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Fed Up about Food? New Film Highlights Concerns around Sugar, Science, and...
Today, a new documentary entitled Fed Up premieres in 19 cities. Different from other films that detail the problems that plague our food system, Fed Up focuses on a single entity that is responsible...
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Of Manatees and Mandates: Celebrating Endangered Species Day
As a little girl, I really liked marine mammals, especially seals and manatees. They fascinated me. I learned all about them and their habitats. I knew the anatomical differences between a seal and a...
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EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee Comes to Agreement on Ozone...
Today the EPA’s chartered Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) agreed on a recommendation to Administrator McCarthy regarding an update to the ambient air pollution standard for ozone (To...
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Added Sugar, Subtracted Science: A New Report and a Labeling Debate at the FDA
As a researcher focused on how science is used and misused in policy debates, I’ve seen more than my fair share of interference in (what should be) evidence-based decision making. But when I first dug...
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Dear Surgeon General: We’re Fed Up, Let’s Act on Sugar
When I was a child, I would read the ingredients on food packages. Nearly every package I picked up began with the same ingredient. “What’s high fructose corn syrup?” I asked my Mom. “I don’t know,”...
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Five Things Sugar Interests Get Wrong about FDA Added Sugars Labeling
Last week, I spoke at the FDA public meeting on Proposed Rules on Food Labeling: Nutrition Facts Label and Serving Size. I spoke in support of an added sugars label on those proposed rules, carrying...
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Fracking, Chemicals, and Our Health: EPA Considers a Hydraulic Fracturing...
What’s in the water? What are the chemicals being used? Will they harm me? Or my family? Or my animals? What kind of impacts will my environment experience? These questions have been asked by countless...
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The Endangered Species Act under Attack: Science, Politics, and the Real...
The cartoon below has never been more appropriate. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is attacked by political interests with some regularity, but the current proposal from the House Natural Resources...
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Los Alamos Firing Demonstrates Exactly What’s Wrong with Scientific Integrity...
Yesterday, my colleague Lisbeth Gronlund wrote about the unjust firing of James Doyle, a 17-year employee of Los Alamos National Laboratory. The PhD political scientist was fired over an academic...
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The Colorado Hydraulic Fracturing Deal: Amidst Politics, A Chance for Science
News broke this week of a controversial deal in Colorado around hydraulic fracturing. In exchange for the withdrawal of four ballot propositions (two promoting oil and gas development and two...
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A Funny Thing Happened at the Fish and Wildlife Service: The Wolverine...
What does the wolverine have to do with climate change? No, the X-men haven’t decided to #ActOnClimate (yet), but the two are very much related. Wolverines are mammals that live in snowy terrain of...
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On the SEC Disclosure Rule, the People Have Spoken
One million comments. Today I’m celebrating one million comments. What’s the significance of one million comments? Let me explain. An SEC petition hits one million public comments Back in January, UCS...
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The Colorado Oil and Gas Task Force: Still a Chance for Science to Inform...
When news broke last month that the state of Colorado would be creating a blue-ribbon task force to study the impacts and inform regulation of hydraulic fracturing in the state, I wrote about the...
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Combatting Panic: Ebola, the CDC, and Crisis Communication
Yesterday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States. Almost on cue, panic and overreaction were rampant, most notably on...
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Why Shell Should Leave ALEC
“Let me (be) very very clear, for us climate change is real and it’s a threat that we want to act on. We’re not aligning with skeptics.” -Ben van Beurden, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell Years ago, such a...
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Community-Driven Study Finds Unsafe Air Pollution Levels near Oil and Gas...
Ever think that your rural backyard could face air pollution levels in excess of 100 times EPA health standards? Jeff and Rhonda Locker of Wyoming didn’t think so either. But a new peer-reviewed study...
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A Science-Based Ozone Standard At Last? The Obama Administration Releases...
The regulation of ozone pollution has had a complicated history in recent years, but today marks a potential turning point toward an ozone standard that protects public health. Today the EPA is...
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Interfering in the Science: Congress Targets Sage Grouse Protections in...
Lately, we’ve seen Congress target many things: Science funding at NSF, school lunch, and the EPA’s ability to function, but I believe this is the first time I’ve seen Congress target a bird. In the...
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Three Ways Citizens United Helped Undermine Science Policy Debates
Five years ago next week the Supreme Court issued a decision that would soon have major impacts on our political system. In Citizens United v. FEC, the court ruled that spending limits violated free...
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Who Stands with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Climate Change? New Data Says...
Last year the CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy Karen Alderman Harbert had some trouble articulating the business group’s position on climate change. During a...
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