Incidents 2007
From Science Besieged
Incident reports are short dispatches about skirmishes in the battle for scientific integrity.
Contents |
January, February, and March
January 3: UCS Reports: Exxon Spends $16M to Confuse Global-Warming Issue
The Union of Concerned Scientists today issued a new report, [1] Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air: How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco's Tactics to "Manufacture Uncertainty" on Climate Change, claiming that the oil giant has tried to create uncertainty about climate-change issues in an effort to affect US policy and delay regulatory action.
According to the report, ExxonMobil has funneled nearly $16 million between 1998 and 2005 to a network of 43 advocacy organizations that seek to confuse the public on global warming science.
January 30: House Committee Examines Allegations of Science Suppression
The US Congressional House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by Democrat Henry Waxman of California, held hearings to examine allegations that the Bush administration has manipulated scientific results, or interfered with reports of scientific results in studies of global climate change, in an effort to weaken the case that global warming is predominantly caused by human activity. In an unusual turn-about, according to a report by Cornelia Dean,[2]
Almost to a person, Republicans on the panel introduced themselves by proclaiming their agreement that the earth's climate was warming and that the principal culprit was greenhouse gases generated by people and their machinery.
One witness claimed that the Bush Administration was not unusual in its approach,
But the other witnesses spoke about how the administration had delayed, altered or watered down the findings of government scientists, the kind of thing they said they did not experience in the Clinton administration.
February 2: Climate-Change Report to have been Attacked for Pay
Even as the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was releasing its much-anticipated report on global climate change ("widely regarded as the most comprehensive review yet of climate change science"[3]), it was reported by The Guardian [UK] that the conservative American Enterprise Institute ("an ExxonMobil-funded think tank with close links to the Bush administration") was offering $10,000 to scientists and economists who would write papers that would undermine the results of the IPCC report. According to The Guardian
Climate scientists described the move yesterday [by the American Enterprise Institute] as an attempt to cast doubt over the "overwhelming scientific evidence" on global warming. "It's a desperate attempt by an organisation who wants to distort science for their own political aims," said David Viner of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.
April, May, June
July, August, September
July 10: Former Bush Surgeon General Testifies to Political Pressure
Dr. Richard Carmona, the first US Surgeon General in the administration of George W. Bush, serving from 2002 to 2006, testified before a US House of Representative's committee that he had been "muzzled" on key issues, and felt political interference from the administration, during his tenure. He is quoted[4] as saying
Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried [...] The problem with this approach is that in public health, as in a democracy, there is nothing worse than ignoring science, or marginalizing the voice of science for reasons driven by changing political winds. The job of surgeon general is to be the doctor of the nation, not the doctor of a political party.
Notes
- ^ Press release, "Scientists' Report Documents ExxonMobil’s Tobacco-like Disinformation Campaign on Global Warming Science", Union of Concerned Scientists, 3 January 2007.
- ^ Cornelia Dean, "Government meddling claimed in climate change science", International Herald Tribune, 31 January 2007; the identical story was also published as "Scientists Criticize White House Stance on Climate Change Findings", New York Times, 31 January 2007.
- ^ Ian Sample, "Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study", The Guardian [UK], 2 February 2007.
- ^ "Former Bush surgeon general says he was muzzled", Reuters, 10 July 2007.
Additional Sources
- Juliet Eilperin, "AEI Critiques of Warming Questioned", Washington Post, 5 February 2007.
