Interesting memo from the White House on science and climate collaboration with the UK

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But the words “medal, dinner, and Royal Society” seem to be missing. I suppose Obama just doesn’t see the need to acknowledge them at all.

*From:* White House Press Office [mailto:noreply@messages.whitehouse.gov]

*Sent:* Wednesday, May 25, 2011 9:46 AM

*To:* xxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx

*Subject:* Joint Fact Sheet: U.S.-UK Higher Education, Science, and

Innovation Collaboration

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

___________________________________________________________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 25, 2011

* *

*Joint Fact Sheet: U.S.-UK **Higher Education, Science, and Innovation

Collaboration*

* *

Prime Minister Cameron and President Obama agree that science and

higher education are the foundation stones of their two nations’ 21^st

century economies and that the UK and U.S. have a responsibility to

further their global leadership roles in these essential fields. The

U.S. funds approximately one-third of the world’s scientific research

and the UK is first among G-8 countries in scientific publications and

citations as a fraction of GDP.  In higher education, the U.S. and UK

are home to the world’s ten highest ranking universities.

Recognizing the great potential for productive cooperation in these

domains, the Prime Minister and President reaffirmed during the State

visit their mutual commitment to strong collaboration in science and

higher education and agreed to work to increase the number of joint

endeavours among individuals in cutting-edge laboratories,

universities, scientific societies, think tanks, government agencies

to develop human capital and ensure a strong and agile knowledge base.

They expressed particular support for cooperation in fields that will

create jobs and generate new economic opportunities in both countries

while tackling some of the most pressing global challenges facing the

world today. The leaders also expressed a determination to maintain

research excellence that leads to economic growth and job creation.

The UK and the U.S. are world-leading knowledge economies and enjoy

the most productive bilateral higher education relationship in the

world, with each country being the other’s top destination for

overseas study—a partnership worth more than $1 billion annually.  The

Prime Minister and President welcomed the forthcoming meeting of the

UK-U.S. Higher Education Policy Forum.  They also encouraged further

strengthening of institutional higher education links including

international internships and other modes of mutual mobility for

students and faculty members—between the U.S. and UK and in

cooperation with other global partners—to better equip American and

British students with the skills needed to succeed in and bolster the

global economy.

The leaders welcomed in particular the growing partnership between the

UK Meteorological Office (Met Office) and the U.S. National Oceanic

and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service,

codified with the signing of an historic Memorandum of Agreement in

February 2011. This agreement provides for a coordinated U.S.-UK

partnership in the delivery of space weather alerts to help provide

critical infrastructure protection around the globe. The two

governments announced today that they will embark together on an

ambitious program to create the world’s first combined space weather

model capable of forecasting terrestrial weather with great accuracy

and also indicating where, when, and for how long space weather

effects will persist in our upper atmosphere and whether these

anomalies are likely to disrupt and degrade GPS-enabled positioning,

navigation, and timing capabilities.

* *

In addition, the leaders announced a package of significant ongoing

and future activities intended to deepen their partnership and

commitment to meeting global challenges in the following areas: Space

Science and Exploration, Clean Energy and Climate Science, Food

Security, Health and Wellbeing, Innovation and Growth. Each of these

is detailed on the corresponding Joint Statement Addendum on Higher

Education, Science, and Innovation Collaboration.

###

* *

* *

*/Addendum on Higher Education, Science, and Innovation Collaboration/*

* *

The Prime Minister and President highlighted the long and

distinguished tradition of bilateral collaboration in science and

innovation, noting that some 30 percent of the UK’s internationally

co-authored papers are with US partners and those papers produce an

impact that is 50 percent higher than the UK research-base average.

The leaders expressed their determination to maintain research

excellence that leads to economic growth and job creation and asked

their respective science advisers to advance strategic discussions on

areas of mutual interest while also encouraging closer ties between

the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)

and the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology (CST). The

leaders also agreed to work together in several specific research

areas including:

* *

*Innovation, Jobs, and Growth:  *The U.S. and the UK are two of the

world’s most active investors in venture capital. The leaders agreed

to work together to ensure that innovative, high-growth businesses

have access to venture capital to fund their growth and create highly

skilled jobs. The Prime Minister and President also noted their

respective countries’ achievements in attracting research and

development investment from overseas.  They welcomed the decision by

Johnson & Johnson’s Corporate Office of Science and Technology and its

company Janssen to partner with six leading British Universities to

undertake cutting edge neuroscience research.

*Space Science and Exploration: *The Prime Minister and President

noted that the U.S. and the UK have enjoyed fruitful bilateral

cooperation in earth and space science and look forward to new

initiatives in these areas and in space exploration.  The leaders also

acknowledged the significant contributions to understanding our own

planet and noted the UK’s important contributions, through the

European Space Agency and in collaborations with the U.S., relating to

Mars exploration, astronomy, and space physics.

*Terrestrial and Space Weather:  *In addition to the collaborations

detailed above, the Met Office and NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction

Center will establish a second 24/7 space weather forecast office to

complement and coordinate the dissemination of actionable space

weather information. At this years’ World Meteorological Congress, the

two countries have agreed to work together with other international

partners to implement a fully operational global space weather warning

system. This close engagement will reflect the increasingly

international nature of space whilst respecting our separate national

priorities.

*Health and Wellbeing: *The two leaders endorsed collaboration between

world-class longitudinal studies in the U.S. and UK, with the

potential to transform our understanding of issues such as childhood

obesity, cancer, aging, and emotional wellbeing. The President and PM

Cameron also welcomed the involvement of the Economic and Social

Research Council in partnership with the National Institute on Aging

at the National Institutes of Health in the development of a U.S.

National Research Council Panel on Measuring Subjective Wellbeing,

which has the potential to generate new insights that will directly

inform social and economic policies. The two leaders also noted the

new programme of joint research on the ecology of infectious diseases.

* *

*Clean Energy and Climate Science: *The two leaders agreed on the

importance of continued collaboration and concerted international

effort in clean energy and climate science.  They expressed their

strong support for the next Clean Energy Ministerial, which will take

place in London in 2012. They endorsed the announcement of UK

co-funding of the National Science Foundation’s Partnerships for

International Research and Education program in the area of

Sustainable Materials for Energy, agreeing that sustainability should

be a key consideration when making choices among competing energy

technology options. The U.S., through its Department of Agriculture

(USDA), will continue working with the UK as a part of the Global

Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases to address

mitigation of greenhouse gases from croplands, livestock production

systems, and paddy rice, while enhancing food security.  In addition,

the UK and U.S. entities are engaging African and Asian developing

countries in the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement

Project to better understand the implications of climate change on

food production and food security around the world and to develop

adaption strategies.  They emphasized the importance of data sharing

and open science data policies that support climate research and

modelling.

###

—–

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The White House · 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW · Washington DC 20500 ·

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Bloke down the pub
May 27, 2011 3:15 am

As Ford would have said, ‘Mostly harmless’

May 27, 2011 3:38 am

“They emphasized the importance of data sharing
and open science data policies that support climate research and
modelling”.
Well, whoopee doo! The Royal Society honcho Paul Nurse must be very angry with them; data sharing and open science data policies are the last thing he wants to see:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/05/26/nursing-their-wounds-with-salt/
Somehow, I don’t think the US and UK leaders’ bilateral declaration will persuade Nursey to pull his horns in..

May 27, 2011 3:39 am

If science is to be the cornerstone of our two democracies then they should start to look at science not the alarmist claptrap we read daily from both governments and government friendly media.
We will both go down together if this climate alarmism and climate mitigation by reduction of greenhouse gasses continues. The climate will do what it always does. CHANGES.

tallbloke
May 27, 2011 3:58 am

The U.S., through its Department of Agriculture
(USDA), will continue working with the UK as a part of the Global
Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases to address
mitigation of greenhouse gases from croplands, livestock production
systems, and paddy rice, while enhancing food security. In addition,
the UK and U.S. entities are engaging African and Asian developing
countries in the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement
Project to better understand the implications of climate change on
food production and food security around the world and to develop
adaption strategies.

Interesting:
* No mention of industrial emission of GHG’s at all.
* Mention of mitigation but also “adaption strategies” and “food security”.
* Devolution of responsibility to USDA.
Do I detect the winds of policy change and the replacement of hand wringing by hand washing?

Jessie
May 27, 2011 4:26 am

This is welcome news.
It is correct that UK and US are world leading knowledge economies. As should be European and Asian nations. Latin America also another, in mineral extraction, agri/aquaculture, education and health.
UK and US, having developed law and justice AND political economies that serve the development of their peoples, are right to have this agreement.
Those working in science, should be proud of their endeavours and the history which allows them to contribute, not only to their own nation, but for what may be applied for the benefit of many, many others.
The issue is ‘SCIENCE’ and should NEVER be the marketing or politicisation of science, conducted poorly or fraudulently.
It is the application of science that the UK and US need to cogently agree upon, and this is is demonstrated by both their histories and development.

Gaelan Clark
May 27, 2011 4:31 am

The climate science section reads fair as they indicated no direction–climate change is what they said and studying the effects of a changing climate on agricultural development does not seem to be a bad thing.
They included no language on warming.
Since they did talk about openness and data sharing I would like to know where Obama stands on the UVA litigation and on the Climategate coverup of scientists acting self-interestedly in hiding data and forcing peer review into pal review where no pals get published.

David, UK
May 27, 2011 4:37 am

“Prime Minister Cameron and President Obama agree that science and
higher education are the foundation stones of their two nations’ 21st
century economies…”

Of course they mean government-sponsored science and education. But that aside, they now want to us to regard these things as our “foundation stones?” Sounds like Orwellian bullshit to me. What happened to our previous “foundation stones” of freedom and democracy?

Steve from rockwood
May 27, 2011 5:11 am

Obama is not a climate scientist but he knows which way the wind is blowing.

May 27, 2011 5:39 am

The point is, the leaders of both nations are scientifically misinformed, thus misdirected in their thinking, and now planning long-term programs and great advances on the basis of fundamentally wrong science. This is a recipe, not for progress, but for accelerating the current national scientific decline.

Pull My Finger
May 27, 2011 5:48 am

Now this is one tourtured statistic!

UK is first among G-8 countries in scientific publications and
citations as a fraction of GDP.

bruce
May 27, 2011 5:54 am

Tallbloke is probably correct. There may be recognition here that increased plant food (AKA CO2) is actually good for plants (after 25 y and USD’s spent in the 11th-12th order of magnitude).

Joe V
May 27, 2011 5:59 am

It’s still tax payers money & dependence on the tax payer funded merrygoround of tax payer funded politicians handing out tax payers money to enthralled institutions, keeping us all hostage to the academic & political gravy train of which Eisenhower cautioned (in not so many words). But interesting that the vehicle of AGW as a justification seems to have had it’s day.

Tom E.
May 27, 2011 6:01 am

The sad part is, as I read that all I could think of is the 2 countries agreeing to spend even more money neither of them have.
And just because they do not overtly mention AGW, does not mean they still are not throwing lots of money towards it.

Jeremy
May 27, 2011 6:03 am

Lest we forget Obama killed the space program…so exactly what all this commitment is about who knows?

dave ward
May 27, 2011 6:06 am

“To address mitigation of greenhouse gases from croplands, and paddy rice, while enhancing food security.”
“greenhouse gases” are the food of croplands and rice paddies, so how does “mitigating” them enhance food security?

Wiglaf
May 27, 2011 6:15 am

Of course, any time something is considered a public good and thus needs public funding, then there is politicisation. You cannot separate the two when the money is one. It’s a myth that science is a public good. It’s not necessary for government to fund this. Government money spent on science takes away from private money spent on science, research, and development.

Doug in Seattle
May 27, 2011 6:15 am

Mostly blather, I’d say.

Edim
May 27, 2011 6:23 am

“Do I detect the winds of policy change and the replacement of hand wringing by hand washing?”
Yes, you do. To paraphrase Thomas Gold:
The herd will swing around, but it will still be a firm and arrogant herd.
http://amasci.com/freenrg/newidea1.html

H.R.
May 27, 2011 6:24 am

“[…] The leaders welcomed in particular the growing partnership between the
UK Meteorological Office (Met Office) and the U.S. National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service, […]”

Aha! Proof of a conspiracy. ;o)

Justthinkin
May 27, 2011 7:31 am

Leading economies? Leading what? How to screw up and then steal money from your citizens? That whole article was such crap.

Olen
May 27, 2011 7:31 am

It is a laundry list of a laundry list of a socialist dream and probably illegal.
The federal government has wrecked havoc on our public educational system and now they intend to advance science by edict no doubt.

May 27, 2011 7:39 am

Anybody checked Romm’s blood pressure yet?

Doug Proctor
May 27, 2011 7:55 am

Nothing that can’t be reversed later, nothing that causes changes to the status quo. Warm hugs all around.
Exactly how we want our political leaders to be.

Stephen Harper
May 27, 2011 8:00 am

“In addition, the UK and U.S. entities are engaging African and Asian developing
countries in the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement
Project to better understand the implications of climate change on
food production and food security around the world and to develop
adaption strategies.”
Personally, I never trust anyone (or anything they write) when they spell the word “adaptation” as “adaption”. Junk words, junk science, junk sentiments.

TomRude
May 27, 2011 8:04 am

Deep Climate will take his guitar back on the road…

May 27, 2011 8:20 am

H.R. says:
May 27, 2011 at 6:24 am
“[…] The leaders welcomed in particular the growing partnership between the
UK Meteorological Office (Met Office) and the U.S. National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service, […]“
Aha! Proof of a conspiracy. ;o)
More like the blind leading the blind! :o)

DRE
May 27, 2011 8:32 am

Maybe nobody at the White House knows what the Royal Society is.

DJ
May 27, 2011 8:57 am

Obama apparently knows he can do more for climate playing ping-pong with his homies than meeting with the Royal Society.
In Obama’s case, that just might be true.

ShrNfr
May 27, 2011 10:06 am

Extensive cooperation on the effects of global climate strange (sic) on the flight of ping pong balls will be a priority in this effort.

Martin Brumby
May 27, 2011 11:34 am

Although the BBC and others in the UK are going into overdrive trying to portray Obarmy as a great “Statesman”, I’m very far from being pursuaded.
But his political antennae (or at least, his advisors’ antennae) are sufficiently acute to avoid hobnobbing with the egregious Paul Nurse and his gang. (And neither Cameron nor Obama really care two hoots about science, providing the likes of Nurse keep on giving them an alibi for exponentially increasing taxes!)
Compare and contrast with Prince Chuckles who scurried off to the CRU within days of Climategate going viral, so he could “give his support” to the crooks and incompetents who work there.

jorgekafkazar
May 27, 2011 11:56 am

“The U.S., through its Department of Agriculture (USDA), will continue working with the UK as a part of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases to address mitigation of greenhouse gases from croplands, livestock production systems, and paddy rice, while enhancing food security. ”
In other words, Obama is going to loot the USDA budget to send taxpayer funds to the UK, which has already spent too much propping up its shaky AGW myth.

Mac the Knife
May 27, 2011 12:01 pm

*Subject:* Joint Fact Sheet:
U.S.-UK Higher Education, Science, and Innovation Collaboration
THE WHITE HOUSE
Executive Summary: Obama fiddles, while US burns…..*
*see “Fall Of The Roman Empire” for historical parallels.

roger
May 27, 2011 1:01 pm

Amazing article in The Guardian today, although from the postings on the online resource, it would appear that the sad pinkos that read it are not yet ready to accept apostasy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/26/bravo-for-the-nimbys-wind-power

John Silver
May 27, 2011 1:25 pm

Sorry to rain on your parade, with “science” they mean “post-normal science”, not science.

Arno Arrak
May 27, 2011 2:22 pm

I am for cooperation in science and in education but I am not for promoting pseudoscience. And pseudoscience comes in under the innocuous heading of “clean energy and climate science.“ The entire clean energy field is intended to support efforts to head off that “dangerous global warming“ predicted by the pseudoscience of global warming. By clean they mean not releasing carbon dioxide, and very cleverly the wording fails to mention this trace gas by name. This major research effort would not be required at all if that warming is not headed for us, and it isn’t. Predictions of warming all come from computer simulations that assume two things: that adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere creates an enhanced greenhouse effect and that water vapor in the atmosphere increases that greenhouse effect by positive feedback. The evidence, however, indicates that water vapor feedback effect is negative, not positive. But there is worse news for them from Ferenc Miskolczi, a Hungarian scientist. He used NOAA weather balloon database that goes back to 1948 and determined that the transparency of the atmosphere in the infrared where carbon dioxide absorbs did not change for the last 61 years. At the same time the amount of carbon dioxide in the air increased by 21.6 percent. This means that the greenhouse absorption signature of this added carbon dioxide is entirely missing. No absorption, no greenhouse effect, case closed. But model-makers have been putting this non-existent greenhouse effect into their computers to get these dangerous warming predictions. If you put a non-existent greenhouse effect into your computer you are putting garbage into your computer. Which makes its output also garbage. Or GIGO as they say. Super-GIGO actually because it comes from supercomputers they cheated out of Uncle Sam by scare stories. But what about all that global warming we are supposed to be living in? Actually, satellites that have been measuring global temperature since 1979 cannot see any of it. The only real warming they have detected is a short spurt that started in 1998, in four years raised global temperature by a third of a degree, and then stopped. It was oceanic, not greenhouse. It, and not the greenhouse effect, is the cause of the very warm first decade of our century. The satellite temperature curve differs from those put out by NASA, NOAA, and the Met Office. One important difference is in the eighties and nineties where these three curves show steady warming while satellites see the temperature just oscillate, up and down by half a degree for twenty years but not rise until 1998. I have compared all three curves with the satellite curve and determined that they have all been tampered with. It would have been hard to understand this even a year ago but now it all fits neatly together: satellites cannot see anthropogenic warming and Miskolczi explains why this must be so. The bottom line: mitigation efforts and attempts to produce clean energy are all for nothing and money spent on these projects is a total and irresponsible waste. For more on the real state of climate read :What Warming?“ available on Amazon.

mikemUK
May 27, 2011 2:25 pm

DRE says, @ 8.32am
I’d love you to be right about that!
Maybe they actually thought Royal Society referred to having lunch with the Queen – too good to be true, I fear.

Myrrh
May 27, 2011 5:37 pm

The Prime Minister and President also noted their respective countries’ achievements in attracting research and development investment from overseas. They welcomed the decision by Johnson & Johnson’s Corporate Office of Science and Technology and its company Janssen to partner with six leading British Universities to undertake cutting edge neuroscience research.

Janssen’s cutting edge neuroscience research in the U.S. http://bipolarsoupkitchen-stephany.blogspot.com/2010/10/youth-in-juvenile-detention.html

Amino Acids in Meteorites
May 27, 2011 8:58 pm

Global warming policies and economic growth/job creation are mutually exclusive.

Keith Minto
May 28, 2011 12:48 am

“I want to take this opportunity to announce a joint program with Prime Minister Cameron to advance science forward in this the 21st Century. Too often conflicts have arisen between scientists because of poor data. This can result in poor and flawed policy advise given to Governments. Today, an agreement between our heads of Government will see the establishment of standardised, accurate and verifiable temperature , precipitation and atmospheric pressure stations between our two countries. These stations will record data unaffected by urban encroachment or local factors that have plagued the records over both our countries over the preceding century. We have declared that the data will be available, untouched, for all to see and process. For far too long we all have been ignorant of the scientific knowledge that is out there and is readily available by fine, hard working scientists that can be reached by the internet. For too long these people, world wide, have been ignored, even derided for holding a contrary view. Let us welcome these people into the fold to help design and maintain a constant surveillance of our record keeping and start the long journey to accurate, reliable , repeatable temperature data. We would like to say sorry for the state or our current records, but let us start, from today, this new path to our scientific future.”

We can only dream………

Keith Minto
May 28, 2011 1:38 am

I have since learned that the name of this joint program was dropped from the final draft. Not sure why, it is to called……
Scientific Knowledge Enabling Protocol To Improve Climate Science.

Myrrh
May 28, 2011 3:04 am

We can only dream..
“I want to take this opportunity to announce a joint program with Prime Minister Cameron to advance science and higher education forward in this the 21st Century. To restore to the people of the U.S their dignity and autonomy under their Constitutional rights and to outlaw the usurpation of their money by the Corporate Banking cartel holding them in thralldom by creating money out of debt, out of nothing, to their own aggrandisement and the slavery of the people, and concurrently, introduce the principles of the cleaned-up version to the British serfs, at present owned by the Corporation U.K.”

Brian H
May 29, 2011 1:02 am

Stephen Harper says:
May 27, 2011 at 8:00 am
“adaption”

Yeah, and a commenter’s “wrecked havoc” (vs. “wreaked”). If it sounds about right, throw it in there. Blech. >:(

jorgekafkazar says:
May 27, 2011 at 11:56 am

In other words, Obama is going to loot the USDA budget to send taxpayer funds to the UK, which has already spent too much propping up its shaky AGW myth.

Yeah, the UK is going to economically resemble a war-ravaged disaster if it actually implements current government policy. I wonder if O wants the US to ameliorate, mitigate, or emulate that …