Climate Science Watch will participate in a Sunshine Week 2007 program focused on access to government information, including the impact of government suppression and manipulation of scientific information on public health and safety—and accountability. The event will be held at the National Press Club on Monday, March 12, and webcast to dozens of sites around the country.

Sunshine Week 2007:
Closed Doors; Open Democracies?
Monday, March 12, 2007
National Press Club
Washington, DC
1:00 – 2:30 p.m. EDT

About the event
Directory of registered sites

Speakers include:

Moderator: Ira Flatow, NPR’s Science Friday

Panel 1 will focus on national issues. Speakers include:

Francesca Grifo, Senior Scientist and Director of Scientific Integrity Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, will give an overview of how “Secrecy Can Make You Sick” – how secrecy of and manipulation of science can hurt you and your community

Rick Piltz, Director of Climate Science Watch, whistleblower who resigned from the U.S. Climate Change Science Program to protest Bush administration political manipulation

Susan Wood, Research Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and former FDA official who quit over the delay of Plan B

Jay Dyckman, director of The Knowledge Project at the National Coalition Against Censorship, to discuss first amendment free speech issues and describe what you can do

Panel 2 will focus on state and local issues. Speakers include:

Dorothy Biggs, former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) librarian, National Enforcement Investigations Center

Rob Thompson, Public Interest Advocate, North Carolina Public Interest Research Group (NCPIRG)

Mark Tapscott, Editorial Page editor of the Washington Examiner

Pete Weitzel of the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government will present discoveries of a national audit to collect emergency response plans

Gary Bass will conclude with ideas on how you can get involved.

OpenTheGovernment.org
Americans for Less Secrecy, More Democracy

Concerned that our government keeps from the Ameican public information that we need to make our families safe, secure our country and strengthen democracy, a broad-based set of organizations formed OpenTheGovernment.org.

Sunshine Week is March 11-17, 2007.