Pielke's early work was on the
Space Shuttle program. In 1993 he argued that the shuttle was expensive and risky — that it was "probable" that another orbiter would be lost within 20–35 flights. Shortly before the loss of Columbia he warned that loss of another shuttle was only a matter of time. He has also been critical of the space station program. Pielke has also written extensively on
climate change policy. He has written that he accepts the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) view of the underlying science, stating, "The IPCC has concluded that greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activity are an important driver of changes in climate. And on this basis alone I am personally convinced that it makes sense to take action to limit greenhouse gas emissions." He also writes, (in contradiction of the findings of the IPCC 6th assessment report ) that "Any conceivable emissions reductions policies, even if successful, cannot have a perceptible impact on the climate for many decades", and from this he concludes that, "In coming decades the only policies that can effectively be used to manage the immediate effects of climate variability and change will be adaptive." On the issues of
hurricanes and climate change he has argued that the trend in increasing damage from hurricanes is primarily due to societal and economic factors (chiefly an increase in wealth density), rather than change in the frequency and intensity. A "Guide to Climate Skeptics" published by
Foreign Policy notes that Pielke's published views have led to him being considered by some a "denier" of
climate change and by others an "alarmist". In October 2016, in a
hacked email disclosed by
WikiLeaks,
Judd Legum states that a
ThinkProgress blog was instrumental in his firing from the
FiveThirtyEight website. In April 2015, Pielke joined with a group issuing
An Ecomodernist Manifesto. The other authors were: John Asafu-Adjaye, Linus Blomqvist,
Stewart Brand,
Barry Brook.
Ruth DeFries,
Erle Ellis, Christopher Foreman,
David Keith, Martin Lewis,
Mark Lynas,
Ted Nordhaus, Rachel Pritzker, Joyashree Roy, Mark Sagoff,
Michael Shellenberger,
Robert Stone, and Peter Teague. Pielke was named in a letter sent by Representative
Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) to institutions that employed scientists who had testified to Congress about climate change. The letter stated, "My colleagues and I cannot perform our duties if research or testimony provided to us is influenced by undisclosed financial relationships," and requested information including the sources and amounts of outside funding for those scientists who had testified. Pielke rebuked Grijalva's investigation into alleged financial influence on him by fossil fuel companies. "I have no funding, declared or undeclared, with any fossil fuel company or interest. I never have. Representative Grijalva knows this too, because when I have testified before the US Congress, I have disclosed my funding and possible conflicts of interest... the Congressman and his staff, along with compliant journalists, are busy characterizing me in public as a 'climate skeptic' opposed to action on climate change. This of course is a lie. I have written a book calling for a carbon tax, I have publicly supported President Obama’s proposed EPA carbon regulations, and I have just published another book strongly defending the scientific assessment of the IPCC with respect to disasters and climate change." Pielke stated in a blog post published after Grijalva began demanding Pielke's employer to disclose all of Pielke's personal correspondence (including draft letters) as it related to climate science. Pielke contends that Democratic members of Congress were motivated by political and partisan interests. He believes that he was targeted due to his view that it is 'incorrect to associate the increasing costs of disasters with the emission of greenhouse gases'. ==Publications==