Everything about Union Of Concerned Scientists totally explained
The
Union of Concerned Scientists (
UCS) is a
nonprofit advocacy group based in the
United States. The UCS membership includes many private citizens in addition to professional
scientists. Emeritus Professor
Kurt Gottfried, a former senior staffer at
CERN, currently chairs the UCS Board of Directors.
History
The Union of Concerned Scientists was founded in
1969 by faculty and students of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. Scientists formed the organization to "initiate a critical and continuing examination of governmental policy in areas where science and technology are of actual or potential significance" and "devise means for turning research applications away from the present emphasis on military technology toward the solution of pressing environmental and social problems." The organization employs scientists, economists, engineers engaged in environmental and security issues, as well as executive and support staff.
One of the co-founders was
physicist and
Nobel laureate Dr. Henry Kendall, who served for many years as
chairman of the board of UCS. In 1977, the UCS sponsored a "Scientists' Declaration on the Nuclear Arms Race" calling for an end to
nuclear weapons tests and deployments in the United States and
Soviet Union . In response to the
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), the UCS sponsored a petition entitled "An Appeal to Ban Space Weapons" .
In 1992, Kendall presided over the UCS' Warning to Humanity, which called for "fundamental change" to address a range of security and environmental issues. The document was signed by 1700 scientists, including a majority of the Nobel prize winners in the sciences.
According to the
George C. Marshall Institute, the UCS was the fourth-largest recipient of foundation grants for climate studies in the period 2000-2002, a fourth of its $24M grant income being for that purpose.
According to
Charity Navigator, an independent, non-profit organization that evaluates American charities, the UCS maintained $20,575,731 in assets, $5,514,946 in liabilities, $15,060,785 in net assets, and $14,112,057 in working capital, as well as $10,058,784 in program expenses, $813,335 in administrative expenses, and $1,703,907 in fundraising expenses in
fiscal year 2006. In 2007, the Union of Concerned Scientists received a four (out of four) star rating from Charity Navigator.
The Union of Concerned Scientists is member of the Sustainable Energy Coalition.
Issue stances
The group claims to support practical policy based solely on science.
The group supports an increase in
Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards, as well as a reduction in
smog pollution from construction equipment and diesel trucks. The UCS also supports the enactment of state laws to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks, based on California's regulations. The UCS supports deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, as well as national and international action to combat
climate change. The organization has also produced several reports on regional effects of climate change in the United States. The group supports increased taxes for polluters to discourage pollution and incentives for environmentally beneficial practices. The group also supports a national energy efficiency standard for home appliances. The group also supports governmental incentives for people who want to preserve undeveloped land instead of selling it to developers. and supports
whistleblower protection, monetary incentives, and
free speech rights for federal scientists. Its scientific integrity program has produced surveys of federal scientists at multiple agencies and a statement signed by more than 11,000 scientists condemning political interference in science.
The UCS supports the reduction of antibiotic use on livestock to prevent medical
antibiotic resistance in humans who consume treated animals. It also opposes
cloning animals for food, as well as forms of
genetic engineering.
The group opposes the use of
space weapons and supports the idea of an international treaty to regulate military uses of space. The group also works on reducing the number of
nuclear weapons around the world and opposes the
Reliable Replacement Warhead program. The group criticizes the technical feasibility of building a
missile defense shield.
Press
In
1997, the UCS circulated a petition entitled
"A Call to Action". The petition called for the ratification of the
Kyoto Protocol, and was signed by 110
Nobel Prize laureates, including 104 Nobel Prize-winning scientists.
In February
2004, the Union received press attention for its publication
"Scientific Integrity in Policymaking". The report criticized the administration of
U.S. President George W. Bush for "politicizing" science. Some of the allegations include altering information in
global warming reports by the
Environmental Protection Agency, and choosing members of scientific advisory panels based on their business interests rather than scientific experience. In July 2004, the Union released an addendum to the report in which they criticize the Bush administration and allege that reports on
West Virginia strip mining had been improperly altered, and that "well-qualified" nominees for government posts, such as Nobel laureate
Torsten Wiesel were rejected because of political differences. On
April 2,
2004,
Dr. John Marburger, the director of the
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy issued a statement claiming that incident descriptions in the UCS report are "false," "wrong," or "a distortion", and dismissed the report as "biased". . UCS rebutted the White House document by saying that Marburger's claims were unjustified. UCS later wrote that since that time, the Bush administration has been virtually silent on the issue.
On
October 30,
2006, the Union issued a press release claiming that high-ranking members of the U.S.
Department of the Interior, including Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks
Julie MacDonald, systematically tampered with scientific data in an effort to undermine the protection of
endangered species and the
Endangered Species Act.
On
December 11,
2006, the UCS issued a statement signed by 10,600 leading scientists including
Nobel laureates. The statement calls for the restoration of scientific integrity to federal policy-making. The announcement came as the group
On
June 21,
2007, a UCS report charged the
EPA with political manipulation of scientific data to influence updated US
ozone regulations: "The law says use the science, the science says lower the standard to safe levels," said Francesca Grifo, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' Scientific Integrity Program. "In disregarding its own scientists' analysis, the EPA is risking the health of millions of Americans."
Criticism
Physicists Gerald E. Marsh and George S. Stanford have criticized the UCS for opposing a US government-run nuclear waste reprocessing program. The UCS had claimed that the separation of weapons-usable plutonium from spent nuclear fuel could "make it easier for terrorists to acquire the material for making a nuclear bomb," but Marsh and Stanford argued that "reactor fuel is going to be recycled, whether we like it or not.".
Capitalism and
free market-advocacy groups have also criticized the UCS for its stance on environmental and other regulatory issues. The UCS has been called an "unlabeled left-wing activist group", and criticized as having "policy positions that are predictably those of a far-left pressure group".
Brent Bozell, founder of the
Media Research Center, which catalogs what it asserts is liberal media bias in the United States press, has claimed that the UCS is "a left-wing activist organization...trying to position itself as being some kind of objective, centrist, moderate, apolitical entity when it's nothing of the sort."
S. Fred Singer, physicist, Professor Emeritus at the
University of Virginia,
NewsMax science advisor, and founder of the
Science & Environmental Policy Project, a group that disputes the prevailing scientific views of
climate change,
ozone depletion, and
secondhand smoke, has said that the group has "zero credibility as a scientific organization." Singer has been labeled a "climate contrarian" by the UCS.
John Stossel, consumer reporter, author, and co-anchor for the
ABC News show
20/20, believes that the organization is unduly alarmist about
climate change, and commented, "The key word in 'Union of Concerned Scientists' isn't 'Scientists' — you don't need any particular degree or experience to join — but 'Concerned,' and the concerns in question are decidedly left wing." Stossel also remarked that the organization's "own website reveals that it developed out of a campaign to make students think that strengthening the American military was an illegitimate use of technology."
Televangelist
Jerry Falwell endorsed
Chicago Tribune op-ed columnist Dennis Byrne's description the UCS and accused the organization of distracting Evangelicals from their true calling: "These scientists were recently described by writer Dennis Byrne as the 'inexhaustibly liberal and self-appointed guardians of scientific purity [who] try to corrupt science for its own ends'...Further, there's no need for the church of Jesus Christ to be wasting its time gullibly falling for all of this global warming hocus-pocus. We need to give our total focus to the business of reaching this world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and stop running down meaningless rabbit trails that get our focus off of our heavenly purpose."
Further Information
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