It's A Dangerous World Out There!

This page last updated October 9, 2006.

Throughout the history of civilization, one of the things crucial for science to fluorish is the free exchange of ideas unencumbered by oppressive centralized government and religion. As Carl Sagan pointed out in his book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark, the values of science and the values of democracy are concordant, in many cases indistinguishable. On this page, I want to talk a little about how science has been attacked in the past, and touch on some important attacks of the present.

Protecting the Environment

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, industrial pollution created significant damage to the environment and threatened people's health by poisoning the air (anyone remember the big smog alerts?) and water. Legislation passed in the U.S. beginning during the Nixon era helped tremendously to repair some of the damage and create a more healthy environment. Some people believe that the 2000 election in the U.S. has brought into power an administration and a Congress that are taking actions which threaten to destroy the health of the environment. Despite the huge size of the Earth, its resources are limited. The Earth is, as far as we know, the only planet that can support human life, or at least the only havitable planet that we can get to. It is a closed ecosystem, meaning we have to take care of the environment if we want to survive. The following is an attempt to follow developments relevant to this issue.

  • Science Is Solid on Climate Change, Experts Tell Congress
    • U.S. government scientists testified before a U.S. congressional committee July 20, trying to dispel any remaining doubts that climate change -- and the human role in it -- is a real phenomenon documented by abundant scientific research. House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis, a Republican from Virginia, urged the issue be discussed in a nonpartisan way. "For too long, the political dialogue on climate change has been dominated by black-and-white grandstanding, either finger-wagging or head-in-the-sand denial and denunciation," he said. "There has been no reasonable discourse." Committee members wanted to start with the basics: Is climate change real and how significant is the influence of human activity? "Some greenhouse gases are increasing in the atmosphere because of human activities and increasingly trapping more heat," said Thomas Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "The fact that we don't have a plan (at the national level to combat global warming) is really disturbing," said Judith Curry, head of Georgia Institute of Technology's School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. A chronic illness only partly explains why James Hansen decided to skip the House Government Reform Committee's first hearing on global warming in seven years. The NASA scientist also passed on yesterday's event because lawmakers are "still in denial" about the reasons for dramatic changes in the Earth's climate, he said last night in an e-mail. "I would get out of my sickbed to testify to Congress on global warming, if they were ready to deal responsibly with the matter," Hansen wrote. "But obviously they are still in denial, inviting contrarians to 'balance' the science of global warming." Hansen's e-mail said skeptical points of view cloud the climate debate rather than enlighten it. "The function of the contrarians is to obfuscate what is known, so as to keep the public confused and allow special interests to continue to reap short-term profits, to the detriment of the long-term economic well-being of the nation," he said.
  • Who Killed The Electric Car?
    • In 1996, electric cars began to appear on roads all over California. They were quiet and fast, produced no exhaust, and ran without gasoline. So, what happened to them? ... It was among the fastest, most efficient production cars ever built. It ran on electricity, produced no emissions and catapulted American technology to the forefront of the automotive industry. The luck few who drove it never wanted to give it up. So why did General Motors crush its fleet of EV1 electric vehicles in the Arizona desert?
  • Was Confusion Over Global Warming a Con Job?
    • Many say a disinformation campaign for years has distorted America's debate on global warming. The disinformation campaign gives the impression that scientists are broadly divided on the subject of global warming when, in fact they are not. It is just a small minority that are in opposition.
  • Court Sides With States, Halts EPA Rule Change -- Court Says Changes By EPA Violated Clean Air Act
    • A federal appeals court blocked the Bush administration's four-year effort to loosen emission rules for aging coal-fired power plants, unanimously ruling yesterday that the changes violated the Clean Air Act and that only Congress could authorize such revisions. The panel threw out the Environmental Protection Agency's rule on what is called New Source Review as flatly at odds with the Clean Air Act. Unfortunately, there is no particular reason to expect the administration to come to its senses in response. It is still trying to curtail enforcement against old coal-fired plants that fail to install new pollution-control technologies.
  • Electricity Deregulation: High Cost, Unmet Promises -- Competition a 'Myth' as Prices Spiral Upward
    • Maryland and District consumers angry at the record electric bills they will receive this summer might want to recall the promises made by proponents of deregulation seven years ago. If they do, they'll be even angrier. At the time, in 1999, evangelists for deregulation described a competitive, efficient and lower-priced system of energy delivery that, for the most part, remains a fantasy in the Mid-Atlantic region and other parts of the country today, according to industry experts. Deregulation was never about lower costs to homeowners, it was always about higher profits for the energy companies. In other words, the deregulation proponets lied to us.
  • Bush Administration gutting Toxics Release Inventory program
    • President Bush and the Environmental Protection Agency want to make it easier for polluters to hide. The Bush Administration EPA is gutting the Toxics Release Inventory program, making it easier for polluting companies to release toxic chemicals into the environment and harder for people to find out about it.
  • New Secretary of Interior is Anti-environment
    • President Bush named Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne as the new secretary of the interior yesterday. Environmental groups immediately assailed the selection, calling it the latest example of the Bush administration selling out to development and energy industry interests. Environmentalists noted that Kempthorne fought to open national forests to logging, mining, and oil and gas drilling. They said he worked to weaken water safety and endangered species laws. "At a time when these controversial issues need a leader who can find common ground, the president could not have chosen a more divisive nominee," said Philip E. Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust.
  • Americans Are Cautiously Open to Gas Tax Rise
    • Fifty-five percent said they would support an increase in the tax, which has been 18.4 cents a gallon since 1993, if it did in fact reduce dependence on foreign oil. Fifty-nine percent were in favor if the result was less gasoline consumption and less global warming. "The tax would have to be earmarked for certain specific projects," one of the people polled, Rich Arnold, 54, a Republican who teaches criminal justice at Louisiana State University, said in a follow-up interview. He added, "If it was a tax that would sponsor research for fuel cells or alternative fuel sources, I could buy that." Some people were concerned that a higher gasoline tax would find its way into what they considered the wrong hands -- unless it were directed to a specific use, just as the current 18.4-cent tax is channeled into highway maintenance and construction.
  • Energy Efficient Cities
  • The Evangelical Climate Initiative
    • 86 Evangelical Leaders Join to Fight Global Warming
    • White House to Study Protecting Polar Bears
      • The Bush administration has agreed to study whether polar bears should be added to the nation's endangered species list because global warming is shrinking their habitat. They would be the first mammals to gain protected status as a result of climate change. Two groups -- the Evangelical Climate Initiative and the Pew Center for Global Climate Change -- demanded the government curb greenhouse gas emissions. "This is God's world, and any damage that we do to God's world is an offense against God himself," the Christian leaders said in a public statement.
    • Creation Care, Eco-Evangelism, and God's Green Soldiers
      • In recent years, Cizik, 54, has been at the forefront of a Biblically inspired environmental movement known as Creation Care, which holds that Christians have an obligation, described in the Book of Genesis, to "replenish the Earth" as God's stewards. "This is not a Red State issue or a Blue State issue or a green issue," Cizik says. "It's a spiritual issue." This week a coalition of leading evangelicals will issue "An Evangelical Call to Action," asking Congress and the Bush administration to combat global warming by restricting carbon-dioxide emissions. "Christians must care about climate change because we love God the Creator," it reads. Dominionists/Reconstructionists like James Dobson argue that "it's a distraction when families are falling apart." In their rabid thirst for power, what fundamentalist extremists refuse to realize is that, if the climate has changed so that civilization as we know it cannot continue, then ALL families will fall apart, and their (e.g., Dobson's) efforts to help the family will be worthless. Rev. Cizik, who came to believe the global-warming science only in recent years, says stirring the debate is his Christian duty. "Isn't it the task of the Biblical believer to warn society, not just about sin, but about mortal threats to our very being?" It most certainly is.
  • Growing Crops To Cope With Climate Change
    • Scientists at the UK's leading plant science centre have uncovered a gene that could help to develop new varieties of crop that will be able to cope with the changing world climate.
  • CO2 'highest for 650,000 years'
    • Current levels of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere are higher now than at any time in the last 650,000 years. That is the conclusion of new European studies looking at ice taken from 3 km below the surface of Antarctica. The scientists say their research shows present day warming to be exceptional.
  • World at its Hottest Since Prehistory
    • The world is now hotter than at any stage since prehistoric times, a top climatologist announced last week. His startling conclusion comes as NASA reported that 2005 has been the hottest year ever recorded. Dr Michael Coughlan, head of the National Climate Centre at the Australian Government's Bureau of Meteorology, said: "One probably has to go back into prehistoric times – and way back in them – to be seeing these sorts of temperatures."
    • 2005 warmest ever year in north -- This year has been the warmest on record in the northern hemisphere, say scientists in Britain. It is the second warmest globally since the 1860s, when reliable records began, they say. Ocean temperatures recorded in the northern hemisphere Atlantic Ocean have also been the hottest on record. The researchers, from the UK Met Office and the University of East Anglia, say this is more evidence for the reality of human-induced global warming.
  • The Virtual March to Stop Global Warming
    • "We are marching across America for one year, via the internet, to bring everyone together in one loud clear voice of concern to urge our leaders to address global warming now. The Stop Global Warming Virtual March on Washington is a non-political effort to bring all Americans together in one place, proving there is a vast consensus that global warming is here now and it is time for our country to start addressing it. With the support of leading scientists, political and religious leaders, prominent Americans and concerned citizens, the Virtual March on Washington will move across the United States via the Internet from one town to the next, showing the evidence of global warming's alarming affects, and highlighting real people's concerns and real solutions along the way."
  • North Carolina to study global warming
    • North Carolina is gearing up to study the effects of global warming on the state. State lawmakers have given final approval to a bill creating a commission on global climate change. The commission will include representatives from universities, Duke Power and Progress Energy, environmental and business groups as well as members appointed by the state House and state Senate. The state legislation directs the commission to study "issues related to global warming, the carbon economy" and whether the state needs to establish a pollutant reduction goal.
  • Destroying the National Parks
    • Recently, a secret draft revision of the national park system's basic management policy document has been circulating within the Interior Department. It was prepared, without consultation within the National Park Service, by Paul Hoffman, a deputy assistant secretary at Interior who once ran the Chamber of Commerce in Cody, Wyo., was a Congressional aide to Dick Cheney and has no park service experience. Within national park circles, this rewrite of park rules has been met with profound dismay, for it essentially undermines the protected status of the national parks. The document makes it perfectly clear that this rewrite was not prompted by a compelling change in the park system's circumstances. It was prompted by a change in political circumstances - the opportunity to craft a vision of the national parks that suits the Bush administration.
  • States Enacting Pollution Policies Federal Government Should Be Doing
    • California poised to act on its own on global warming
      • California has led the nation on many environmental issues: clean air, energy efficiency, recycling, alternative fuels. Now the Golden State is poised to grab the initiative on one mostly ignored in Washington: global warming. Two bills nearing passage in the California Legislature would authorize the nation's broadest crackdown on greenhouse gases, considered by most scientists the cause of Earth's warming.
    • 3 States Seek Emissions Pact
      • Western Officials to Use Northeastern Agreement as Model: Hoping to follow the Northeast's lead, three western states are trying to forge an agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the region's power plants by 2020. A day after nine northeastern states pledged to reduce local electric utilities' carbon dioxide pollution by 10 percent over 15 years to combat global warming, California officials said they hoped to outpace their eastern counterparts in a yet-to-be-negotiated pact with Oregon and Washington. Representatives of the three western states plan to meet in Sacramento in mid-September to hash out the details.
    • 9 States in Plan to Cut Emissions by Power Plants
      • Officials in New York and eight other Northeastern states have come to a preliminary agreement to freeze power plant emissions at their current levels and then reduce them by 10 percent by 2020, according to a confidential draft proposal. The cooperative action, the first of its kind in the nation, came after the Bush administration decided not to regulate the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. Once a final agreement is reached, the legislatures of the nine states will have to enact it, which is considered likely.
    • States to the Rescue
  • Federal Judge OKs Global Warming Lawsuit
    • Environmental groups and four U.S. cities can sue federal development agencies on allegations the overseas projects they back financially contribute to global warming, a judge has ruled.
  • World Officials Want Global Warming Action
    • Environmental ministers and officials from 23 countries met Thursday near a glacier that is retreating at an alarming pace and agreed that governments must stop arguing over global warming and start acting.
  • Judge Reluctant to Rule on Global Warming
    • Even the courts are cowed by the Bush administration and Republican Congress position of enforcing energy company profits over environmental safety. A federal judge expressed reluctance about beginning judicial oversight of pollution issues that affect global warming as she heard arguments Friday in a complaint brought by eight states against some of the nation's largest power companies.
  • Anti-Global Warming Evidence, Cited by Skeptics, Was In Error
    • Key Argument for Global Warming Critics Evaporates
      • For years, skeptics of global warming have used satellite and weather balloon data to argue that climate models were wrong and that global warming isn't really happening. Now, according to three new studies published in the journal Science, it turns out those conclusions based on satellite and weather balloon data were based on faulty analyses. The atmosphere is indeed warming -- the new analyses show that the satellite and weather balloon data are indeed consistent with climate models and theories.
    • Errors Cited in Assessing Climate Data
      • Some scientists who question whether human-caused global warming poses a threat have long pointed to records that showed the atmosphere's lowest layer, the troposphere, had not warmed over the last two decades and had cooled in the tropics. Now two independent studies have found errors in the complicated calculations used to generate the old temperature records, which involved stitching together data from thousands of weather balloons lofted around the world and a series of short-lived weather satellites. A third study shows that when the errors are taken into account, the troposphere actually got warmer. Moreover, that warming trend largely agrees with the warmer surface temperatures that have been recorded and conforms to predictions in recent computer models.
    • Scientists find errors in global warming data
      • Satellite and weather-balloon research released Friday removes a last bastion of scientific doubt about global warming, researchers say.
    • Data Error May Have Hidden Some Warming
      • The puzzling difference between warming temperatures on the ground and not-so-warm readings in the sky above may have been resolved.
    • Measuring global warming
  • The Kyoto Accord is Good for the U.S. Economy as well as the Environment
  • Renewable Energy - Energy Efficiency
    • Can ocean power fill our renewable energy void?
      • According to Hans Krock, an engineer and president of OCEES International Inc. in Honolulu, his company's plants' electricity also could provide enough hydrogen from the ocean water to power cars and provide energy needed to replace fossil fuels in the future. The technologies already exist to move and store hydrogen, he said. "The ocean thermal energy resource is the only one big enough to supply the world's energy in place of fossil fuel," said Krock. "But there is no silver bullet with energy," he added. "We need to utilize all the different sources we can find."
    • Study Says U.S. Companies Lag on Technologies to Fight Global Warming
      • European and Asian companies are paying more attention to global warming than their American counterparts, a report says. American companies "are playing catch-up" with international competitors like BP, Toyota, Alcan, Unilever and Rio Tinto, which are ahead in the development of cleaner fuels, more energy-efficient products, and investment in the development of alternative and clean energy technologies.
    • President's Advanced Energy Initiative
      • The president announced his Advanced Energy Initiative, which will work toward changing the way we power our homes and businesses and developing alternate energy sources, renewable fuels, and more efficient vehicles. Only time will tell if this oil company executive president is really serious about weaning the nation off of oil.
      • "Yes there are winners, but also many losers," said House Science Committee member Bart Gordon at last week's House Science Committee hearing. There was bipartisan opposition to proposed funding reductions for some NSF education programs. Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) highlighted this in his written remarks, saying "these budget choices seriously undercut the ACI's [American Competitiveness Initiative] goals to improve math and science education and to ensure that America has an educated workforce capable of competing in the global economy." The Science Committee's Minority Staff wrote a 24-page analysis of the Administration's FY 2007 budget request highlighting their concerns about the proposed funding levels. This document serves as a good road map of expected issues in coming months; see democrats.science.house.gov/Media/File/SciFunding/staff_budget_fy07_14feb06.pdf: "This budget appears to cut science in order to fund science."
      • The Bush administration is not being honest in its budget proposals. Despite all the political talk about energy research and alternate fuels, $4.4 billion would be cut from energy programs. Environmental spending, including for national parks, would be cut 22 percent, or $28 billion; housing, fuel, child care and nutrition programs for the poor and elderly would lose 13 percent, or $24 billion. Topping this surreal concoction is a 13 percent cut -- $53 billion -- in education and job programs by 2011.
      • Two weeks ago, 32 workers, including eight researchers, were laid off at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. The lab helps develop the very renewable energy technologies the president is promoting. Mr. Bush went to the lab for a photo-op to promote his Advanced Energy Initiative. Just days before his arrival, some money was restored to the lab's contractor to get the bodies back for the photo-op. Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, said the decision to get the bodies back in the lab restores only $5 million of the $28 million budget shortfall at the lab that forced the layoffs. "The $5 million stopped the bodies from going out the door, but it doesn't provide the money for the (renewable energy) programs," Clapp said. Clapp claims the president is promoting renewables because polls show his job approval numbers are being weighed down by Americans' concerns about high utility bills this winter and the cost of gasoline at the pump. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., co-chairman of the House Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus, said the government has funded only one-third of the money the 2005 energy bill authorized for renewable energy and energy efficiency. It's clear that Mr. Bush is talking the talk (promoting renewable energy) in order to get his poll numbers up. But he isn't walking the walk (isn't providing the necessary funding; to the contrary, he is cutting the budget). So he is basically just lying.
    • Here's what we should be doing with our national energy policy, but aren't
      • Insane, crazy, stupid, asleep at the wheel and just plain dumb -- best describe our nation's current energy policy. There are so many simple things that we can do individually and as a nation to reduce our demand for energy and save on energy costs. Yet, virtually none of these solutions is part of our national energy policy. In fact, the policy implemented by Washington in recent years is geared to make us MORE dependent on foreign energy (oil).
    • Hurricane Katrina and the Oil Energy Supply
    • How to Escape the Oil Trap
      • It's true that there is no silver bullet that will entirely solve America's energy problem, but there is one that goes a long way: more-efficient cars. If American cars averaged 40 miles per gallon, we would soon reduce consumption by 2 million to 3 million barrels of oil a day. That could translate into a sustained price drop of more than $20 a barrel. And getting cars to be that efficient is easy. For the most powerful study that explains how, read "Winning the Oil Endgame" by energy expert Amory Lovins (or go to oilendgame.com). I would start by raising fuel-efficiency standards, providing incentives for hybrids and making gasoline somewhat more expensive (yes, that means raising taxes). Of course, the energy bill recently passed by Congress does none of these things. The technologies already exist. But what we're searching for is perhaps even harder than developing technologies -- we're sorely in need of political leadership and vision.
        • read about it (Newsweek 8/29/05 article)
        • oilendgame.com
          • "Winning the Oil Endgame" offers a coherent strategy for ending oil dependence, starting with the United States but applicable worldwide. There are many analyses of the oil problem. This synthesis is the first roadmap of the oil solution--one led by business for profit, not dictated by government for reasons of ideology. This roadmap is independent, peer-reviewed, written for business and military leaders, and co-funded by the Pentagon. It combines innovative technologies and new business models with uncommon public policies: market-oriented without taxes, innovation-driven without mandates, not dependent on major (if any) national legislation, and designed to support, not distort, business logic.
    • The Apollo Alliance - Today's Manhattan Project and Apollo Moon Program
      • Think about this. We are facing a mounting crisis in science and engineering education. The generation of scientists, engineers and mathematicians who were spurred to get advanced degrees by the 1957 Soviet launch of Sputnik and the challenge by President John Kennedy to put a man on the moon is slowly retiring. If President Bush is looking for a legacy, I have just the one for him - a national science project that would be our generation's moon shot: a crash science initiative for alternative energy and conservation to make America energy-independent in 10 years.
      • The Apollo Alliance is a broad coalition within the labor, environmental, business, urban, and faith communities in support of good jobs and energy independence. Our challenge is to achieve energy independence in one generation. This new Apollo Project, a ten-point plan for energy independence, will bring our country together to rethink and reshape our energy future, to create a stronger economy, a safer world and cleaner environment.
    • Smoke, Mirrors and Pain at the Pumps
      • Jim Motavalli: In my last column (http://www.emagazine.com/view/?2830) in this space, I looked at how the Bush administration had missed the opportunity to reform the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) law, and failed to close a loophole by which the largest trucks and SUVs weighing 8,500 pounds or more are exempt from any federal regulation. It's actually worse than I thought. "At a time when Americans are paying record prices for gas, the Bush administration has sided with its cronies in the auto industry and rejected real solutions," says Dan Becker of the Sierra Club.
      • New Fuel Economy Standards Proposed by Bush Administration
        • Environmentalists say the complex proposal adds up to little real change and continues to reward Detroit for building bigger vehicles. "The proposal is almost embarrassing in terms of its effect on fuel consumption," said Eric Haxthausen, an economist with Environmental Defense of Washington. He called the 10 billion gallons of fuel savings a "weak yardstick" because it would be spread over as long as 15 years. Last year, for instance, U.S. drivers consumed nearly 140 billion gallons of gas, according to federal Energy Information Administration. "We can and should do better," Haxthausen said.
      • Green Light for Guzzlers
        • When Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta announced new fuel efficiency standards for sport-utility vehicles, minivans and light trucks last week, he said the rules would "save gas and result in less pain at the pump for motorists." Maybe -- but only barely. The expected savings in gasoline will be a disappointing drop in the barrel.
    • Foolishness on Fuel
      • There are few better illustrations of the disconnect between what lawmakers in Washington know and what they do than an incident that occurred during committee debate on the energy bill in May: Senator Dianne Feinstein offered an amendment to strengthen fuel economy standards for S.U.V.'s, minivans and pickups. When James Talent, a Missouri Republican, opposed the amendment with an argument about potential lost jobs, he drew a sharp response from Pete Domenici, the committee chairman. What's really costing jobs, Mr. Domenici said, is Detroit's failure to make the fuel-efficient cars that can compete on world markets. Mr. Domenici then inexplicably voted against Ms. Feinstein's amendment. So did most of his colleagues.
    • World running out of time for oil alternatives
      • The world could run out of time to develop cleaner alternatives to oil and other fossil fuels before depletion drives prices through the roof, a leading Dutch energy researcher said on Thursday.
    • We're facing a crossroads for a sustainable energy policy
      • Dr. Richard Fireman: Perpetual war, destruction of all ecosystems, the threat of global catastrophe with rapidly accelerating climate change, all fueled by a violence to the earth in which the carbon that had been sequestered over the past 400 million years deep within the earth, has been used to fuel our lifestyle, the product of the industrial revolution. It is now causing rising atmospheric temperatures that will destroy 10,000 years of relative climate stability. If we open our hearts to our common moral sense we would begin to look more deeply and see how our overvaluation of material progress is poisoning not only our souls, but our world. We are addicted to a nonsustainable culture. Already we are using more than our earth can provide and regenerate itself adequately for the next generation. The fossil fuel age will come to an end sometime within the next generation or two, and yet we are gearing up on a national level not for an energy policy that makes sense in terms of health for people and ecosystems, not for one that makes sense for peace, justice and security at home and the rest of the world, but for a policy that will require an international war machine based on nuclear armaments, and an internal economy fueled by coal and a network of nuclear plants that will require a police state to protect it.
    • Experimental Hybrid Cars Get Up to 250 mpg
      • Politicians and automakers say a car that can both reduce greenhouse gases and free America from its reliance on foreign oil is years or even decades away. Ron Gremban says such a car is parked in his garage.
    • Katrina Damage Highlights Renewed Interest in Renewables
      • With Hurricane Katrina shutting down an estimated five percent of American oil refining capacity, and oil prices already at an all-time high, investors are starting to look seriously at renewable forms of energy as the next big thing. Share prices in several small American companies producing solar panels and related equipment--including Evergreen Solar, DayStar Technologies, Energy Conversion Devices and Spire--have more than doubled over the past year.
    • Shortages Stifle a Boom Time for the Solar Industry
    • Danish Scientists Developing Plastic Solar Cell
      • Danish scientists say they have built a new type of plastic solar cell that lasts significantly longer than previous versions and could pave the wave for cheaper solar power.
  • Design for Confusion
    • You might have thought that a strategy of creating doubt about inconvenient research results could work only in soft fields like economics. But it turns out that the strategy works equally well when deployed against the hard sciences.
      The most spectacular example is the campaign to discredit research on global warming. Despite an overwhelming scientific consensus, many people have the impression that the issue is still unresolved. This impression reflects the assiduous work of conservative think tanks, which produce and promote skeptical reports that look like peer-reviewed research, but aren't. And behind it all lies lavish financing from the energy industry, especially ExxonMobil.
      There are several reasons why fake research is so effective. One is that nonscientists sometimes find it hard to tell the difference between research and advocacy - if it's got numbers and charts in it, doesn't that make it science?
  • Ignorance Is Bliss; Sometimes It's Policy
    • Then there's this administration's almost comical insistence that the firm scientific consensus on global climate change is some kind of mass hallucination. "What global warming?" they ask, as mean temperatures rise, Arctic ice melts, tropical diseases march north and hurricanes rake poor Florida in swarms.
  • Feeling the Heat
  • We Need To Cool It - Q and A: Eileen Claussen on Global Warming
    • Even without federal leadership on global warming, states and businesses are starting to take action. A leading advocate for clean energy explains.
  • Exxon Mobil Becomes Focus of a Boycott
  • Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
    • Five years ago, recognizing the potential threat that environmental degradation posed for people around the world, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan called for the first-ever international scientific assessment of the health of the world’s ecosystems. It brought together nearly 1,400 experts from 95 countries. Their goal was to conduct a global inventory of the state of our ecosystems, quantify the effect that human activities are having on them and make suggestions for the future.
  • Clinton Warns of Global Warming Dangers
    • Former President Clinton sounded a warning Tuesday against the dangers of climate change as he met with young South Africans, and had lunch with anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela.
  • National Academy of Sciences Head Testifies on Global Warming
    • Global warming is caused primarily by humans and "nearly all climate scientists today" agree with that viewpoint, the new head of the National Academy of Sciences -- a climate scientist himself -- said Wednesday.
  • Endangered Species Act Faces Broad New Challenges
  • Ocean Evidence Points to a Million-Year El Niño
    • The last time the earth was warm, the waters of the Pacific Ocean may have been stuck in an El Niño pattern that lasted more than a million years, scientists reported yesterday. "It's an indication we need to focus on how El Niño may change as the earth warms," said Dr. Michael W. Wara.
  • Is Congress Waking Up to the Importance of Global Warming?
    • Abrupt political climate change needed for global climate change action in Congress
      • House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert: "Without abrupt political climate change, it's going to be next to impossible to do anything about global climate change. ... But right now, those of us who seek action are confronted by ideology, by fear, by a reluctance to lead, by apathy, by comfort with the status quo. All of that has to change, and I think it is beginning to change."
    • Senate Hearing Provides Further Insight on Prospects for Climate Change Legislation
      • On Tuesday, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee had a second hearing on climate change, centering on the economic consequences and effectiveness of several proposals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
    • Despite ferocious White House opposition, the Senate went on record as favoring a program of mandatory controls of emissions of the gases that contribute to global warming. The nonbinding Senate resolution on global warming is further proof that the administration's efforts to minimize the threat have failed.
    • Senators Attest to Alaska Climate Change
      • Anyone doubting the effects of human activity on global climate change should talk to the people it affects in Alaska and the Yukon, U.S. Sen. John McCain said Wednesday. Fresh from a trip to Barrow, America's northernmost city, McCain said anecdotes from Alaskans and residents of the Yukon Territory confirm scientific evidence of global warming. "I don't think there is any doubt left for anyone who actually looks at the science," said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who accompanied McCain. "There are still some holdouts, but they are fighting a losing battle. The science is overwhelming, but what is deeply concerning is that climate change is accelerating."
    • Shift in Senate Thinking on Climate Change
      • Climate change has long been a staple of congressional hearings, with the discussion following generally well-established lines. A Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing last week indicates that a new approach may be forming, with some key senators not arguing about whether the Earth is warming, but rather seeking effective and affordable solutions to global climate change.
    • Senators Struggle to Act on Global Warming
      • After listening to some of the world's preeminent climate researchers yesterday, a bipartisan group of senators said they saw the need to take quick action on global warming but were struggling to reach consensus on what policy to adopt. Several committee Republicans, including some who had questioned climate change predictions in the past, said they agree the world has reached a scientific consensus on global warming. Some GOP senators, such as Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), went further. In an interview, Murkowski said that "there's an emerging consensus we've got to deal" with climate change, adding it would be "tough" to cut greenhouse gases sufficiently through voluntary programs alone.
    • Global Warming Divide Expanding, Even Within The GOP
      • Even with a strong majority in Congress and control of the White House, the GOP is still having trouble getting its ducks in a row regarding its stance on global warming. Against the backdrop of President Bush for the first time acknowledging scientific consensus that man-made greenhouse gases are increasing global temperatures, House Republican Sherwood Boehlert of New York last week publicly denounced a request by House Energy Committee Chairman (and fellow Republican) Joe Barton of Texas to gather extensive research data as well as financial information from three scientists who authored a controversial 1998 study finding that the 20th century was the warmest century on record, and that temperatures began to increase sharply during the 1990s.
  • Bush Administration Ignores Energy Solution
    • In his press conference, President Bush completely ignored the surest way to reduce oil dependency, which is to improve the fuel efficiency of America's cars and trucks.
  • G8 Summit 2005
    • G8 Commitments on Climate Change
      • The leaders of the Group of Eight nations have agreed that "climate change is happening now, that human activity is contributing to it, and that it could affect every part of the globe." Prior to the meeting, the national science academies of the G8 nations and others, including China, India and Brazil, had issued a strong statement calling on their governments to take immediate action to limit global warming. "The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify prompt action," according to the statement. "It is vital that all nations identify cost-effective steps that they can take now, to contribute to substantial and long-term reduction in net global greenhouse gas emissions." The lack of any summit commitment to a concrete programme for emissions reductions disappointed many observers.
    • More than hot air
    • US climate talks 'disappointing'
      • UK prime minister Tony Blair and US President George Bush were unable to reach a deal on the issue during talks in Washington last week. Mr Blair is hoping to highlight climate change at next month's G8 summit. Mrs Beckett told The Independent the UK was "disappointed" that there was a lack of "common ground" over the issue.
    • G8 will turn up heat on US over global warming
      • Chinese and African leaders have been invited to a one-day conference on global warming during this summer's G8 summit at Gleneagles. Tony Blair has put global warming and poverty in Africa at the heart of this year's G8 summit, and the session will specifically address the problem of pollution among the emerging economies, such as China and India. The event will also give Prime Minister Blair an opportunity to pressure the United States into pledging to reduce carbon emissions, following its refusal to sign the Kyoto agreement.
  • Let logic join the global warming debate
    • A majority of Americans believed that the threat of Saddam Hussein was sufficient to warrant a pre-emptive strike against Iraq, that waiting for definitive proof that he had weapons of mass destruction would be waiting precisely too long. The same argument can be made for a pre-emptive strike against global warming. The dangers of waiting for definitive proof are far more severe than those posed by a pusillanimous potentate or those holding us hostage to their oil. If anything should be a bipartisan concern, surely the future of the Earth's climate should top the list. Despite opinions that differ by diminishing degrees, the growing consensus is that global warming is real and that man is at least in part responsible. The only debatable points are the extent to which the Earth is heating up and what should be done about it. Skeptics nevertheless hold sway among legislative and regulatory bodies. Assuming that reducing emissions would reduce warming trends as well as minimize our reliance on foreign oil, some of which finances terrorism ... wouldn't it make sublime sense to err on the side of conservation? To provide incentives to produce and buy hybrid cars that get 40 miles per gallon? To offer companies incentives for seeking alternative energy sources?
  • America's Top 10 Green Cities
    • For our list of the top ten, we sought out good water- and air-quality, efficient use of resources, renewable energy leadership, accessible and reliable public transportation, and green building practices. We also looked for parks and greenbelts and access to locally-grown fresh food through farmers' markets and community supported agriculture groups. Finally, we included affordability in our green criteria, since the health benefits, public parks, and other amenities of living in a greener city need to be available to more than just the wealthy.
  • 32 Business and Environmental Groups Urge Congress to Restore Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Funding Proposed for Cuts by White House
    • In a letter delivered today, thirty-two member groups of the Sustainable Energy Coalition urged Congress to restore funding the White House is proposing to cut in the U.S. Department of Energy's Fiscal Year 2006 energy efficiency and renewable energy (EE/RE) programs. Funding levels for most of the DOE's core renewable energy programs have been targeted for reductions including the biomass/biofuels, geothermal, hydropower, and solar energy programs. Collectively, these accounts would be reduced by nearly $24 million, not including another $4 million targeted to be cut from the Distributed Energy account.
  • Officials Want to Wire Earth for Continuous Readout of Vital Signs
    • Imagine the planet wired for a nearly continuous readout on its vital signs, shared by all. The new "Strategic Plan for the U.S. Integrated Earth Observation System" envisions linking nearly 60 nations within a decade to gather and share information from satellites, ocean buoys, weather stations and other surface and airborne instruments.
  • New Report Shows How to Save Ozone Layer While Combating Climate Change
    • After 20 years of protecting the ozone layer with a new generation of chemicals, Governments are confronting the fact that these ozone-friendly substitutes for chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) also happen to be greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
    • Alternatives to ozone-depleting chemicals in products like pesticides and aerosols are also contributing to climate change, according to a U.N. report released Monday.
  • Climate Research Faulted Over Missing Components
  • EPA Foot Dragging on Alternative to Clear Skies Plan
    • Senator Thomas Carper, Democrat of Delaware, announced that he would block a final vote on the confirmation of Stephen Johnson as EPA administrator unless Mr. Johnson provided, or promised to provide, a "detailed technical analysis" of the economic and environmental impact of a clean air bill sponsored by Mr. Carper and others as an alternative to President Bush's Clear Skies plan. Mr. Carper asked the agency for this analysis more than two years ago. Such requests are usually granted as a matter of routine, and Mr. Carper suspects, not without reason, that the agency refused to act this time because an analysis would have shown his bill to be superior to Clear Skies. The senator says the agency gave him a mass of material but nothing approaching a reasoned analysis.
  • Change to the Clean Air Act Is Built Into New Energy Bill
    • A brief provision buried in the energy bill could have major consequences for communities struggling to clean up their air. If it becomes law, it would make one of the most significant changes to the Clean Air Act in 15 years, allowing communities whose air pollution comes from hundreds of miles away to delay meeting national air quality standards until their offending neighbors clean up their own air.
    • New Rules Could Allow Power Plants to Pollute More
      • The Bush administration has drafted regulations that would ease pollution controls on older, dirtier power plants and could allow those that modernize to emit more pollution, rather than less. The draft rules contradict the position taken by federal lawyers who have prosecuted polluting facilities in the past, and parallel the industry's line of defense against those suits.
  • Anti-Environment Judicial Nominees
    • Justin Ruben: It's Earth Day today, so look out the window and imagine living in a country in which courts ruled that we had to pay polluters to stop polluting. Sound farfetched? This is the upshot of the radical legal theories embraced by many of Bush's corporate-biased nominees, and it shows in their records. For example, the Los Angeles Times editorialized that Priscilla Owen, an appeals court nominee approved yesterday by a Senate Committee, "often side[s] with business in disputes involving employee rights, consumers and the environment" and has "a record of indifference to the problems of most Americans." In one case, she "argued that property rights justified giving large landowners the power to exempt themselves from water pollution controls and land use safeguards." Janice Rogers Brown, also approved yesterday, has spoken in support of elevating corporate property rights to a level on par with fundamental rights like free speech. She also "wrote in a solo dissent that private property is now 'entirely extinct in San Francisco.'" And putting corporate property rights before other values doesn't just hamstring environmental protection -- workplace safety, the right to unionize, consumer protection, even programs like Social Security end up on the chopping block too.
  • Nukes Are Green
  • 2 Sides Do Battle in Court on Whether E.P.A. Should Regulate Carbon Dioxide
    • A federal appeals court heard arguments in a five-year battle over whether the E.P.A. has the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from motor vehicles.
  • Alliance to Save Energy Urges Congress to Make Energy Efficiency Cornerstone of National Energy Legislation At Time of Record Oil, Gas, Natural Gas Prices
    • As Congress begins marking up an energy bill, and with oil, gas, and natural gas prices fluctuating at or near record levels and demand continuing to soar, any energy policy adopted by the U.S. Congress must unleash the full potential of energy efficiency.
  • Canadian Automakers Volunteer to Dramatically Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions
    • A landmark agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 17 percent over the next five years was formally signed Tuesday by the Canadian government and the country's automobile industry. "This is a good deal for the economy, the environment and consumers," said Natural Resources Minister John Efford. "Ultimately, it's a deal that all Canadians will benefit from as the new technologies needed to reach this target come on the market."
  • Earth's Sustainability Is Not Guaranteed Unless Action Is Taken to Protect Resources, Experts Say
  • For Very Different Reasons, Diverse Groups Agree on Gas Alternatives
    • Environmentalists aren't the only ones applauding the sales stumble of big SUVs and pickups in the face of high gas prices. Groups of conservative Republicans see an opportunity to step up a campaign to promote alternative-fuel vehicles and wean the nation from dependence on foreign oil. While skeptical about links between autos and global warming, the conservatives have concluded that cutting gasoline consumption is a matter of national security.
  • Geo-Greening by Example
    • How will future historians possibly explain why President George W. Bush decided to ignore the energy crisis staring us in the face and chose instead to spend all his electoral capital on a futile effort to undo the New Deal, by partially privatizing Social Security? Look at the opportunities our country is missing - and the risks we are assuming - by having a president and vice president who refuse to lift a finger to put together a "geo-green" strategy that would marry geopolitics, energy policy and environmentalism.
  • What Happens Once the Oil Runs Out?
  • New EPA Mercury Rule Based on Faulty Science, Omits Conflicting Data
    • When the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a rule last week to limit mercury emissions from U.S. power plants, officials emphasized that the controls could not be more aggressive because the cost to industry already far exceeded the public health payoff. What they did not reveal is that a Harvard University study paid for by the EPA, co-authored by an EPA scientist and peer-reviewed by two other EPA scientists had reached the opposite conclusion.
  • Environmental Impasse
    • In 1970, the Clean Air Act was supported by liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans, including President Richard M. Nixon and Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.). When the act was amended under George H.W. Bush in 1990, a bipartisan Congress not only supported the changes but paid close attention, decreeing precise emission allowances and timetables. The bipartisan consensus has since crumbled, and the legislative process has ground to a halt.
  • 'I Have a Nightmare' - Environmentalism Is Dead
  • Evangelical Leaders Swing Influence Behind Effort to Combat Global Warming
    • The leaders have put their considerable political power behind a cause that has barely registered on the evangelical agenda. These church leaders, scientists, writers and heads of international aid agencies argue that global warming is an urgent threat, a cause of poverty and a Christian issue because the Bible mandates stewardship of God's creation.
    • Questions for Richard Cizik: Earthy Evangelist
      • An interview with Richard Cizik, leader of the National Association of Evangelicals, on caring about pollution, global warming and environmentalism in general.
  • Climate official resigns, blasting White House influence
    • A top climate official announced plans to resign his federal post next week, blasting the Bush administration's global warming research plan and raising concern about the potential for politics to influence federal findings. Rick Piltz, senior associate with the Climate Change Science Program, said he would resign at the end of next week after 10 years at CCSP and the U.S. Global Change Research Program, the agencies responsible for federal climate research. Piltz expressed frustration with what he sees as the intrusion of politics into the scientific arena and a questionable scientific review process overseen by top White House officials.
  • Cloudy Fate for Clear Skies Initiative
    • Americans in the eastern half of the country can breathe a little easier this week about their air quality, but the clean-air fight will co