A top climate researcher -- Peter Gleick, head of the Pacific Institute -- admitted he lied to obtain documents from the Heartland Institute, which he then leaked to media, revealing the organization's plans to challenge the scientific consensus on climate change.
Gleick resigned from the board of the National Center on Science Education, and stepped down as chairman of the American Geophysical Union's (AGU) taskforce on scientific ethics.
His admission has triggered an ethics debate in the climate community, with ethics expert Dale Jamieson calling Gleick's actions "unethical" but adding, "relative to what has been going on on the climate denial side, this is a fairly small breach of ethics."
Cognitive scientist Stephan Lewandowsky argued that "revealing to the public the active, vicious, and well-funded campaign of denial ... likely constitutes a classic public good," against which the ethics of Gleick's deception have to be weighed.
The president of the AGU said the organization was disappointed with Gleick, whose actions were "inconsistent with our organization's values." NASA climate researcher Gavin Schmidt said "Gleick's actions were completely irresponsible." Bryan Walsh of Time argued Gleick's actions "have hurt ... the cause of climate science."
In the U.K., a freedom of information act request for details on the funder of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a climate change skeptic group, was denied by a court on the grounds the foundation is not influential enough.
PTC Could Equal Permanent Tax Credit
The Production Tax Credit (PTC) that aids wind energy is set to expire at the end of 2012, but some legislators are fighting to save it, with Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado arguing that "every minute counts" in trying to forge a deal.
To avoid such struggles over regular renewals of the PTC, President Obama proposed a new corporate taxation plan that would make the subsidies permanent, as well as make permanent a research-and-experimentation tax credit that expired Jan. 1.
High Oil Prices a Drag
Since the start of the year, oil prices have been on the rise, putting a drag on economic recovery in the U.S., pushing up consumer prices and causing overall inflation -- risking a repeat of early 2011, when high oil prices nearly pushed the country back into recession.
President Obama was scheduled to speak about the issue Thursday, and White House spokesman Jay Carney said that the rise in prices -- despite a drop in domestic consumption and rise in production -- "tells you that there are other things beyond our control."
The threat high oil prices pose to economies across developed countries could trigger the International Energy Agency to release more oil from strategic reserves, as was done in spring 2011, argued Reuters analyst John Kemp.
The rising oil prices have U.S. consumers wondering why. The prices, experts said, have stayed high because of rising consumption in emerging markets, as well as the threat that Iran's oil exports may be cut off. An International Energy Agency official said that other countries would be able to make up for a loss of Iran's exports, which had been 2.2 million barrels a day, and to boost production, Saudi Arabia may restart its oldest oil field.
In response to the European Union's decision to embargo Iranian oil, Iran halted oil shipments to Britain and France, and possibly other European countries. Major shipping countries are refusing to pick up Iranian oil, with one shipping executive saying it would be like "getting leprosy."
GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said he would get gasoline down to $2.50 a gallon. However Bryan Walsh said no president can deliver that -- at least without making the U.S. economy tank.
Tar Sands Tussle
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would require approval of the Keystone XL pipeline that would carry diluted tar sands from Canada to Texas, which President Obama had earlier nixed.
The European Union held a vote on whether to ban imports of oil made from Canadian tar sands, but it ended in a deadlock.
The amount of tar sands is small compared with the amount of natural gas and coal in the world, so the tar sands alone don't pose a major threat to the climate, argued a study in Nature Climate Change.
Some took this to mean that Canada's tar sands are "not so dirty after all." However, study leader Andrew Weaver -- a climate modeler at the University of Victoria in Canada -- argued that use of tar sands is "a symptom of the bigger problem of our dependence on fossil fuels," and policy makers should avoid commitments to infrastructure supporting fossil fuel dependence.
Meanwhile, another study of tar sands sites found levels of air pollution -- in particular nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide -- were comparable to air above a large power plant.
Small Feet, Large Footprint
A new report on the carbon footprint of a diminutive creature -- shrimp -- shows they're worse than cattle, at least when raised in aquaculture. When coastal mangrove forests are cleared to create shrimp farms, it's the "the equivalent of slash-and-burn agriculture," said study leader Boone Kauffman.
The Climate Post offers a rundown of the week in climate and energy news. It is produced each Thursday by Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.
David Frum: The Answer to Rising Gas Prices? Better Consumer Choice
Hannah McKinnon: The Truth About the EU's Position on the Tar Sands
He had been invited by Heartland to speak at their dinner - expenses paid. So his excuse that they were denying debate is just ridiculous. He was also working on a k-12 curriculum on climate so, the focus on this appears to be more in the way of attacking a competitor rather than any legitimate concern about k-12 getting lobby groups (like him) to push information to children.
The only justification there can be for his actions is some absurd notions that any one who goes along with the (current) environmental "consensus" is inherently good, and therefore is allowed to attack anyone who disagrees with the (current) environmental consensus.
This is the logic of the taliban, of the terrorist. It says that you have no rights because you question me ... and because I am righteous ... you are evil and deserve all you get.
First, the denier side has shown itself capable of simply making things up. It's impossible to win a debate when the other side makes up facts. Second, lawyers are trained to debate. Finally, a real scientist appearing at Heartland would simply legitimize its propaganda operation as having the same standing as scientists.
But we heard the scanned document was a total fake.
Sure, from Heartland, which never ever does anything deceptive.
And, by the way, Heartland's statement about this is so full of weasel words that it doesn't actually say what you think it says. For example, it says that the document wasn't written by a Heartland "staff member." Well, Heartland has lots of people who aren't "staff members." The About page on its site lists the Board of Directors, Senior Fellows, Policy Advisors, and finally "Staff". And then of course it has paid consultants who aren't listed there at all.
Any of those other people (and that includes Joe Bast, the President) could have written the document, and they could still say without actually lying that it wasn't written by a "staff member."
Heartland and similar organizations are very, very good at that sort of thing.
simply put they never tried to decieve or pretend they were promoting any other cause.
theirs was an effort to show the other side of the controversy that obviously exists.
many of us feel that it is much more disingenuious to call yourself a news agency and only report one side of the story and deny there is a controversy.
then defame anyone or anygroup that disagrees with your belief and continually claim they do not exist. calling them stupid, ignorant, republican, conservative, religious, liars, and cheats.
this is not reporting, this is jr. high cyber bullying.
No.
Theirs was an effort to create the APPEARANCE of a controversy in the science community.
Apparently they have succeeded, at least in your case.