[3] A prolific writer, his interests include understanding the politicization of science; decision making under uncertainty; policy education for scientists in areas such as climate change, disaster mitigation, and world trade; and research on the governance of sports organizations, including FIFA and the NCAA.

Prior to his positions at CU-Boulder, from 1993 to 2001 he was a staff scientist[4] in the Environmental and Societal Impacts Group of the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

[16] In October 2016, in a hacked email disclosed by WikiLeaks,[17] Judd Legum states that a ThinkProgress blog was instrumental in his firing from the FiveThirtyEight website.

[21] 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.

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.

He believes that he was targeted due to his echoing of IPCC opinion that it is 'incorrect to associate the increasing costs of disasters with the emission of greenhouse gases'.