(From the diaries -- Plutonium Page. Typical Bush administration stuff: if you don't like the facts, try to alter them, suppress them, etc.)
A report conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) found large numbers of scientists at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service reported political interference in their scientific determinations.
UCS More than one third of respondents positioned to make such recommendations (37 percent) have "been directed, for non-scientific reasons, to refrain from making findings that are protective" of marine life and nearly one in four (24 percent) of those conducting such work reported being "directed to inappropriately exclude or alter technical information from a NOAA Fisheries scientific document;"
The percentage of scientists that knew of cases of poltical interference at NOAA was even greater.
More than half of all respondents (53 percent) knew of cases where "commercial interests have inappropriately induced the reversal or withdrawal of scientific conclusions or decisions through political intervention;" and
More than half of the scientists (58 percent) knew of cases "where high-level U.S. Department of Commerce administrators and appointees have inappropriately altered NOAA Fisheries determinations." A substantial minority (42 percent) also cited incidents where members of Congress "inappropriately influenced NOAA Fisheries determinations."
The survey also reported that political intrusion had affected NOAA's ability to carry out its mandate to protect marine life. Scientists at NOAA have suffered an erosion of morale because of the political environment generated by Bush political appointees.
These results of this survey mirror UCS`s and PEER's survey of Fish and Wildlife scientists that found similar levels of political interference in scientifically based decision making.
Nearly half of all respondents whose work is related to endangered species scientific findings (44 percent) reported that they "have been directed, for non-scientific reasons, to refrain from making jeopardy or other findings that are protective of species." One in five agency scientists revealed they have been instructed to compromise their scientific integrity--reporting that they have been "directed to inappropriately exclude or alter technical information from a USFWS scientific document,"
such as a biological opinion.
UCS has produced a statement condemning the Bush's Adminstration systematic intrusion in the work of government scientists and the misuse of science in making policy decisions. Scientists can sign on to the statement.
Restoring Scientific Integrity in Policymaking
Bush should take his father's advice.
Science, like any field of endeavor, relies on freedom of inquiry; and one of the hallmarks of that freedom is objectivity. Now, more than ever, on issues ranging from climate change to AIDS research to genetic engineering to food additives, government relies on the impartial perspective of science for guidance.
President George H.W. Bush, April 23, 1990
But, Bush Jr. isn't that sort of guy.
Please check out my diary from yesterday: Action Alert: Repubs ramming Anti-Endangered Species Bill through House.
Fighting this bill is one of the ways we can express our outrage over the Adminstration's anti-science agenda.