SSI Accomplishments
SSI provides regular report backs on actions SSI members have taken, updates on legislation or comment periods, and other news about the SSI network. SSI members have participated in a number of activities that help to elevate the public and policy makers' understanding of the science behind global warming and biodiversity loss. Read the latest report backs and some of the major highlights from the last few years.
Report backs on SSI Accomplishments
June 19, 2008
January 22, 2008
March 1, 2007
November 17, 2006
August 16, 2006
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its Fourth Assessment [www.ipcc.ch] report this year. Summaries for the three working groups—Science, Impacts, and Mitigation—were released early in 2007 and the final Synthesis Report was released in November. To help amplify the findings of the three working groups, UCS held webinars and created PowerPoint presentations for members of the Sound Science Initiative, and developed publicly-accessible fact sheets. Thanks to the hundreds of SSI members who joined our web seminars, downloaded PowerPoint presentations and brochures, and took action to amplify the findings of this latest assessment. These materials are available for SSI members. This If you would like hard copies of the fact sheets, please contact ssi@ucsusa.org.
Biologists Letter on the Endangered Species Act
Nearly 6,000 scientists with biological expertise representing every state in the nation came together on the Letter to the U.S. Senate from Biologists Concerning Science in the Endangered Species Act. The letter highlights the importance of independent scientific principles that are critical to species conservation. The letter with the full complement of signatures was hand-delivered to each Senate office on March 8, 2006. In addition, several scientists personally delivered the letter and met with their senators and staff to discuss the importance of science and scientists to the Endangered Species Act. Complete coverage and a list of signatures
California Climate Education Day
In April 2005, nearly 40 scientists attended a press conference in Sacramento, CA, marking the release of a letter signed by nearly 500 California scientists with climate expertise, including 150 SSI members, urging Governor Schwarzenegger and California legislators to take immediate and aggressive steps to reduce the state’s heat-trapping gas emissions. The letter was also published as a full-page ad in the Sacramento Bee that day. (Visit www.climatechoices.org for complete coverage.) In conjunction with the letter, scientists participated in a Climate Education Day. Meeting with over 52 legislative offices, state agencies, and the governor’s office, teams of scientists and UCS staff hand-delivered the letter to targeted decision makers and talked about the projected impact of climate change in California as well as solutions.
Public Understanding of Climate Change
SSI leveraged moments of significant attention on climate change, such as the release of the movie The Day After Tomorrow and Michael Crichton’s thriller State of Fear to help the general public understand the causes of and solutions to climate change.
SSI members have promoted a variety of printed and web-based materials to hundreds of students, reporters, policy makers, and the general public to raise awareness of the potential consequences of climate change. Read the reports: Climate Change in the U.S Northeast; Confronting Climate Change in California; Confronting Climate Change in the Great Lakes Region; Confronting Climate Change in the Gulf Coast Region; Early Signs of Global Warming; and state invasion portfolios.
SSI continues to push for national and state policy makers to adopt mandatory reductions in heat-trapping emissions. In addition to a number of letters to the editor in local papers throughout the country, SSI members also engaged Congress through legislator meetings, phone calls, and email action alerts. In 2003, more than 1,000 scientists from across the nation signed the State of Climate Science letter outlining the consensus on the anthropogenic component to climate change.
Invasive Species
Raising awareness of the need to slow the introduction and spread of invasive species continues to be a high priority for SSI. Over the past year, SSI has written op-eds, met with legislators, and helped educate the public on the threat of invasive species. UCS participated in the sixth annual National Invasive Weeds Awareness Week (NIWAW). The Invasive Weed Awareness Coalition had briefings with key staff in the Departments of Agriculture and Interior, members of the Federal Interagency Committee for the Management of Noxious and Exotic Weeds (FICMNEW), and with several members of Congress and/or their staff.
SSI members generated a significant number of comments regarding an invasive weed known as Caulerpa during the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) comment period. Invasives scientists submitted comments on two petitions requesting the addition of either the whole genus Caulerpa or the entire species Caulerpa taxifolia to the APHIS list of noxious weeds.
