AIBS Writes to EPA Administrator Pruitt about Red Team/Blue Team Climate Exercise

AIBS and several of its member societies recently joined with other scientific organizations to send a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt expressing concerns about the agency’s approach on climate science. The EPA is moving forward with a plan to create a “red team/blue team” exercise to review what is known about climate change. The concept comes from military analysis, where a red team criticizes the current consensus view and a blue team rebuts that critique. These exercises have their origin in creating a robust and resilient military. By attacking the system, the red team identifies weaknesses. The blue team’s role is to improve the system before the exercise is run again. As the author of a recent article noted, “It’s a great way to help figure what do to [to improve a system]… It’s not necessarily suited to determining what’s true, scientifically speaking.” The authors of the letter pushed back on the notion that climate science is not regularly reviewed. “We write to remind you of the ongoing research, testing, evaluations, and debates that happen on a regular basis in every scientific discipline,” society leaders wrote. “The peer review process itself is a constant means of scientists putting forth research results, getting challenged, and revising them based on evidence. Indeed, science is a multi-dimensional, competitive ‘red team/blue tea...
Source: Public Policy Reports - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: news