date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 17:09:37 -0400 from: "Michael E. Mann" subject: USGCRP Seminar Series to: teds@icehouse.colorado.edu, hpollack@geo.lsa.umich.edu, ralley@essc.psu.edu, jto@u.arizona.edu, mann@virginia.edu Dear Fellow Scientists and Colleagues, As many of you may already know, a high-level decision has been made to cancel or significantly scale down the USGCRP's monthly informational Capitol Hill seminar series, a decision which seems fundamentally flawed despite whatever justification may be forthcoming. A small group of us who have recently been involved with this series have therefore taken the initiative of drafting a letter, which we intend to send forward to the White House OSTP and heads of the various agencies which govern the USGCRP, to indicate our disappointment with this decision. The letter (attached as a word97 document and appended below in plain text) has been through several rounds of revision, and exists now in its final form. We would now like to ask others of you (about 100) who have had significant involvement w/ USGCRP in the past to consider adding your name to the signature list. If you are willing to add your name, please indicate this to me by September 29th, and provide your title as it should appear along with your name, as those of us below have done. Please respect our wish to maintain the confidentiality of this letter until the list has been finalized, and the letter officially sent out. Consistent with this confidentiality, we have chosen to suppress the list of recipients of this email. Thanks in advance for your help, Mike Mann Richard Alley Claire Parkinson Jonathan Overpeck Henry Pollack Ted Scambos __________________________LETTER____________________________________________ Dear [Official]: A decision has recently been made to either eliminate or significantly scale down a highly successful informational seminar series on Capitol Hill sponsored by the United States Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). As a group of concerned scientists and individuals, many of whom feel privileged to have taken part in this seminar series, we are quite disappointed to learn of this decision. Perhaps unique among the natural sciences, the study of global change is associated with both a high degree of polarization of public opinion and a high level of misinformation in the public arena. Efforts such as that of the USGCRP Seminar series (led by Dr. Anthony Socci), to bring scientists with a range of expertise and points of view to Capitol Hill to summarize results of careful, credible, peer-reviewed research for policy-makers would seem to fulfill an important role in working towards an informed public and towards a balanced debate among policy makers regarding environmental and global change issues. Writing both as citizens and as scientists, we believe that this seminar series has proved invaluable to the public and to policy makers. The large and diverse audience at these seminars (including congressional staffers, representatives of non-governmental organizations, scientists, and members of the media) speaks clearly to a widespread interest in having scientific experts speak directly to the public and policy makers. Rarely has the opportunity existed for the scientific community to communicate policy-relevant science to decision makers in such a direct and relaxed atmosphere, communicating nuances of scientific research that are often obscured in the popular media or in congressional hearings directly to legislative staff. At a time when policy decisions on environmental issues such as climate change are so critical, we find it unfortunate that steps have been taken to eliminate this program. We, the undersigned, strongly urge the USGCRP to retain the Monday informational seminar series in its present monthly format. This is certainly not a time for cutting back on the communication of relevant and credible, peer-reviewed science to decision-makers. To the contrary, we feel it is a time for considerably expanding outreach from the scientific community to policy makers, the public, and the media. The decision to cancel or significantly "downsize" the seminar series seems to be counter-intuitive to the importance of the activity, and strangely at odds with the very mission of the USGCRP. The dissemination of information to other scientists, decision-makers, and the general public was described, in fact, as the primary role of the USGCRP in the National Academy of Science's recent "Pathways" report. We hope and optimistically expect that the decision to cancel the USGCRP seminar series will be reversed. Michael E. Mann, Professor Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia Richard B. Alley, Evan Pugh Professor Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University Claire Parkinson, Aqua Project Scientist NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Jonathan T. Overpeck, Professor Department of Geosciences and Director, Institute for the Study of Planet Earth Henry Pollack, Professor, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Michigan Ted Scambos, Research Scientist National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado. Attachment Converted: "c:\eudora\attach\letter.doc" _______________________________________________________________________ Professor Michael E. Mann Department of Environmental Sciences, Clark Hall University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA 22903 _______________________________________________________________________ e-mail: mann@virginia.edu Phone: (804) 924-7770 FAX: (804) 982-2137 http://www.evsc.virginia.edu/faculty/people/mann.html