Thanks to the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy, we can share some recent CRS reports of interest to environmental journalists.
"In 1972, a British scientist sounded the alarm that sugar – and not fat – was the greatest danger to our health. But his findings were ridiculed and his reputation ruined. How did the world’s top nutrition scientists get it so wrong for so long?"
"The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington, D.C., think tank and one of the fossil fuel industry's most steadfast allies, disclosed on Thursday that the attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands is demanding to see records of the group's donors and activities involving climate policy."
"The Smithsonian Institution's new transparency policy hasn't kept prominent climate contrarian Wei-Hock "Willie" Soon from reeling in $65,000 in "dark money" to fund a secret research project."
"The top attorneys from Massachusetts and the U.S. Virgin Islands said on Tuesday they will investigate whether Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) misled investors and the public about the risks of climate change."
"Facing a storm of criticism over its plan to show a documentary about the widely debunked link between vaccines and autism, the Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday pulled the film from its schedule next month."
"Earth has witnessed its warmest two years on record, 2015 and 2014, over the last two years. At the same time, peer-reviewed studies have piled up demonstrating man’s influence on our climate. Meteorologists, who keep their hands on the pulse of what’s happening to the atmosphere, are taking notice. While some, by their nature, are cautious about emerging scientific ideas and theories, new survey data reveal almost unanimous agreement that the climate is changing and a huge majority support the view that human activities are largely behind it.
"Give Donald Trump credit for consistency. The Republican presidential front-runner repeatedly has said he isn’t “a believer” that humans have played a significant role in the Earth’s changing climate."
"Since November, 54 people in Wisconsin have one by one fallen ill with an obscure kind of bacteria called Elizabethkingia. Fifteen have died from the infection."
"Two years ago, a pair of scientific studies documented that the glaciers of West Antarctica, which hold back over 3 meters (nearly 10 feet) of potential sea level rise, are melting and retreating from below. The cause? It appears that these glaciers, which are perched on the seafloor deep below the ocean surface, are being lapped at by flows of warm ocean currents."
