Daniel Cressey; cross-posted from The Great Beyond
Over 250 members of the US National Academy of Sciences have hit back at global warming deniers, warning that attacks on climate science are being mainly driven not by intellectual inquiry but by special interest and dogma.
In a letter published in Science the researchers compare the recent furore around the so-called ‘climate-gate’ stolen emails to the Communist witch hunts of the 50s led by Joseph McCarthy
“We urge our policy-makers and the public to move forward immediately to address the causes of climate change, including the un-restrained burning of fossil fuels,” they write (letter, open access version). “We also call for an end to McCarthy-like threats of criminal prosecution against our colleagues based on innuendo and guilt by association, the harassment of scientists by politicians seeking distractions to avoid taking action, and the outright lies being spread about them.”
After a vast cache of emails between climate researchers were stolen from the University of East Anglia and leaked online, a number of people sceptical of climate change declared that these messages proved man-made global warming was a myth. US Senator James Inhofe even implied criminal charges could be forthcoming against the scientists involved.
The new letter says such political attacks on climate scientists are deeply disturbing. It sets out a series of ‘theories’ such as the age of the Earth being 4.5 billion years, the Big Bang and evolution that are “overwhelmingly accepted”, even though researchers are very willing to be shown these are wrong. Climate science, say the signatories, now falls into this category.
Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute and corresponding author of the letter, writes, “In the end, we have only three choices: we can act to mitigate the risks of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we can expand efforts to adapt to a changing climate, or we can suffer the consequences of doing nothing. The only real question is, what is the balance among these three options.” (Huffington Post.)
In an accompanying editorial, Brooks Hanson, deputy editor for physical sciences at Science, says that scientists now need to engage and communicate their findings to fix a “dangerous deterioration in the rational relation between science and society”.
“The scientific community must recognize that the recent attacks stem in part from its culture and scientists’ behaviour,” he writes. “In turn, it is time to focus on the main problem: The IPCC reports have underestimated the pace of climate change while overestimating societies’ abilities to curb greenhouse gas emissions.”
Full list of signatories below the fold, from the Guardian version of the letter.
Adams, Robert McCormick, University of California, San Diego
Amasino, Richard M, University of Wisconsin
Anders, Edward, University of Chicago
Anderson, David J, California Institute of Technology
Anderson, Wyatt W, University of Georgia
Anselin, Luc E, Arizona State University
Arroyo, Mary Kalin, University of Chile
Asfaw, Berhane, Rift Valley Research Service
Ayala, Francisco J, University of California, Irvine
Bax, Adriaan, National Institutes of Health
Bebbington, Anthony J, University of Manchester
Bell, Gordon, Microsoft Research
Bennett, Michael V L, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Bennetzen, Jeffrey L, University of Georgia
Berenbaum, May R, University of Illinois
Berlin, Overton Brent, University of Georgia
Bjorkman, Pamela J, California Institute of Technology
Blackburn, Elizabeth, University of California, San Francisco
Blamont, Jacques E, Centre National d’ Etudes Spatiales
Botchan, Michael R, University of California, Berkeley
Boyer, John S, University of Delaware
Boyle, Ed A, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Branton, Daniel, Harvard University
Briggs, Steven P, University of California, San Diego
Briggs, Winslow R, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Brill, Winston J, Winston J. Brill and Associates
Britten, Roy J, California Institute of Technology
Broecker, Wallace S, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Columbia University
Brown, James H, University of New Mexico
Brown, Patrick O, Stanford University School of Medicine
Brunger, Axel T, Stanford University
Cairns, Jr John, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Canfield, Donald E, University of Southern Denmark
Carpenter, Stephen R, University of Wisconsin
Carrington, James C, Oregon State University
Cashmore, Anthony R, University of Pennsylvania
Castilla, Juan Carlos, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Cazenave, Anny, Centre National d’ Etudes Spatiales
Chapin, III F, Stuart, University of Alaska
Ciechanover, Aaron J, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology
Clapham, David E, Harvard Medical School
Clark, William C, Harvard University
Clayton, Robert N, University of Chicago
Coe, Michael D, Yale University
Conwell, Esther M, University of Rochester
Cowling, Ellis B, North Carolina State University
Cowling, Richard M, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
Cox, Charles S, University of California, San Diego
Croteau, Rodney B, Washington State University
Crothers, Donald M, Yale University
Crutzen, Paul J, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
Daily, Gretchen C, Stanford University
Dalrymple, Brent G, Oregon State University
Dangl, Jeffrey L, University of North Carolina
Darst, Seth A, Rockefeller University
Davies, David R, National Institutes of Health
Davis, Margaret B, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
De Camilli, Pietro V, Yale University School of Medicine
Dean, Caroline, John Innes Centre
DeFries, Ruth S, Columbia University
Deisenhofer, Johann, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
Delmer, Deborah P, University of California, Davis
DeLong, Edward F, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
DeRosier, David J, Brandeis University
Diener, Theodor O, University of Maryland
Dirzo, Rodolfo, Stanford University
Dixon, Jack E, Howard Hughes Medical Center
Donoghue, Michael J, Yale University
Doolittle, Russell F, University of California, San Diego
Dunne, Thomas, University of California, Santa Barbara
Ehrlich, Paul R, Stanford University
Eisenstadt, Shmuel N, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Eisner, Thomas, Cornell University
Emanuel, Kerry A, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Englander, Walter S, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Ernst, W, G, Stanford University
Falkowski, Paul G, Rutgers, State University of New Jersey
Feher, George, University of California, San Diego
Ferejohn, John A, Stanford University
Fersht, Sir Alan, University of Cambridge
Fischer, Edmond H, University of Washington
Fischer, Robert, University of California, Berkeley
Flannery, Kent V, University of Michigan
Frank, Joachim, Columbia University
Frey, Perry A, University of Wisconsin
Fridovich, Irwin, Duke University Medical Center
Frieden, Carl, Washington University School of Medicine
Futuyma, Douglas J, Stony Brook University
Gardner, Wilford R, University of California, Berkeley
Garrett, Christopher J R, University of Victoria
Gilbert, Walter, Harvard University
Gleick, Peter H, Pacific Institute, Oakland
Goldberg, Robert B, University of California, Los Angeles
Goodenough, Ward H, University of Pennsylvania
Goodman, Corey S, venBio, LLC
Goodman, Morris, Wayne State University School of Medicine
Greengard, Paul, Rockefeller University
Hake, Sarah, Agricultural Research Service
Hammel, Gene, University of California, Berkeley
Hanson, Susan, Clark University
Harrison, Stephen C, Harvard Medical School
Hart, Stanley R, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Hartl, Daniel L, Harvard University
Haselkorn, Robert, University of Chicago
Hawkes, Kristen, University of Utah
Hayes, John M, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Hille, Bertil, University of Washington
Hökfelt, Tomas, Karolinska Institutet
House, James S, University of Michigan
Hout, Michael, University of California, Berkeley
Hunten, Donald M, University of Arizona
Izquierdo, Ivan A, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul
Jagendorf, André T, Cornell University
Janzen, Daniel H, University of Pennsylvania
Jeanloz, Raymond, University of California, Berkeley
Jencks, Christopher S, Harvard University
Jury, William A, University of California, Riverside
Kaback, H Ronald, University of California, Los Angeles
Kailath, Thomas, Stanford University
Kay, Paul, International Computer Science Institute
Kay, Steve A, University of California, San Diego
Kennedy, Donald, Stanford University
Kerr, Allen, University of Adelaide
Kessler, Ronald C, Harvard Medical School
Khush, Gurdev S, University of California, Davis
Kieffer, Susan W, University of Illinois
Kirch, Patrick V, University of California, Berkeley
Kirk, Kent C, University of Wisconsin
Kivelson, Margaret G, University of California, Los Angeles
Klinman, Judith P, University of California, Berkeley
Klug, Sir Aaron, Medical Research Council
Knopoff, Leon, University of California, Los Angeles
Kornberg, Sir Hans, Boston University
Kutzbach, John E, University of Wisconsin
Lagarias, J Clark, University of California, Davis
Lambeck, Kurt, Australian National University
Landy, Arthur, Brown University
Langmuir, Charles H, Harvard University
Larkins, Brian A, University of Arizona
Le Pichon, Xavier T, College de France
Lenski, Richard E, Michigan State University
Leopold, Estella B, University of Washington
Levin, Simon A, Princeton University
Levitt, Michael, Stanford University School of Medicine
Likens, Gene E, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Lippincott-Schwartz, Jennifer, National Institutes of Health
Lorand, Laszlo, Northwestern University
Lovejoy, Owen C, Kent State University
Lynch, Michael, Indiana University
Mabogunje, Akin L, Foundation for Development and Environmental Initiatives
Malone, Thomas F, North Carolina State University
Manabe, Syukuro, Princeton University
Marcus, Joyce, University of Michigan
Massey, Douglas S, Princeton University
McWilliams, Jim C, University of California, Los Angeles
Medina, Ernesto, Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research
Melosh, Jay H, Purdue University
Meltzer, David J, Southern Methodist University
Michener, Charles D, University of Kansas
Miles, Edward L, University of Washington
Mooney, Harold A, Stanford University
Moore, Peter B, Yale University
Morel, Francois M M, Princeton University
Mosley-Thompson, Ellen, Ohio State University
Moss, Bernard, National Institutes of Health
Munk, Walter H, University of California, San Diego
Myers, Norman, University of Oxford
Nair, Balakrish G, National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases
Nathans, Jeremy, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Nester, Eugene W, University of Washington
Nicoll, Roger A, University of California, San Francisco
Novick, Richard P, New York University School of Medicine
O’Connell, James F, University of Utah
Olsen, Paul E, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University
Opdyke, Neil D, University of Florida
Oster, George F, University of California, Berkeley
Ostrom, Elinor, Indiana University
Pace, Norman R, University of Colorado
Paine, Robert T, University of Washington
Palmiter, Richard D, University of Washington School of Medicine
Pedlosky, Joseph, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Petsko, Gregory A, Brandeis University
Pettengill, Gordon H, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Philander, George S, Princeton University
Piperno, Dolores R, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Pollard, Thomas D, Yale University
Price Jr. Buford P, University of California, Berkeley
Reichard, Peter A, Karolinska Institutet
Reskin, Barbara F, University of Washington
Ricklefs, Robert E, University of Missouri
Rivest, Ronald L, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Roberts, John D, California Institute of Technology
Romney, Kimball A, University of California, Irvine
Rossmann, Michael G, Purdue University
Russell, David W, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center of Dallas
Rutter, William J, Synergenics, LLC
Sabloff, Jeremy A, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology
Sagdeev, Roald Z, University of Maryland
Sahlins, Marshall D, University of Chicago
Salmond, Anne, University of Auckland
Sanes, Joshua R, Harvard University
Schekman, Randy, University of California, Berkeley
Schellnhuber, John, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Schindler, David W, University of Alberta
Schmitt, Johanna, Brown University
Schneider, Stephen H, Woods Institute for the Environment
Schramm, Vern L, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Sederoff Ronald R, North Carolina State University
Shatz, Carla J, Stanford University
Sherman, Fred, University of Rochester Medical Center
Sidman, Richard L, Harvard Medical School
Sieh, Kerry, Nanyang Technological University
Simons, Elwyn L, Duke University Lemur Center
Singer, Burton H, Princeton University
Singer, Maxine F, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Skyrms, Brian, University of California, Irvine
Sleep, Norman H, Stanford University
Smith, Bruce D, Smithsonian Institution
Snyder, Solomon H, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Sokal, Robert R, Stony Brook University
Spencer, Charles S, American Museum of Natural History
Steitz, Thomas A, Yale University
Strier, Karen B, University of Wisconsin
Südhof, Thomas C, Stanford University School of Medicine
Taylor, Susan S, University of California, San Diego
Terborgh, John, Duke University
Thomas, David Hurst, American Museum of Natural History
Thompson, Lonnie G, Ohio State University
Tjian, Robert T, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Turner, Monica G, University of Wisconsin
Uyeda, Seiya, Tokai University
Valentine, James W, University of California, Berkeley
Valentine, Joan Selverstone, University of California, Los Angeles
Van Etten, James L, University of Nebraska
Van Holde, Kensal E, Oregon State University
Vaughan, Martha, National Institutes of Health
Verba Sidney, Harvard University
Von Hippel, Peter H, University of Oregon
Wake, David B, University of California, Berkeley
Walker, Alan, Pennsylvania State University
Walker John E, Medical Research Council
Watson, Bruce E, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Watson, Patty Jo, Washington University, St. Louis
Weigel, Detlef, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology
Wessler, Susan R, University of Georgia
West-Eberhard, Mary Jane, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
White, Tim D, University of California, Berkeley
Wilson, William Julius, Harvard University
Wolfenden, Richard V, University of North Carolina
Wood, John A, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Woodwell, George M, Woods Hole Research Center
Wright, Jr Herbert E, University of Minnesota
Wu, Carl, National Institutes of Health
Wunsch, Carl, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Zoback, Mary Lou, Risk Management Solutions, Inc
Image: NASA
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