FIGHTING CLIMATE SCIENCE SUPPRESSION

The United States churns out almost a fourth of global carbon dioxide emissions — more than any other country. But the world’s leading contributor of greenhouse gases is lagging behind in assessing their effects.

The impacts of climate change seriously threaten every aspect of society, both nationally and internationally. Rising ocean temperatures contribute to more intense tropical storms, causing devastating mortality and billions of dollars in damage, while rising air temperatures can cause prolonged heat waves and changes in precipitation and evaporation patterns that may lead to disastrous water shortages. Continued thawing of Arctic permafrost and sea ice will further damage forests, buildings, roads, and coastlines, as well as harming subsistance livelihoods. Already, the World Health Organization estimates that 150,000 lives are lost each year due to human-induced climate change — and of course, that’s saying nothing about the many animal and plant species threatened with global-warming-induced extinction, including the polar bear, American pika, Kittlitz’s murrelet, ribbon seal, and numerous penguin species.

Currently, the U.S. government is required by law to stay in the loop about global warming’s impacts. According to the 1990 Global Change Research Act, every four years the executive branch must provide Congress and the public with a National Assessment, a comprehensive summary of global-warming-caused changes to our country’s environment, economy, and human health and safety. The assessment is used by federal agencies and Congress in setting policy and responding to global warming, and its Research Plan, which guides all federal climate research, must be updated every three years. But the Bush administration suppressed the National Assessment in 2000, failing to deliver it at all in 2004. And while the Research Plan update was due in 2006, it has never been produced.

OUR CAMPAIGN

In 2006, the Center joined forces with Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace to demand that the administration produce the long-overdue National Assessment. With the support of congressional testimony by Rick Piltz — formerly with the Climate Change Science Program, the agency responsible for the National Assessment — we filed suit in November, and a few months later, Senator John Kerry and Representative Jay Inslee filed an amicus brief in our support. Piltz’s testimony, given at the Senate Commerce Committee hearing the day before our suit was filed, stated that the administration’s suppression of the 2000 assessment and failure to produce an updated 2004 assessment came about through the influence of industry groups.

In August 2007, the court found the Bush administration to be in violation of the Global Change Research Act for failing to produce the required scientific reports, ordering the administration to issue a draft of the overdue Research Plan update by March 1, 2008, and the National Assessment by May 31, 2008. The Center will continue to watchdog the government to ensure that it produces these critical documents, stops obstructing climate science research, and allows for progress on climate change solutions.