Climate Science

Re "Global warming in our backyard," Editorial, July 2 Thank you for your wonderful synopsis of the most recent climate science and how it pertains to Southern California. However, it is regrettable that it is still necessary to even mention climate skeptics. No news organization feels the need to mention plate tectonics skeptics when reporting on earthquakes or flat-Earth believers when reporting on space. It is a grim tribute to the success of climate skeptics and their financial backers (the Koch brothers, the Heartland Institute and others)

Peter Gleick, an internationally known Bay Area scientist, has returned to his post as president of the Pacific Institute after a three-month leave of absence prompted by his admission that he had assumed a false identity to obtain documents from a conservative think tank that questions global warming. In a statement released Wednesday, the Pacific Institute's board of directors said outside counsel had conducted an independent investigation that "supported what Dr. Gleick has stated publicly regarding his interaction with the Heartland Institute . This independent investigation has further confirmed and the Pacific Institute is satisfied that none of its staff knew of or was involved in any way. " Gleick, a widely quoted expert in water and climate change issues, came under a cloud in February when he admitted that he had obtained internal board documents from Heartland by assuming a false identity.

WASHINGTON -- Some major U.S. corporations that support climate science in their public relations materials actively work to derail regulations and laws addressing global warming through lobbying, campaign donations and support of various advocacy groups, according to a new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental and scientific integrity group. The multinational oil giant, ConocoPhillips, for instance, said on its website in 2011 that it “recognizes” that human activity is leading to climate change, the view supported by the overwhelming majority of scientific research.

Forecast the Facts, the activist group that first confronted GM about its support of climate change doubters the Heartland Institute, now plans to muster a public campaign targeting the Discovery Channel. The purpose: to get Discovery to acknowledge the scientific consensus on man-made climate change in its programming. The flap follows the recent airing of the final episode of Discovery's lush exploration of the polar regions, “ Frozen Planet .” The last of the seven-hour series, “On Thin Ice,” was devoted specifically to presenting evidence of climate change - including discussion of the challenges facing polar bears, collapsing ice shelves, diminishing habitat, and naturalist David Attenborough (Alec Baldwin is the narrator and host of the series)

WASHINGTON - Tennessee is poised to adopt a law that would allow public schoolteachers to challenge climate change and evolution in their classrooms without fear of sanction, according to educators and civil libertarians in the state. Passed by the state Legislature and awaiting Republican Gov. Bill Haslam's signature, the measure is likely to stoke growing concerns among science teachers around the country that teaching climate science is becoming the same kind of classroom and community flash point as evolution.

Rick Santorum sought to broaden his pitch to Alabama and Mississippi Republicans beyond his conservative stands on social issues Friday with scathing attacks on President Obama over national security, energy and global warming. At the same time, with the twin Deep South primaries now four days away, the former Pennsylvania senator kept up his religious appeals at a morning rally here at a museum for the Alabama battleship. Santorum described himself as "someone who understands the centrality of the family.

After several years of finding that fewer and fewer Americans believed in climate change, pollsters are now finding that belief is on the uptick. The newest study from the National Survey of American Public Opinion on Climate Change, which is a biannual survey taken since fall 2008 and organized by the Brookings Institute, shows that 62% of Americans now believe that climate change is occurring, and 26% do not. The others are unsure. That is a significant rise in believers since a low in spring 2010, when only about 50% of Americans said they believed in global warming, but still down from when the survey first began, when it was at around 75%. The pollsters talked to 887 people across the country.

It has long been a maxim that mixing religion and politics can spell trouble. So when Rick Santorum told a partisan crowd in Columbus, Ohio, recently that President Obama's worldview was based on a "phony theology" that drives "radical environmentalists," he must have known his comments would reverberate far beyond his conservative political base. Santorum was speaking of efforts to forestall the worst effects of climate change through controls on greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, and policies aimed at encouraging the development of renewable sources of energy.

The culture wars have been fought in the classroom for decades, waged over such issues as school prayer, the teaching of evolution and whether the Pledge of Allegiance should include the phrase "under God. " But the conflict usually pits backers of religious instruction against secularists. The latest skirmish, by contrast, is centered on a scientific issue that has nothing to do with religious teaching: climate change. Leaked documents from the Heartland Institute in Chicago, one of many nonprofits that spread disinformation about climate science in hopes of stalling government action to combat global warming, reveal that the organization is working on a curriculum for public schools that casts doubt on the work of climatologists worldwide.