerPoint slides, no Macintosh computer, no cherry pickers, just a man in a dark blue suit, a podium, and literally thousands of scientists hanging on his every…
No need for coffee this morning, as the energy in the 8 a.m. session on communicating science (particularly global warming science) has a palpable stimulating effect all its own. The star of the loaded panel was certainly Dr. Jim Hansen of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the Columbia University Earth Institute. After all, he's the national poster boy (or punching bag, depending where you stand) on the subject of federal interference in climate science. "I speak today as myself and not as a spokesman for NASA," Hansen opened to clapping and a few chuckles. The implication, not…
At what point is the science certain enough on an issue? Is there a line of policy involvement that scientists shouldn't cross? What will the new Congress mean for science and scientists? These were some of the questions aired at science integrity-related events at the American Geophysical Union's Fall Meeting on Tuesday. At the morning discussion "Defining and Protecting the Integrity of Science: New Challenges for the 21st Century," panelists tackled the personal, the political, and much in between. Later in the day, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) sponsored a workshop for…
The annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union is taking place this week, and your friendly neighborhood Integrity of Science Blog will be in attendance. The Pacific Institute and the Union of Concerned Scientists will be presiding over the Tuesday morning session "Defining and Protecting the Integrity of Science: New Challenges for the 21st Century." The panel promises to be interesting, and includes AGU President Timothy Killeen, Science Editor-in-Chief Don Kennedy, and atmospheric scientist and political attackee Judith Curry. For more details on the session (Tuesday, 8 a.m., MCS 308…