Watson, come here, I want to fire you

Angry at his predictions of global warming, the Bush administration and the energy industry strive to unseat a prominent scientist.

By Damien Cave

Apr 5, 2002 | "I don't think we know the solution to global warming yet, and I don't think we've got all the facts." -- George W. Bush, second presidential debate.

So far, President Bush has practiced the skepticism that he preaches. Along with creating an energy plan widely perceived to be dictated by the energy industry, he's done little to increase automobile fuel efficiency and has rejected the Kyoto Protocol -- an international attempt to reverse global warming by cutting down on fossil fuel use and its attendant carbon dioxide emissions.

The administration's attempt to oust Robert B. Watson from his post as the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) -- as first reported by the New York Times on April 2 -- thus comes as little surprise. Since taking up his unpaid post six years ago at the IPCC -- an international conglomeration of 2,500 scientists who study climate change -- Watson, a forceful and articulate speaker, has overseen a series of influential annual reports that connect climate change to man's activities. Watson also suffers from the Clinton taint, having spent the early '90s in the White House's office of Science and Policy.

Some members of the energy industry would also like Watson to stand down. In a letter that ExxonMobil included in a package of documents sent to the White House last year, Watson was accused of leaking drafts of IPCC reports in order to further his personal environmental agenda. The letter also asked, "Can Watson be replaced now at the request of the U.S.?"

The Bush administration didn't return calls for comment. ExxonMobil says that the letter was not written by anyone at the company. "It was taken from a fax of third-party materials," says Tom Cirigliano, a spokesman for ExxonMobil, who also said the company has no idea who actually wrote the letter. "None of the attachments were written by ExxonMobil. We have no position on Watson or anyone else who might head up the panel."

ExxonMobil's denial of authorship notwithstanding, according to environmentalists, the letter and the Bush administration's rejection of Watson represent a new apex of energy industry gall and influence.

"This campaign by ExxonMobil went far beyond 'Here are some people to fill empty spaces,'" says David Doniger, a policy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, which released copies to the press April 3 after obtaining the letter through a Freedom of Information Act request. "This was an attempt to remove people who are not part of the [American] political process. It's transparently an effort to disrupt the organization and destroy its effectiveness. It's just another window into the mostly secret relationship between the big energy companies, who are the puppeteers, and the administration, who does what they tell them."

Even without American support, Watson could still retain his position. The IPCC allows for nominations to come from any country, and Watson maintains a high level of support internationally, says Doniger. It's also possible for Watson to share the chairmanship with the only other serious candidate nominated so far, Rajendra K. Pachauri, an Indian engineer and economist.

Salon caught up with Dr. Watson in a Bonn hotel room after midnight to discuss global warming and the Bush administration freeze-out.

When and how did you find out that the Bush administration didn't support you?

I've been hearing over the last couple months that they were making a decision about whether to support me or not, and I've known that because other governments from around the world have been actually coming to the State Department to show support for me, and each time they've been in, the U.S. government's position was that they hadn't made a decision.

Until yesterday. They never told me in person; I was phoned by a number of people once the news came out. I still haven't been told officially and don't expect to be told officially.

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