date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 17:09:37 -0400
from: "Michael E. Mann" <mann@multiproxy.evsc.virginia.edu>
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
