Holdren v. Pielke, Jr.: A Case Study in Evidence, Policy, and Politics

Climate change has been a particular divisive political issue in the United States. A dispute about attribution of climate impacts between President Obama's science advisor John Holdren, and University of Colorado policy scientist Roger Pielke, Jr., provides a valuable lens for understanding why bringing science into policy is often a difficult and contested process, and how the very notion of “evidence-based policy” is itself an inherently political concept.