Union of Concerned Scientists

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is a nonprofit advocacy group based in the United States. The UCS membership includes many private citizens in addition to professional scientists. Emeritus Professor Kurt Gottfried, a former senior staffer at CERN, currently chairs the UCS Board of Directors.^[1]

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History

The Union of Concerned Scientists was founded in 1969 by faculty and students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Scientists formed the organization to "initiate a critical and continuing examination of governmental policy in areas where science and technology are of actual or potential significance" and "devise means for turning research applications away from the present emphasis on military technology toward the solution of pressing environmental and social problems."^[2] The organization employs scientists, economists, engineers engaged in environmental and security issues, as well as executive and support staff.^[3]

One of the co-founders was physicist and Nobel laureate Dr. Henry Kendall, who served for many years as chairman of the board of UCS. In 1977, the UCS sponsored a "Scientists' Declaration on the Nuclear Arms Race" calling for an end to nuclear weapons tests and deployments in the United States and Soviet Union ^[4]. In response to the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), the UCS sponsored a petition entitled "An Appeal to Ban Space Weapons" ^[5].

In 1992, Kendall presided over the UCS' Warning to Humanity, which called for "fundamental change" to address a range of security and environmental issues. The document was signed by 1700 scientists, including a majority of the Nobel prize winners in the sciences^[6].

According to the George C. Marshall Institute, the UCS was the fourth-largest recipient of foundation grants for climate studies in the period 2000-2002, a fourth of its $24M grant income being for that purpose.^[7]

According to Charity Navigator, an independent, non-profit organization that evaluates American charities, the UCS maintained $20,575,731 in assets, $5,514,946 in liabilities, $15,060,785 in net assets, and $14,112,057 in working capital, as well as $10,058,784 in program expenses, $813,335 in administrative expenses, and $1,703,907 in fundraising expenses in fiscal year 2006. In 2007, the Union of Concerned Scientists received a four star rating from Charity Navigator.^[8]

The Union of Concerned Scientists is member of the Sustainable Energy Coalition.

Issue stances

The group supports an increase in Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards, as well as a reduction in smog pollution from construction equipment and diesel trucks. The UCS also supports the enactment of state laws to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks, based on California's regulations. The UCS supports deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, as well as national and international action to combat climate change. The organization has also produced several reports on regional effects of climate change in the United States.^[9][10]

The UCS supports a national renewable electricity standard which would require utilities to produce a certain percentage of their energy from sources such as wind, solar and geothermal. The UCS also acknowledges that nuclear power can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but maintains that nuclear power must become much safer and cheaper before it can be considered a workable solution to global warming. They support increased safety enforcement from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission among other steps to improve nuclear power.^[11]

The UCS has also endorsed the Forests Now Declaration, which calls for new market based mechanism to protect forests, as the group has recognised the importance of curbing deforestation in order to tackle climate change.[1]

The Union of Concerned Scientists tracks instances of political interference in science^[12] and supports whistleblower protection and free speech rights for federal scientists. Its scientific integrity program has produced surveys of federal scientists at multiple agencies^[13] and a statement signed by more than 11,000 scientists condemning political interference in science^[14].

The UCS supports the reduction of antibiotic use on livestock to prevent medical antibiotic resistance in humans who consume treated animals. It also opposes cloning animals for food, as well as forms of genetic engineering.

The group opposes the use of space weapons and supports the idea of an international treaty to regulate military uses of space. The group also works on reducing the number of nuclear weapons around the world and opposes the Reliable Replacement Warhead program. The group criticizes the technical feasibility of building a missile defense shield.

Press

In 1997, the UCS circulated a petition entitled "A Call to Action". The petition called for the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, and was signed by 110 Nobel Prize laureates, including 104 Nobel Prize-winning scientists.

In February 2004, the Union received press attention for its publication "Scientific Integrity in Policymaking". The report criticized the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush for "politicizing" science. Some of the allegations include altering information in global warming reports by the Environmental Protection Agency, and choosing members of scientific advisory panels based on their business interests rather than scientific experience. In July 2004, the Union released an addendum to the report in which they criticize the Bush administration and allege that reports on West Virginia strip mining had been improperly altered, and that "well-qualified" nominees for government posts, such as Nobel laureate Torsten Wiesel were rejected because of political differences. On April 2, 2004, Dr. John Marburger, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy issued a statement claiming that incident descriptions in the UCS report are "false," "wrong," or "a distortion",^[15] and dismissed the report as "biased". ^[16]. UCS rebutted the White House document by saying that Marburger's claims were unjustified. UCS later wrote that since that time, the Bush administration has been virtually silent on the issue. ^[17]

On October 30, 2006, the Union issued a press release claiming that high-ranking members of the U.S. Department of the Interior, including Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Julie MacDonald, systematically tampered with scientific data in an effort to undermine the protection of endangered species and the Endangered Species Act^[18].

On December 11, 2006, the UCS issued a statement signed by 10,600 leading scientists including Nobel laureates.^[19] The statement calls for the restoration of scientific integrity to federal policy-making. The announcement came as the group ^[12] that documents suspected censorship and political interference in federal science.

On May 23, 2007, the UCS cited a joint-study with MIT and issued a press release claiming that "any test of the U.S. missile defense system that does not show whether an interceptor missile can distinguish between real warheads and decoys is irrelevant" and "contrived," and called for an end to the taxpayer-funded program until the system can show an ability to actually address "real world threats."^[20]

On June 21, 2007, a UCS report charged the EPA with political manipulation of scientific data to influence updated US ozone regulations: "The law says use the science, the science says lower the standard to safe levels," said Francesca Grifo, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' Scientific Integrity Program. "In disregarding its own scientists' analysis, the EPA is risking the health of millions of Americans."^[21][22]

Criticism

Physicists Gerald E. Marsh and George S. Stanford have criticized the UCS for opposing a US government-run nuclear waste reprocessing program. The UCS had claimed that the separation of weapons-usable plutonium from spent nuclear fuel could "make it easier for terrorists to acquire the material for making a nuclear bomb," but Marsh and Stanford argued that "reactor fuel is going to be recycled, whether we like it or not."^[23].

Capitalism and free market-advocacy groups have also criticized the UCS for its stance on environmental and other regulatory issues. The UCS has been called an "unlabeled left-wing activist group",^[24] and criticized as having "policy positions that are predictably those of a far-left pressure group".^[25]. Brent Bozell, founder of the Media Research Center, which catalogs what it asserts is liberal media bias in the United States press, has claimed that the UCS is "a left-wing activist organization...trying to position itself as being some kind of objective, centrist, moderate, apolitical entity when it is nothing of the sort."^[26]

S. Fred Singer, physicist, Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia, NewsMax science advisor, and founder of the Science & Environmental Policy Project, a group that disputes the prevailing scientific views of climate change, ozone depletion, and secondhand smoke,^[27] has said that the group has "zero credibility as a scientific organization." Singer has been labeled a "climate contrarian" by the UCS.^[28][29]

John Stossel, consumer reporter, author, and co-anchor for the ABC News show 20/20, believes that the organization is unduly alarmist about climate change. He commented, "The key word in 'Union of Concerned Scientists' isn't 'Scientists' — you don't need any particular degree or experience to join — but 'Concerned,' and the concerns in question are decidedly left wing." Stossel also remarked that the organization's "own website reveals that it developed out of a campaign to make students think that strengthening the American military was an illegitimate use of technology."^[30]

Televangelist Jerry Falwell endorsed Chicago Tribune op-ed columnist Dennis Byrne's description of UCS as the "inexhaustibly liberal and self-appointed guardians of scientific purity [who] try to corrupt science for [their] own ends",^[31] and accused UCS of leading evangelicals to "[fall] for all of this global warming hocus-pocus" and "[run] down meaningless rabbit trails that get our focus off of our heavenly purpose."^[32]

References

1. ^ Salpeter and Gottfried sign letter urging Congress to pass binding resolution against nuclear weapons
2. ^ Founding Document: 1968 MIT Faculty Statement
3. ^ List of UCS experts
4. ^ Scientists' Declaration on the Nuclear Arms Race
5. ^ UCS - History
6. ^ World Scientists' Warning to Humanity (1992)
7. ^ Funding Flows for Climate Change Research and Related Activities
8. ^ Charity Navigator - Union of Concerned Scientists
9. ^ Confronting Climate Change in the Great Lakes Region
10. ^ Confronting Climate Change in the Gulf Coast
11. ^ Nuclear Power and Global Warming
12. ^ ^{a b} A to Z - Examples of Political Interference in Science
13. ^ Surveys of Scientists at Federal Agencies
14. ^ Who Are the 11,000+ Scientists? - Scientist Statement Signatories
15. ^ UCS Response to Congress
16. ^ Scientists: Bush Distorts Science
17. ^ Scientific Integrity in Policymaking
18. ^ Systematic Interference with Science at Interior Department Exposed - Emails and Edited Documents Show Evidence of Inappropriate Manipulation
19. ^ 10,600 Scientists Condemn Political Interference in Science - New Guide Documents Ongoing Federal Abuse of Science; 110th Congress Must Act
20. ^ Another Contrived Missile Defense Test is Coming Up - Decoys Would Overwhelm System, Says Union of Concerned Scientists
21. ^ EPA Falls Short of Scientists' Calls for Stricter Controls on Smog - Old standard not enough to protect public health
22. ^ Critics question EPA's tighter ozone limits
23. ^ Bombs, Reprocessing, and Reactor Grade Plutonium
24. ^ Timeswatch - Union of Concerned Scientists
25. ^ Capital Research Group - Union of Concerned Scientists:Its Jihad against Climate Skeptics By Myron Ebell, Iain Murray, and Ivan Osorio (pdf)
26. ^ Oil Giant Accused of Funding Global Warming 'Disinformation'
27. ^ Science & Environmental Policy Project - About the Project
28. ^ Scientist Calls Global Warming Theories 'Bunk,' Cites Errors of Logic
29. ^ Factsheet: S. Fred Singer
30. ^ Scaremongers screaming 'BOO!' even louder after column challenges their 'facts' - John Stossel April 13, 2005
31. ^ Bad Research, Worse Reporting on Global Warming
32. ^ Falwell, Jerry. 'Global warming' fooling the faithful. WorldNetDaily.com Inc.. Retrieved on 2007-11-18.

Publications

• Catalyst, a bi-annual magazine [2]
• Earthwise, a quarterly newsletter [3]
• The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists
• Scientific Integrity in Policymaking
• Atmosphere of Pressure: Political Interference in Federal Climate Science[4]