Roger A. Pielke (Jr)
Encyclopedia
Roger A. Pielke, Jr. is an American professor
in the Environmental Studies Program and a Fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
(CIRES) where he served as Director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado at Boulder
from 2001 to 2007. Pielke was a visiting scholar at Oxford University's James Martin
Institute for Science and Civilization http://www.martininstitute.ox.ac.uk/jmi/ in the Said Business School
in the 2007-2008 academic year. His interests include understanding the politicization of science
, decision making
under uncertainty, and policy education for scientists in areas such as climate change, disaster mitigation, and world trade.
(1990), a M.A. in public policy
(1992), and a Ph.D. in political science
, all from the University of Colorado at Boulder
. Prior to his positions at CU-Boulder, from 1993 to 2001 he was a staff scientist http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/07/science/earth/07climate.html?pagewanted=print in the Environmental and Societal Impacts Group of the National Center for Atmospheric Research
. From 2002 to 2004 Pielke was Director of Graduate Studies for the CU-Boulder Graduate Program in Environmental Studies and in 2001 students selected him for the Outstanding Graduate Advisor Award. Pielke serves on numerous editorial boards and advisory committees, retains many professional affiliations, and sat on the Board of Directors of WeatherData, Inc. from 2001 to 2006.
.
policy
.
His views on climate science are difficult to determine. On the one hand he has written that he accepts the IPCC
view of the underlying science:
On the other hand, in 2010 he asserted that "I don’t think [temperature] is the right metric to use to express concern [about climate change]" and that the following "bathtub analogy" was an appropriate summary of the "consensus on the tenets of climate science":
In any case, he argues that:
and from this he concludes that
(see also http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-2506-2007.11.pdf; and argued as long ago as 1998 http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-161-1998.13.pdf).
On the issues of hurricanes and climate change
he has argued that the trend in increasing damage from hurricanes is primarily due to societal factors rather than change in the frequency and intensity http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-1688-2005.25.pdf.
program. In 1993 he argued that the shuttle was expensive and risky - that it was "probable" that another orbiter would be lost within 20-35 flights http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/1993.03.pdf (approximately 60 flights passed before the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia
). Shortly before the loss of Columbia he warned that loss of another shuttle was only a matter of time http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-28-2002.20.pdf.
He has also been critical of the space station program http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/1992.01.pdf.
, a libertarian think-tank http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv29n1/v29n1-4.pdf. Pielke has also published articles in Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/publications/show_all_pubs.html?sortBy=author&showAllRecords=true&action=Search. He also appeared in a Fox News special Global Warming: The Debate Continues, that featured several prominent global warming skeptics and industry consultants http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,195877,00.html. He has also appeared multiple times on CNN, The Weather Channel, and in many other media outlets http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/outreach/news.html. For his own part, Pielke characterizes his political views as "consonant with those of the Blue Dog Democrat
s who argue that the stale extreme left vs. right approach requires a breath of fresh air" http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/about_us/meet_us/roger_pielke/about.html. Pielke's views are cited by conservatives http://epw.senate.gov/fact.cfm?party=rep&id=264568 http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2006/06/01/smeared-by-krugman/ http://www.reason.com/news/show/32958.html and he has complained that he has been pilloried by a "liberal slime machine."http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com/2009/10/giant-fish-big-fish-and-minnows-of.html
In January, 2007 when the Government Oversight and Reform Committee of the U.S. Congress, led by Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA), initiated hearings on political interference into the work of government scientists by the Bush Administration, Pielke testified that politics and science have a long history of being intermixed at the highest levels of government. In his written testimony Pielke described the Bush Administration's behavior as "ham-handed," "overbearing," and indicative of "hyper-controlling strategies for the management of information" http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-2504-2007.10.pdf. Pielke also criticized a memo prepared for the hearing by Rep. Waxman's staff as reflecting the same dynamics underlying the behavior of the Bush Administration http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-2504-2007.10.pdf.
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
in the Environmental Studies Program and a Fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences is a research institute that is sponsored jointly by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration /Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and the University of Colorado at Boulder.- Quick facts :* Established in 1967 as...
(CIRES) where he served as Director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado at Boulder
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
from 2001 to 2007. Pielke was a visiting scholar at Oxford University's James Martin
James Martin (author)
James Martin is a British Information Technology consultant and author, who was nominated for a Pulitzer prize for his book, The Wired Society: A Challenge for Tomorrow .- Biography :...
Institute for Science and Civilization http://www.martininstitute.ox.ac.uk/jmi/ in the Said Business School
Saïd Business School
Saïd Business School is the business school of the University of Oxford in England, located on the north side of Frideswide Square on the former site of Oxford Rewley Road railway station. It is the University's centre of learning for graduate and undergraduate students in business, management...
in the 2007-2008 academic year. His interests include understanding the politicization of science
Politicization of science
The politicization of science is the manipulation of science for political gain. It occurs when government, business, or advocacy groups use legal or economic pressure to influence the findings of scientific research or the way it is disseminated, reported or interpreted. The politicization of...
, decision making
Decision making
Decision making can be regarded as the mental processes resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making process produces a final choice. The output can be an action or an opinion of choice.- Overview :Human performance in decision terms...
under uncertainty, and policy education for scientists in areas such as climate change, disaster mitigation, and world trade.
Professional background
Pielke earned a B.A. in mathematicsMathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
(1990), a M.A. in public policy
Public policy
Public policy as government action is generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. In general, the foundation is the pertinent national and...
(1992), and a Ph.D. in political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
, all from the University of Colorado at Boulder
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
. Prior to his positions at CU-Boulder, from 1993 to 2001 he was a staff scientist http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/07/science/earth/07climate.html?pagewanted=print in the Environmental and Societal Impacts Group of the National Center for Atmospheric Research
National Center for Atmospheric Research
The National Center for Atmospheric Research has multiple facilities, including the I. M. Pei-designed Mesa Laboratory headquarters in Boulder, Colorado. NCAR is managed by the nonprofit University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and sponsored by the National Science Foundation...
. From 2002 to 2004 Pielke was Director of Graduate Studies for the CU-Boulder Graduate Program in Environmental Studies and in 2001 students selected him for the Outstanding Graduate Advisor Award. Pielke serves on numerous editorial boards and advisory committees, retains many professional affiliations, and sat on the Board of Directors of WeatherData, Inc. from 2001 to 2006.
Personal life
Roger is married with three children and resides in Boulder, ColoradoBoulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
.
On climate change
Pielke has written extensively on climate changeClimate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
policy
Politics of global warming
The politics of global warming have involved corporate lobbying, funding of special interest groups and public relations campaigns by the oil and coal industries which have affected policy decisions and legislation worldwide...
.
His views on climate science are difficult to determine. On the one hand he has written that he accepts the IPCC
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a scientific intergovernmental body which provides comprehensive assessments of current scientific, technical and socio-economic information worldwide about the risk of climate change caused by human activity, its potential environmental and...
view of the underlying science:
- The IPCC has concluded that greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activity are an important driver of changes in climate. And on this basis alone I am personally convinced that it makes sense to take action to limit greenhouse gas emissions. http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-2466-2006.09.pdf
On the other hand, in 2010 he asserted that "I don’t think [temperature] is the right metric to use to express concern [about climate change]" and that the following "bathtub analogy" was an appropriate summary of the "consensus on the tenets of climate science":
- The risks posed by increasing carbon dioxide can be represented by a bathtub. So the bathtub is the atmosphere, we’re putting in carbon dioxide… it’s accumulating… No-one disputes these facts… Now scientists debate a number of different values. One of them is how high is our bathtub, is there a level at which the bathtub spills over? …Now there’s also a debate about, well, what happens when the bathtub overflows? Is it going to be catastrophic? Is it just minor damage that we can mop up? These are all very legitimate debates that are out there in the scientific community, and they are debates that I would assert cannot be resolved scientifically on the timescales of decision-making.
In any case, he argues that:
- Any conceivable emissions reductions policies, even if successful, cannot have a perceptible impact on the climate for many decades
and from this he concludes that
- In coming decades the only policies that can effectively be used to manage the immediate effects of climate variability and change will be adaptive.
(see also http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-2506-2007.11.pdf; and argued as long ago as 1998 http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-161-1998.13.pdf).
On the issues of hurricanes and climate change
Effects of global warming
This article is about the effects of global warming and climate change. The effects, or impacts, of climate change may be physical, ecological, social or economic. Evidence of observed climate change includes the instrumental temperature record, rising sea levels, and decreased snow cover in the...
he has argued that the trend in increasing damage from hurricanes is primarily due to societal factors rather than change in the frequency and intensity http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-1688-2005.25.pdf.
On the space shuttle and station
His early work was on the Space ShuttleSpace Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...
program. In 1993 he argued that the shuttle was expensive and risky - that it was "probable" that another orbiter would be lost within 20-35 flights http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/1993.03.pdf (approximately 60 flights passed before the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia
Space Shuttle Columbia
Space Shuttle Columbia was the first spaceworthy Space Shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet. First launched on the STS-1 mission, the first of the Space Shuttle program, it completed 27 missions before being destroyed during re-entry on February 1, 2003 near the end of its 28th, STS-107. All seven crew...
). Shortly before the loss of Columbia he warned that loss of another shuttle was only a matter of time http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-28-2002.20.pdf.
He has also been critical of the space station program http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/1992.01.pdf.
Media appearances and writings
Pielke was invited to write for Regulation http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/prometheus/archives/science_policy_general/000784a_new_article.html, a magazine published by the Cato InstituteCato Institute
The Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Edward H. Crane, who remains president and CEO, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the conglomerate Koch Industries, Inc., the largest privately held...
, a libertarian think-tank http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv29n1/v29n1-4.pdf. Pielke has also published articles in Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/publications/show_all_pubs.html?sortBy=author&showAllRecords=true&action=Search. He also appeared in a Fox News special Global Warming: The Debate Continues, that featured several prominent global warming skeptics and industry consultants http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,195877,00.html. He has also appeared multiple times on CNN, The Weather Channel, and in many other media outlets http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/outreach/news.html. For his own part, Pielke characterizes his political views as "consonant with those of the Blue Dog Democrat
Blue Dog Democrat
The Blue Dog Coalition, commonly known as the Blue Dogs, is a group of United States Congressional Representatives from the Democratic Party who identify themselves as moderates....
s who argue that the stale extreme left vs. right approach requires a breath of fresh air" http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/about_us/meet_us/roger_pielke/about.html. Pielke's views are cited by conservatives http://epw.senate.gov/fact.cfm?party=rep&id=264568 http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2006/06/01/smeared-by-krugman/ http://www.reason.com/news/show/32958.html and he has complained that he has been pilloried by a "liberal slime machine."http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com/2009/10/giant-fish-big-fish-and-minnows-of.html
In January, 2007 when the Government Oversight and Reform Committee of the U.S. Congress, led by Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA), initiated hearings on political interference into the work of government scientists by the Bush Administration, Pielke testified that politics and science have a long history of being intermixed at the highest levels of government. In his written testimony Pielke described the Bush Administration's behavior as "ham-handed," "overbearing," and indicative of "hyper-controlling strategies for the management of information" http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-2504-2007.10.pdf. Pielke also criticized a memo prepared for the hearing by Rep. Waxman's staff as reflecting the same dynamics underlying the behavior of the Bush Administration http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-2504-2007.10.pdf.
Publications
Pielke is author, co-author or co-editor of five books, most recently The Honest Broker: Making Sense of Science in Policy and Politics (2007, Cambridge University Press) and The Climate Fix: What Scientists and Politicians Won't Tell You About Global Warming (2010, Basic Books).External links
- CU-Boulder homepage
- Prometheus - blog discussing science policy issues with frequent posts from Dr. Pielke
- Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog - personal blog which replaced Prometheus in June 2009
- Roger Pielke Jr., When Scientists Politicize Science, Regulation, Spring 2006.
- 'Worse Than Fiction', WSJ op-ed on Pielke's work, June 6, 2009
- SourceWatch entry for Roger Pielke Jr.