Texas on the verge of limiting academic freedom of climate scientists
by Eric Berger, SciGuy, chron.com, October 11, 2011
Texas has become the epicenter of climate skepticism in recent months, and it’s here that a pivotal battle could play out in the next few months on the contentious issue.
First, some background. Texas has long been a natural home for climate skepticism given the number of large fossil fuel energy companies with headquarters or major offices in the state.
But the state’s prominence has increased recently, beginning with Rick Perry’s very skeptical comments on climate change. For better or worse, for many Americans Perry personifies Texas. Ergo, Texas = climate skepticism.
Perry has in fact long expressed skepticism in the state, and acted on it in 2007 by appointing an engineer, Bryan Shaw, to head the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Shaw is openly skeptical about the role of humans in climate change.
Since then I’ve heard rumblings about the TCEQ discouraging academics to openly use climate change in reports, but have not come across any hard evidence. Until now.
As my colleague Harvey Rice reported, Rice University oceanographer John Anderson was told he could not discuss sea-level rise and climate change in a chapter for the periodically published, TCEQ-funded “State of the Bay” report about the environmental state of Galveston Bay. The original chapter he submitted had the references removed.
Oceanographer John Anderson has taken a stand against the state of Texas. (Melissa Phillip/Chronicle)
Anderson was trying to point out that recent, measured rises in sea level were considerably higher than in the historical record, and that this could have important consequences for the bay.
Anderson pushed back against the censorship and spoke out and revealed the flap to Rice saying, “It’s not about the science. It’s all politics.”
It’s not a surprise that Anderson is speaking out. He’s a tenured professor at Rice who is in no financial danger. What’s more bold is the response of the Houston Advanced Research Center, a non-profit research center in The Woodlands.
The state of Texas pays HARC to put the State of the Bay report together. Although HARC was founded with a grant by businessman George Mitchell, it now subsists largely on state and federal grants. Dare it bite the hand that feeds?
Nevertheless, after private and tense negotiations broke down and Anderson went public, HARC vice president Jim Lester is standing behind the scientist. Lester said, “I think that we’re seeing an expression of the ideology of the TCEQ leadership.”
How this plays out will be interesting. It’s my understanding that HARC has told the state it can either scrap the State of the Bay report, or it can publish Anderson’s chapter anonymously. The ball is now in the TCEQ’s court.
I think this is a big deal. It’s the first case I (and others I reached out to Monday evening) know of in which Texas is overtly acting to suppress scientific inquiry regarding climate change. That would be a huge blow to climate scientists in the state.
“When are these people going to learn that trying to suppress research never works and is worse PR when it inevitably is revealed?” one Texas scientist wrote me.
The big question is whether this is a trend, or will the TCEQ back down? And will HARC see a decline in future state funding?
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2 comments:
John Anderson was my professor and role model at Rice, and I might add that I often sailed with him in Galveston Bay. He has dedicated his life to interpreting the evidence of climate change. You can search far and wide for someone of greater integrity only to compare that person to the gold standard that is John.
John Anderson was my professor and role model at Rice, and I might add that I often sailed with him in Galveston Bay. He has dedicated his life to interpreting the evidence of climate change. You can search far and wide for someone of greater integrity only to compare that person to the gold standard that is John.
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