Taking our climate science to D.C. and beyond

A message from President & CEO Dr. R. Max Holmes

Woodwell Climate Research Center was founded forty years ago on the principle that science has a critical role to play in policymaking. While I and everyone here at the Center still deeply believe that, the principle is being sorely tested by our federal government.

Over the past six months, we have seen unprecedented attacks on the integrity of American science. Federal science agencies have taken significant staffing and funding cuts. Expert advisory groups have been dissolved. Applications for federal research funding are reviewed for words and ideas that are politically unwelcome and now, grant review is to be overseen by political appointees—rather than career civil servants or outside experts, as has long been the standard.

We are also seeing an attempt to not only control scientific exploration moving forward, but to rewrite settled science. Many websites with climate information, including the flagship National Climate Assessment, have been taken down. In their place, the Department of Energy has released a climate science report full of thoroughly debunked misinterpretations and EPA is using it to rescind their ruling that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and must be regulated.

These actions make our work more critical than ever. We have built a strong presence and solid relationships in D.C., and we are drawing on those to continue engaging agency officials and legislators on both sides of the aisle to the fullest extent possible. Next week, I will join several of Woodwell’s scientists and policy experts for our third annual DC fly-in. The atmosphere will undoubtedly be different this year, but we’ll forge ahead, continuing to push for progress now, and setting the stage for better days ahead.

At the same time, we have stepped up efforts in the international sphere, and those efforts are bearing fruit.

• Dr. Sue Natali was recently selected as a lead author for the next UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change comprehensive climate science assessment.
• Dr. Glenn Bush and others have been providing scientific input to the Democratic Republic of Congo as they work to develop new, more ambitious climate commitments under the Paris Agreement.
• Together with colleagues from IPAM Amazonia and Fundacao Dom Cabral, Dr. Ludmila Rattis is helping advance a Tropical Regenerative Agriculture Model that could point to a sustainable path forward for the Amazon.

These are exciting achievements and important contributions, and this is far from a comprehensive list.

In short, while much of the news in the U.S. is discouraging, even alarming, real work continues to happen. Combined with the support and encouragement we get from Team Woodwell (that includes all of you), I have more hope than ever that we can end up in a better place, and that drives me and all of us at Woodwell to continue to do everything we can to put the brakes on climate change.

Thank you. We wouldn’t be here without you.

Onward,