May 13, 2025

Joseph S. Francisco, PhD, AAAS Board Chair

Theresa A. Maldonado, PhD, PE, AAAS President

Sudip S. Parikh, PhD, AAAS Chief Executive Officer and Executive Publisher, Science Journals

Re:  AAAS Climate Change Public Policy Statement

Dear Drs. Francisco, Maldonado, and Parikh,

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the largest American multidisciplinary scientific society and a leading publisher of cutting-edge research through its Science family of journals. Your statements and publications contribute significantly to the scientific support for government, media, and corporate actions and should therefore be firmly based on the scientific method.

We are concerned about the validity of the currently posted AAAS policy statement on climate change “WHAT WE KNOW: THE REALITY, RISKS, AND RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE” (https://whatweknow.aaas.org/index.html). We do not consider this 2014 statement and its conclusions to be accurate or to be based on the scientific method. For instance, we strongly disagree with your claim that “about 97% of climate experts have concluded that human-caused climate change is happening.” The “97% consensus” claim has been repeatedly discredited (https://co2coalition.org/2021/10/31/97-consensus-what-consensus/). Also, we strongly disagree with the concluding paragraph of “WHAT WE KNOW”: “In summary, responding effectively to the challenge of climate change requires a full understanding that there is now a high degree of agreement among climate scien­tists about the fact that climate change is happening now, because of human activities, and that the risks—includ­ing the possibility of abrupt and disruptive changes—will increase the longer greenhouse gas emissions continue.”

WHAT WE KNOW needs to remove several clear errors and include corrections, edits, and better references. These changes then need to be reflected in your 2020 HOW WE RESPOND Report (https://howwerespond.aaas.org/report.html). Both WHAT WE KNOW and HOW WE RESPOND need to address the strong evidence of the benefits of the greenhouse gases associated with CO2 contained, for example, in our Executive Director’s 2024 book “A Very Convenient Warming” (https://convenientwarming.com/).  Also, since AAAS President Maldonado has been leading the $100M California Climate Action Initiative, AAAS needs to address the extensive evidence of “NO Climate Crisis in California” contained in our 2024 letter to the California Air Resources Board (https://co2coalition.org/publications/an-open-letter-to-the-california-air-resources-board/).

In order to facilitate a better understanding of climate change, greenhouse gases, and CO2, AAAS needs to support an open Red Team-Blue Team debate, similar to the proposed debate that was rejected in 2017 (https://www.science.org/content/article/trump-epa-eyes-former-obama-energy-official-lead-climate-science-face).  The debate should be held as soon as possible in Washington, DC and should involve experts from both the CO2 Coalition and the AAAS CLIMATE SCIENCE PANEL. To supplement this debate, AAAS should publish in Science a Point-Counterpoint on climate change written by the CO2 Coalition and the AAAS CLIMATE SCIENCE PANEL. AAAS and Science have never published a Point-Counterpoint on climate change.

We have strong evidence that dissenting voices are being suppressed by AAAS and Science regarding climate science and other contentious scientific issues relevant to public policy. This suppression is not consistent with the scientific method. It is instead a shameful situation that is more politics than science and it needs to be fixed. We are asking you to restore the scientific method to AAAS by having an open debate about climate change so that many diverse voices can be heard. Given the declining public trust in science and the currently proposed cutbacks in Federal funding for scientific research, our outreach to you deserves the highest priority. We trust that we all want to arrive at the truth. We believe that free-flowing conversations, in the spirit of the scientific method, will get us there.

Respectfully,

Members of the CO2 Coalition and AAAS

James E. Enstrom, PhD Physics, MPH, Retired UCLA Research Professor, AAAS Member, ACE Fellow

William Happer, PhD Prof of Physics Emeritus, Princeton U., NAS Member, AAAS Fellow

Dennis E. Hedke, MS Materials Science. Consulting Geophysicist, Hedke Geoscience, AAAS Member

Daniel W. Nebert, MD Prof Emeritus Environmental Science, U. Cincinnati, AAAS Fellow

1. Stanley Young, BS, MES, PhD Statistics and Genetics, CGStat CEO, AAAS Fellow, ASA Fellow

Additional Members of the CO2 Coalition

Jan L. Breslow, MD Prof Emeritus, Rockefeller U. Member National Academies of Sciences and Medicine

Sharon Camp, PhD Analytical Chemistry; BS Geology; Senior Education Advisor for CO2 Coalition

Roy Clark, PhD Chemical Physics, ACS member for 45 years

Maaneli Derakhshani, PhD Physics. Science Advisor for CO2 Coalition, Fellow of the John Bell Institute

Peter Etherington-Smith, BSc Geology, Oceanography, MSc Pet Eng; Coral Research, Int’l Oil & Gas

David Kirkham, MA Math, Geophysicist. Climate databases to explain climate changes

Andy May, BS Geology, Petrophysicist, Author and Writer

Ian McNaughton, BSc Physics. Nuclear Engineer and author on climate change

Francis Menton, JD Harvard, BA Econ/Math. Legal focus on tech cases. Writer on climate change

Graeme Phipps, BSc Geology and Geophysics. Director and Consultant to Energy Companies. Jersey, UK

Dr. Lars Schernikau, Energy Economist, Commodity Trader, Author

Thomas P. Sheahen, PhD Physics, Chairman, Science and Energy Policy Project (SEPP)

John Shewchuk, MS Meteorology, Certified Consulting Meteorologist. Advanced Weather Officer USAF

Frits Byron Soepyan, PhD Chemical Engineering, CO2 Coalition Science and Research Associate

William Walters, PhD Chemistry. ACS Member 64 years, 2001 Glenn Seaborg Awardee, Division Chair

Terence Winters, PhD Chemistry. Venture Capitalist and CEO. Emeritus ACS member for 57 years

Gregory Wrightstone, MS Geology, Executive Director of CO2Coalition

Ric Wiesemann, Founder and CEO of Epco CO2 Products, a commercial supplier of CO2

Gregory R. Wrightstone

Executive Director, CO2 Coalition

2677 Prosperity Avenue, Suite 300

Fairfax, VA 22031

(703) 540-4700

Download letter here: CO2C Letter to AAAS re Climate Change Signed 051325