Global Warming Study Filled With Junk Science, Political Biases

Washington, DC, June 12, 2000 – The so-called National Assessment on Climate Change (NACC) formally released today by a federal government panel is a scientifically dishonest, alarmist document based on junk science and intended to advance a political agenda rather than provide a sober look at the state of the science and its uncertainties involving the theory of climate change, according to materials available in its own docket.

The report was intended by Congress to present both the best science and the acknowledged uncertainties about the theory of global warming.  The report however, among other deficiencies, attempts to make specific predictions about future weather conditions that are simply not scientifically possible with current technology.  Even the usually alarmist United Nations scientific panel on climate change (the IPCC) preemptively rejected the validity of the National Assessment’s methods, and thus its conclusions, stating that “a coherent picture of regional climate change via available regionalization techniques cannot yet be drawn.”

The National Science Foundation, which houses the National Assessment’s documents, until recently refused to provide access to several critical items used in preparing this report.  One set of meeting minutes which were not withheld indicated the White House impermissibly sought to expand the scope of the Assessment into political areas, and actually recommended that the NACC begin by setting forth its conclusions, rather than making a reasoned judgment after examining the available scientific evidence. 

The US Environmental Protection Agency has also derided, on the record, one of the most frightening sections – that of the impact of possible future climate change on human health – as having an “extreme/alarmist tone [which does] not appear to fairly reflect the scientific literature, the historical record, or the output of extant models.”  Over a dozen organizations and climate experts have made similar public statements in recent days, making clear the “gloom and doom” scenario portrayed is just that.

CEI, a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group founded in 1984, is dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. For more information, please contact Emily McGee, director of media relations, at 202-331-1010, ext. 209.