The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently released a report on climate change that sparked widespread protests among climate scientists. The response from more than 85 scientists was crucial, as they claim the report contains serious errors, presents biased information, and ignores decades of scientific data on climate change. The concern here revolves around the negative impact that political decisions can have on science.
Questions about scientific credibility
The DOE Report downplays the impact of human actions on global climate change, diminishing responsibility for human activities that impact nature. Furthermore, the document also asserts that the problem of global warming is overestimated, indicating that extreme weather events such as hurricanes and intense heat waves in the United States do not show clear long-term trends.
Such statements were harshly criticized by dozens of climate scientists who were outraged by what they said was a report that “disregards” science by ignoring peer-reviewed and published studies on humanity’s significant role in the negative consequences for the environment.
“It relies on ideas that were rejected long ago, supported by misrepresentations of the body of scientific knowledge, omissions of important facts, arm waving, anecdotes, and confirmation bias,” said Andrew Dessler, climate scientist at Texas A&M University.
For scientists, this type of report is not only extremely inaccurate but also dangerous, as they consider it a biased report, where information is cautiously presented for political convenience, ignoring a large part of the available evidence.
The expressive response of scientists
The scientists’ response wasn’t a simple petition; it consisted of a 450-page document, three times longer than the 150-page DOE report. In it, each section of the official report was challenged, aiming to demonstrate the extensive evidence from numerous studies on global warming directly linked to human activity.
Another topic discussed that is directly linked to rising global temperatures is sea level rise. The DOE used just five US tide gauges to support its argument that there is no significant acceleration in sea level rise. Scientists, however, have gathered thousands of records from around the world that demonstrate the opposite: significant increases in sea level, posing dangers to many coastal communities.
Partial selection of data and risks to society
“There’s a style throughout this of cherry-picking evidence that raises doubts about mainstream climate science while ignoring or downplaying the much larger body of evidence that supports it,” said Robert Kopp, a professor at Rutgers University
Another criticism concerns extreme weather events that generate significant destructive impact, events whose frequency has already been scientifically proven to increase due to human activities. The scientists’ document highlights that this type of omission is harmful, as it undermines society’s preparedness to prevent these disasters.
Science as a tool for climate protection
The political context also explains part of the controversy. The DOE report was used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to justify a review of a landmark 2009 decision recognizing greenhouse gases as a threat to public health. This recognition is the legal basis that allows the government to regulate emissions, meaning that if it is revoked, the result could mean a major setback for U.S. climate policy.
The DOE report is an example of how climate science is directly targeted by political issues. With the evidence that human and industrial activity is directly linked to issues such as rising global average temperatures and sea levels, the need for greater regulation of these activities increases, which is where political interest comes in. The main problem is: By ignoring proven scientific facts, the tendency is for no measures to be taken to delay the climate consequences, which in the not-too-distant future will have a direct impact on the daily lives of human beings worldwide.