| |
| Slogan |
Citizens and Scientists for Environmental Solutions |
| Established |
1969 |
| Exec. Dir. |
Kathleen Rest |
| President |
Kevin Knobloch |
| Headquarters |
CambridgeThe city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. It is also at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen....
, MAThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
,
|
| Membership |
over 200,000 |
| Founder |
Kurt Gottfried |
| Homepage |
http://www.ucsusa.org |
The
Union of Concerned Scientists (
UCS) is a nonprofit science
advocacyAdvocacy is the pursuit of influencing outcomes — including public-policy and resource allocation decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions — that directly affect people’s current lives...
group based in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The UCS membership includes many private citizens in addition to professional
scientistA scientist, in the broadest sense, is any person who engages in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge or an individual that engages in such practices and traditions that are linked to schools of thought or philosophy. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the...
s. Emeritus Professor
Kurt GottfriedKurt Gottfried is professor emeritus of physics at Cornell University and chairman of the Union of Concerned Scientists. He is also co-editor of Crisis Stability And Nuclear War....
, a former senior staffer at
CERNThe European Organization for Nuclear Research , known as CERN , , is the world's largest particle physics laboratory, situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border, established in 1954...
, 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 TechnologyThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological research...
, located in
Cambridge, MassachusettsCambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, a nexus of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Notably, Cambridge is home to two internationally prominent...
. 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
physicistPhysics is a natural science; it is the study of matter and its motion through spacetime and all that derives from these, such as energy and force...
and
Nobel laureateThe Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in chemistry, Nobel Prize in literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
Dr. Henry KendallHenry Way Kendall was an American particle physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1990 jointly with Jerome Isaac Friedman and Richard E...
, who served for many years as
chairman of the boardA board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. The body sometimes has a different name, such as board of trustees, board of governors, board of managers, or executive board...
of UCS. In 1977, the UCS sponsored a "Scientists' Declaration on the Nuclear Arms Race" calling for an end to
nuclear weapons testsNuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Throughout the twentieth century, most nations that have developed nuclear weapons have tested them...
and deployments in the United States and
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
. In response to the
Strategic Defense InitiativeThe Strategic Defense Initiative was a proposal by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983 to use ground and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. The initiative focused on strategic defense rather than the prior strategic...
(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 InstituteThe George C. Marshall Institute is a politically conservative think tank established in 1984 in Washington, D.C. with a focus on scientific issues and public policy. In the 1990s, the Institute was engaged primarily in lobbying in support of the Strategic Defense Initiative.More recently, the...
, 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 NavigatorCharity Navigator is an independent, non-profit organization that evaluates American charities. Its stated goal is "to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the financial health of America's largest charities."-About:...
, 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
In the UCS-published book
The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists, the authors attempt to give practical advice to consumers to "help...distinguish the critical from the trivial and make choices that are congruent with your values." The book identifies using a fuel-efficient car and driving less as the number one way most people can reduce their environmental impact. The authors say minor choices such as choosing between paper or plastic bags do not have that much overall impact.
The UC supports an increase in
Corporate Average Fuel EconomyThe Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations in the United States, first enacted by Congress in 1975, are federal regulations intended to improve the average fuel economy of cars and light trucks sold in the US in the wake of the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo...
Standards, as well as a reduction in
smogSmog is a kind of air pollution; the word "smog" is a portmanteau of smoke and fog. Classic smog results from large amounts of coal burning in an area caused by a mixture of smoke and sulfur dioxide...
pollution from construction equipment and diesel trucks and the enactment of state laws to reduce
greenhouse gasGreenhouse gases are gases in an atmosphere that absorb and emit radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The main greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
emissions from cars and trucks, based on California's regulations. The group supports deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, as well as national and international action to combat
climate changeClimate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. It can be a change in the average weather or a change in the distribution of weather events around an average...
. 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 UCS supports a national
renewable electricityRenewable electricity is electricity from renewable resources.The "American Clean Energy Leadership Act" reported out of committee yesterday by the Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources includes a Renewable Electricity Standard that calls for 3% of U.S...
standard which would require utilities to produce a certain percentage of their energy from sources such as wind, solar and geothermal. The UCS also acknowledges that
nuclear powerNuclear power is power produced from controlled nuclear reactions. Commercial plants in use to date use nuclear fission reactions....
can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but maintains that it must become much safer and cheaper before it can be considered a workable solution to global warming (see nuclear debate). They support increased safety enforcement from the
Nuclear Regulatory CommissionNuclear Regulatory Commission is a United States government agency that was established by the Energy Reorganization Act in 1974, and was first opened January 19, 1975. The NRC took over the role of oversight of nuclear energy matters and nuclear safety from the AEC, or Atomic Energy Commission...
among other steps to improve nuclear power. The group also supports a national energy efficiency standard for home appliances.
The UCS has also endorsed the
Forests Now DeclarationThe Forests Now Declaration is a declaration that advocates using carbon credits to protect tropical forests. The Declaration was created by the Global Canopy Programme, and has been signed by over 200 NGOs, business leaders, scientists and conservationists...
, which calls for new market based mechanism to protect forests, as the group has recognised the importance of curbing
deforestationDeforestation is the clearance of naturally occurring forests by the processes of logging and/or burning of trees in a forested area. There are several reasons deforestation occurs: trees or derived charcoal can be sold as a commodity and used by humans, while cleared land is used as pasture,...
in order to tackle climate change. The group also supports governmental incentives for people who want to preserve undeveloped land instead of selling it to developers.
The Union of Concerned Scientists has accused the US government of dozens of instances of political interference in science and supports
whistleblowerA whistleblower is a person who alleges concealed misconduct on the part of an organization or body of people, usually from within that same organization. This misconduct may be classified in many ways; for example, a violation of a law, rule, regulation and/or a direct threat to public interest,...
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 resistanceAntibiotic resistance is the ability of a microorganism to withstand the effects of antibiotics. It is a specific type of drug resistance. Antibiotic resistance evolves via natural selection acting upon random mutation, but it can also be engineered by applying an evolutionary stress on a population...
in humans who consume treated animals. It also opposes
cloningCloning in biology is the process of producing populations of genetically-identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or organisms...
animals for food, as well as forms of
genetic engineeringGenetic engineering, recombinant DNA technology, genetic modification/manipulation and gene splicing are terms that apply to the direct manipulation of an organism's genes. Genetic engineering is different from traditional breeding, where the organism's genes are manipulated indirectly...
.
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 WarheadThe Reliable Replacement Warhead is a new American nuclear warhead design and bomb family that is intended to be simple, reliable and to provide a long-lasting, low maintenance future nuclear force for the United States...
program. The group criticizes the technical feasibility of building a
missile defenseMissile defense is a system, weapon, or technology involved in the detection, tracking, interception and destruction of attacking missiles. Originally conceived as a defence against nuclear-armed ICBMs, its application has broadened to include shorter-ranged non-nuclear tactical and theater...
shield.
Press
In 1997, the UCS circulated a petition entitled "A Call to Action". The petition called for the ratification of the
Kyoto ProtocolThe Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at combating global warming...
, and was signed by 110
Nobel PrizeThe Nobel Prize is a Sweden-based international monetary prize. The award was established by the 1895 will and estate of Swedish chemist and inventor Alfred Nobel. It was first awarded in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace in 1901...
laureates, including 104 Nobel Prize-winning scientists.
In February 2004, the Union received press attention for its publication
"Scientific Integrity in Policymaking""Scientific Integrity in Policymaking: An Investigation into the Bush Administration's Misuse of Science" is the title of a report published by the Union of Concerned Scientists in February, 2004. The report was the culmination of an investigation of the Bush administration's objectivity in...
. The report criticized the administration of U.S. President
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
for "politicizing" science. Some of the allegations include altering information in
global warmingGlobal warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation. Global surface temperature increased 0.74 ± 0.18 °C during the last century...
reports by the
Environmental Protection AgencyThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged to regulate chemicals and protect human health by safeguarding the natural environment: air, water, and land...
(EPA), 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 VirginiaWest Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, and Pennsylvania and Maryland to the northeast...
strip mining had been improperly altered, and that "well-qualified" nominees for government posts, such as Nobel laureate
Torsten WieselTorsten Nils Wiesel was a Swedish co-recipient with David H. Hubel of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for their discoveries concerning information processing in the visual system; the prize was shared with Roger W...
were rejected because of political differences. On April 2, 2004,
Dr. John MarburgerDr. John Harmen Marburger, III is an American physicist who was the Science Advisor to the President and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the administration of President George W. Bush.-Biography:...
, 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 MacDonaldJulie A. MacDonald was a deputy assistant secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks at the United States Department of the Interior...
, systematically tampered with scientific data in an effort to undermine the protection of
endangered speciesAn endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters. Also it could mean that due to deforestation there may be a lack of food and/or water...
and the
Endangered Species ActThe Endangered Species Act of 1973 is the most wide-ranging of the dozens of United States environmental laws passed in the 1970s...
.
On December 11, 2006, the UCS issued a statement signed by 10,600 leading scientists including
Nobel laureatesThe Nobel Prize is a Sweden-based international monetary prize. The award was established by the 1895 will and estate of Swedish chemist and inventor Alfred Nobel. It was first awarded in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace in 1901...
. The statement calls for the restoration of scientific integrity to federal policy-making. The announcement came as the group that documents suspected censorship and political interference in federal science.
On May 23, 2007, the UCS cited a joint-study with MIT and issued a press release claiming that "any test of the
U.S. missile defense systemNational missile defense as a generic term is a type of missile defense: a military strategy and associated systems to shield an entire country against incoming Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles . The missiles could be intercepted by other missiles, or possibly by lasers...
that does not show whether an interceptor missile can distinguish between real warheads and decoys is irrelevant" and "contrived," and called for an end to the taxpayer-funded program until the system can show an ability to actually address "real world threats."
On June 21, 2007, a UCS report charged the EPA with political manipulation of scientific data to influence updated US
ozoneOzone or trioxygen is a simple triatomic molecule, consisting of three oxygen atoms. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic O
2. Ground-level ozone is an air pollutant with harmful effects on the respiratory systems of animals...
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."
In August 2008, the UCS purchased billboards at the airports in
Denver, ColoradoThe City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the state of Colorado, in the United States. Denver is a consolidated city-county located in the South Platte River Valley on the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
and Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota where the
DemocraticThe Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world. In the U.S...
and
RepublicanThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the Grand Old Party or the GOP, despite being the younger of the two major parties. In the U.S...
presidential conventions are to be held. The two nearly identical billboards showed the downtown areas of each convention city in a cross hairs, with the message that “when only one nuclear bomb could destroy a city” like Minneapolis or Denver, “we don’t need 6,000.” The name of Senator
John McCainJohn Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
or Senator
Barack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office, as well as the first president born in Hawaii...
follows, with this admonition: “It’s time to get serious about reducing the nuclear threat.” The billboards were removed after a complaint from
Northwest AirlinesNorthwest Airlines, Inc. , a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, Inc., is a major United States airline headquartered in Eagan, Minnesota, near Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport...
, the official airline of the Republican convention. The UCS has accused Northwest, whose headquarters are in
MinnesotaMinnesota is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.2 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the...
, of “taking on a new role as censor” and of having acted because it regarded the Minneapolis advertisement as “scary” and “anti-McCain.”
Criticism
Physicists Gerald E. Marsh and George S. Stanford have criticized the UCS for opposing a United States-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."
CapitalismCapitalism is an economic and social system in which the means of production are privately controlled; labor, goods and capital are traded in a market; profits are distributed to owners or invested in technologies and industries; and wages are paid to labor...
and
free marketA free market describes a market without economic intervention and regulation by government except to regulate against force or fraud. The terminology is used by economists and in popular culture. A free market requires protection of property rights, but no regulation, no subsidization, no single...
-advocacy groups have also criticized the UCS for its stance on environmental and other regulatory issues. TimesWatch.org, a project of
Media Research CenterThe Media Research Center is a conservative content analysis organization based in Alexandria, Virginia, founded in 1987 by L. Brent Bozell III...
(MRC), has called the UCS an "unlabeled left-wing activist group". L. Brent Bozell, founder of the MRC, which catalogs what it asserts is liberal bias in the United States
mass mediaMass media denotes a section of the media specifically designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. The term was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. However, some forms of mass media such...
, 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 is nothing of the sort."
Capital Research CenterCapital Research Center is a conservative non-profit organization that was founded in 1984 by Willa Johnson "to study non-profit organizations, with a special focus on reviving the American traditions of charity, philanthropy, and voluntarism." The group opposes the growth of government-welfare...
, a conservative non-profit that studies left-political organizations, criticized the UCS as having "policy positions that are predictably those of a far-left pressure group".
In a 2005 article for
Jewish World ReviewJewish World Review is free, online magazine updated Monday through Friday , which seeks to appeal to "people of faith and those interested in learning more about contemporary Judaism from Jews who take their religion seriously." It carries informational articles related to Judaism, dozens of...
, consumer reporter, author, and co-anchor for the television
newsmagazineA newsmagazine, also spelled news magazine, is usually a weekly magazine featuring articles or segments on current events. News magazines generally go more in-depth into stories than newspapers or television news, trying to give the reader an understanding of the context surrounding important...
20/2020/20 is an American "television newsmagazine", , broadcast on ABC since June 6, 1978. Created by ABC News executive Roone Arledge, the show was designed similarly to CBS's 60 Minutes but focuses more on human interest stories than international and political subjects...
John StosselJohn F. Stossel is a consumer reporter, investigative journalist, author, libertarian columnist, and former co-anchor for the ABC News show 20/20. Stossel began his journalism career as a researcher for KGW-TV and later became a consumer reporter at WCBS-TV in New York City before joining ABC News...
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."
In a 2009 article,
Ronald BaileyRonald Bailey is the science editor for Reason magazine. He was born in San Antonio, Texas and raised in Washington County, Virginia, and attended the University of Virginia, where he earned a B.A. in philosophy and economics in 1976...
accuses UCS of placing ideology over science, due to their stance on farming with genetically modified crops.
In a piece written by Byron Spice, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette refers to the UCS as an activist group generally regarded as liberal.
A NewsMax.com article points out that the UCS receives substantial donations from liberal-leaning foundations.
Publications
External links