Attacks on Climate Science and Scientists

Will Changes at ExxonMobil Lead to More Social Responsibility on Climate Change?

INCOMING: CEO Darren Woods; Source: ExxonMobil INCOMING: Susan Avery; Source: NASA Three recent changes at the Exxon Mobil Corporation could lead to meaningful and much needed improvements in corporate behavior and attitudes towards the growing existential threat of climate change and broader environmental concerns – or they may not. Only time [...]

A Case Study of Political Interference, Censorship, and Suppression of Federal Climate Science Under the Bush-Cheney Administration: A Cautionary Tale for the Trump Administration

By Summer Research Fellow Jonah Hahn As President Trump and his administration attempt to normalize ‘alternative facts,’ they will inevitably try to use similar sophistry to debate climate change. With the new cabinet so blatantly in favor of corporate wealth and expanded oil and gas development, climate change is one reality that is certain to [...]

GAP’s CSPW Launches White Paper Identifying History of Climate Science Suppression Under George W. Bush Administration, Outlining a ‘Cautionary Tale’ of How It Could Be Repeated

Of significant concern to GAP and frighteningly reminiscent of the George W. Bush Administration, the Trump Administration is staffed by high-level personnel with oil industry connections and climate change denialist views mirroring those of the new President. In response, as just announced in The Washington Post, today GAP officially launched our latest White Paper, entitled: Promoting [...]

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Career ExxonMobil Executive, “Hates Your Children”

Our next Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, is fond of letting people know that he is an Eagle Scout, and that he is strongly committed to bettering our youth through his involvement with the Boy Scouts. While a host of dangerous climate change impacts have already begun to cause death and destruction and to exact [...]

ExxonMobil and Climate Change: A Story of Denial, Delay, and Delusion, Told in Forms 10-K (2009-2016) – Part Three (B): 2010

From left, ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson, Chevron Chairman and CEO John Watson and ConocoPhillips CEO James Mulva are sworn in before a June 15, 2010 Congressional hearing on the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster. SOURCE: Associated Press This latest installment of our series addressing how the ExxonMobil Corporation has been engaged in [...]

In Memory of Rick Piltz, Founder of GAP’s Climate Science & Policy Watch

Two years ago today, GAP’s Climate Science Watch founder and Bush Administration whistleblower, Rick Piltz, passed away. Rick lived a fascinating life of social change activism and truth-telling, and devoted much of his time during his final days to ensuring his friends and followers could carry on his mission of challenging both those who deny [...]

“25 and Still Counting” – Congressional Committee Chair Brags About Issuing Subpoena After Subpoena. Is This Vigorous Oversight, or an Abuse of Power?

Congressional hearing witness, Professor Ronald Rotunda   Source:  http://bit.ly/2d3HH9i By Adam Arnold Last week we expressed concerns we share with the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and others that, as Chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology (SST), Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) is on a misguided, overzealous mission to discredit [...]

Federalism, the First Amendment, and Facts vs. Fiction on Climate Change All on Trial Tomorrow at Congressional Hearing

Source: Editorial Cartoon by John Branch, North America Syndicate, published in the San Antonio Express (Rep. Smith’s congressional district’s local newspaper) on May 26, 2013.  http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/122771/ News cameras and long lines of people waiting to enter a packed hearing room are not the stuff of normal business carried out by the U.S. House [...]

A Cautionary Tale: CSPW’s Investigation into NCA’s Past Suppression to Prevent Future Political Interference

Source: Wikimedia Commons By Jonah Hahn During the eight years of President Bush’s presidency, disputing, delaying, or diminishing the National Climate Assessment’s findings occurred as part of a larger struggle against accepting emerging consensus about anthropogenic climate change. President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore released the National Climate Assessment, the first [...]

A Lesson in Constitutional Illiteracy: Lamar Smith and the Climate Science Witch Hunt

By Anne Polansky and  Adam Arnold On September 17th of 2014, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology voted 4-3 to grant subpoena powers to the Committee Chair, useable without consultation of the Committee as a whole. This extraordinary power became available for the first time during the current Congress, with Rep. Lamar Smith [...]