The National Academies of the United States

The National Academies are funded by the United States to address critical national issues and give advice to the federal government and the public.

Four organizations comprise the Academies: the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council.

There is considerable debate as to how objective (or partisan) the academies are, and in particular as to how accurately their scientific reports have been reported in the press. MIT atmosphere scientist Richard Lindzen, PhD., has taken CNN's Michelle Mitchell to task for reversing the key conclusion of the NAS report on global warming:

* Our primary conclusion was that despite some knowledge and agreement, the science is by no means settled. ... I cannot stress this enough—we are not in a position to confidently attribute past climate change to carbon dioxide or to forecast what the climate will be in the future. [1]

## Sources[edit]

http://www.nationalacademies.org/about/