http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserver/objecthandlers/index.cfm?id=3909&method=full
NRDC: ExxonMobil
Behind Watson's Ouster
Confidential Papers Show Exxon Hand in White House
Move to Oust Top Scientist from Global Warming Panel
Natural Resources Defense
Council, April 3, 2002
WASHINGTON -- The Bush
administration this week moved to oust
a top scientific official targeted by ExxonMobil in a confidential
memo to the White House. Bold language in the ExxonMobil papers
released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
reflects a brazen, behind-the-scenes effort by the oil company
and other energy giants to disrupt the principal international
science assessment program on global warming.
Dr. Robert Watson,
a highly respected atmospheric scientist,
has been chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) since 1996. Operating under United Nations auspices,
the 2500-member expert panel provides policymakers around the
world with rigorous, consensus-based assessments generally
regarded as the most authoritative word on global warming
and its causes.
Without formal announcement,
the administration has decided
to oppose Watson's appointment to a second term as IPCC chair,
seriously damaging his prospects when representatives of more
than 100 governments meet in Geneva April 17-20 to elect a
new IPCC head.
The memorandum, obtained
by NRDC from the White House Council
on Environmental Quality under the Freedom of Information Act,
shows that ExxonMobil began a secret campaign for Dr. Watson's
removal in the first weeks of the Bush administration, and
reveals ExxonMobil's intention to replace Watson and other
key scientists with contrarians known for disagreeing with
the prevailing consensus that man-made pollution is causing
global warming.
In meetings this week
with State Department officials, lobbyists
for the coal industry, electric utilities, and automakers joined
ExxonMobil's call to replace Watson.
"It's bad enough
that ExxonMobil controls White House energy
and climate policies," said Daniel Lashof, science director
of the NRDC Climate Center. "Now they want to control the
science too."
Under Watson's tenure,
the IPCC last year produced its third
comprehensive assessment of the state of climate science,
concluding that "[t]here is new and stronger evidence that
most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is
attributable to human activities," and predicting that
average global temperatures will rise between 3 and
10 degrees Fahrenheit by the endof the century -- conclusions
reaffirmed last spring at White House request by the National
Academy of Sciences.
In a letter yesterday
to Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky,
NRDC's Lashof said: "The industry effort to block the reappointment
of Dr. Watson is a thinly veiled attempt to undermine the
effectiveness of the IPCC as a body that produces high quality,
objective scientific assessments. I urge you to reject this
campaign and to give Dr. Watson the United States' strongest
possible support."
