Atmosphere of pressure
Subtitle: political interference in federal climate science
Contributors: Government Accountability Project; Union of Concerned Scientists
Published: 2007
Language: eng
Format: [electronic resource] :
Subjects: Climatic changes; Research; Government policy; Global warming; Atmospheric Greenhouse effect; Scientists in government; Attitudes; Science and state
Description: The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and the Government Accountability Project (GAP) undertook independent investigations of federal climate science. UCS mailed a questionnaire to more than 1,600 climate scientists at seven federal agencies to gauge the extent to which politics was playing a role in scientists' research. Surveys were also sent to scientists at the independent (non-federal) National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) to serve as a comparison with the experience of federal scientists. About 19 percent of all scientists responded (279 from federal agencies and 29 from NCAR). At the same time, GAP conducted 40 in-depth interviews with federal climate scientists and other officials and analyzed thousands of pages of government documents, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and inside sources, regarding agency media policies and congressional communications. These two complementary investigations arrived at similar conclusions regarding the state of federal climate research: while scientists hold a high regard for the quality of federal climate change research, there is broad interference in communicating scientific results.
Notes: Viewed on (July 16, 2007).