Primary scientists told AFP on Thursday that their research, cited in a flagship report by the US Energy Ministry, had been diverted to minimize the role of human activity in climate change.
Ce Report published on July 29 Exhibits the arguments that led the Trump government to return to a key decision dating from 2009 on Tuesday for the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, further damaging the fight against climate change in the United States.
He was written by a working group in which John Christy and Judith Curry participated, both partners in the past at the Heartland Institute, a pressure group which frequently opposes the scientific consensus on climate change.
Inaccurate quotes and erroneous analyzes
The document “completely deforms my work,” said Benjamin Santer, climatologist and honorary professor at AFP at the University of East Anglia, in the United Kingdom. He explained that a section of the report devoted to the “cooling of the stratosphere” contradicted its conclusions.
AFP and other media, including the American Information site Notus, have found inaccurate quotes, erroneous analyzes and editorial faults in the report.
This is the third time this year that scientists tell AFP that a government agency has distorted university work to defend its policies. The White House hadtened in May to modify a report on diseases affecting young Americans who were initially based on non -existent scientific studies.
>> Read also: A report on the health of Americans is based on non -existent studies
Different results
“I am concerned about the fact that a government agency has published a report intended to inform the public and to orient policies without having been submitted to a rigorous process of peer assessment, while interpreting in a erroneous way of many studies which have been,” reacted Bor-Ting Jong, professor assistant to the Vrije Universite de Amsterdam.
She pointed out that the report contained false claims concerning the climate model studied by her team and used a different terminology that led to a misinterpretation of her results.
Contacted by AFP, a spokesman for the ministry said that the report had been examined internally by a group of scientists and experts in public policies. The public will now have the possibility of comment on the document before its final publication in the federal register.
AFP/EDEL
