Date: 13-May-10
Country: US
Author: Deborah Zabarenko
An undated handout photo from the Center for Northern
Studies shows the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf disintegrating.
Photo: Denis Sarrazin/Center for Northern Studies/Handout
More than 250 U.S. scientists on Thursday defended
climate change research against "political assaults" and
warned that any delay in tackling global warming heightens
the risk of a planet-wide catastrophe.
The scientists, all members of the U.S. National Academy
of Sciences, targeted critics who have urged postponing any
action against climate change because of alleged problems
with research shown in a series of hacked e-mails that are
collectively known as "climate-gate."
"When someone says that society should wait until
scientists are absolutely certain before taking any action,
it is the same as saying society should never take action,"
the 255 scientists wrote in an open letter in the journal
Science.
"For a problem as potentially catastrophic as climate
change, taking no action poses a dangerous risk for our
planet," they wrote. They said they were deeply disturbed by
"recent escalation of political assaults on scientists in
general and on climate scientists in particular."
Scientists sounded a similar note on Thursday before the
U.S. House of Representatives panel on energy independence
and climate change.
"The reality of anthropogenic climate change can no
longer be debated on scientific grounds," James Hurrell of
the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research told the
committee. "The imperative is to act aggressively to reduce
carbon emissions and dependency on fossil fuels."
U.S. legislation aimed at cutting climate-warming
pollution could be unveiled in the Senate next week.
FALLOUT FROM "CLIMATE-GATE"
Thousands of hacked e-mails sent between climate
scientists were published just before a U.N. meeting on
climate change last December in Copenhagen.
Those who doubt the existence of human-generated climate
change argued that these messages showed that the climate
research unit at East Anglia University in Britain had
conspired to distort or exaggerate the science.
An inquiry last month cleared the British researchers of
wrongdoing in the "climate-gate" case.
Even though individual scientists have been cleared,
climate science is being tested, Sheila Jasanoff, of Harvard
University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, wrote in
Science.
"It is no longer enough to establish what counts as good
science; it is equally important to address what science is
good for and whom it benefits," Jasanoff wrote.
She said in an interview that the article was prompted by
the fallout from "climate-gate."
A U.S. climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University
whose e-mails were released in the "climate-gate" case was
targeted last month by the state of Virginia.
Michael Mann -- whose research includes the so-called
"hockey stick" graph that documents recent climate warming
-- was found not guilty by Penn State of suppressing or
falsifying data or misusing information.
However, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is
investigating whether Mann misused state funds when he got
grants for his climate change research while at the
University of Virginia.
(Editing by Xavier Briand)