Some 10,000 US researchers have signed a statement protesting about political interference in the scientific process.
The statement, which includes the backing of 52 Nobel Laureates, demands a restoration of scientific integrity in government policy.
According to the American Union of Concerned Scientists, data is being misrepresented for political reasons.
It claims scientists working for federal agencies have been asked to change data to fit policy initiatives.
The Union has released an “A to Z” guide that it says documents dozens of recent allegations involving censorship and political interference in federal science, covering issues ranging from global warming to sex education.
Campaigners say that in recent years the White House has been able to censor the work of agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration because a Republican congress has been loath to stand up for scientific integrity.
Michael Halpern from the UCS said the statement of objection to political interference had been supported by researchers regardless of their political views.
“This science statement that has now been signed by the 10,000 scientists is signed by science advisers to both Republican and Democratic administrations dating back to President Eisenhower, stating that this is not business as usual and calling for this practice to stop,” he told BBC News.
Phew! That’s a lot of well-educated subversives. A number of university science departments must still be teaching ethics.
One of Hitler’s first targets were intellectuals and scientists that were unwilling to keep silent. Neo-cons are going to that extreme but they are trying to get to a similar goal by twisting or cencoring scientific results.
Once again more proof that the current regime is doing all it can to limit freedom of speach and of the press.
The current administration wants to control their propaganda with junk science. This can be demonstrated by the fact that they stand by their beliefs that global warming is not an issue. They are in bed with big business and the big polluters. When Cheney met with the energy secretary, and all the big wigs in the oil corporations to decide the nation’s energy policy back in 2001, this was part and parcel of the fact that the current administration is more concerned with corporate profits than people’s well being.
This is also why I call the current administration Bushco, Inc.
It’s amazing how the first two posters automatically assume that the only cuplrit is the Republicans. I for one do not hold my self to any ONE political party because I wouldn’t put it past anyone in DC whether Republican, Democrat, or Other to pull this kind of stunt. Most politicians in office are there for one reason and one reason only to watch their own butt. If you think otherwise then you aren’t paying attention.
Hawkeye666
Hitler wasn’t interested in “fudging” the numbers he got rid of -or forced out- German scientists because they were Jews (like Einstein). This isn’t the same thing but it could be argued that this is worse. The US is becoming a police state and that should scare the hell out of you, it is just happening more slowly than in Nazi Germany.
I wonder if this applies to global warming, the current king of all junk science? People need to realize than when the sun gets warmer, so does Earth. Hell, Mars is getting warmer, so explain how SUVs do that. Political interference has killed around 45 million children in Africa since Rachel Carson and the ban on DDT (which there is NO EVIDENCE that it has harmed anyone) by William Ruckelshaus. Not that liberals would care about children in Africa, after all they are black and the party of Bull Conner, Exalted Cyclops Robert Byrd (KKK-WV, the conscious of the Senate!) and George Wallace, not to mention slavery has never had a good record protecting blacks. Happy Green Holocaust Africa! Your children dying of malaria doesn’t matter, we feel better for banning DDT! Sleep well greenies, your body count has far surpassed Hitler and soon Stalin too.
Ron, do you actual believe the BS you are shoveling or are you just trolling?
Accept money from politicians for research, learn to deal with politics that come with it.
improbus: Can you back up your liberal fantasies or did my facts just intrude on your false utopia? Prove ANY of what I said is untrue. Real facts please, not some moonbat blog posts.
Ron,
You demand facts from others, but where are yours?
Just because you rant louder than him doesn’t make you more right.
This is great. Hope it goes through.
Very Simple:
“This international ban is supposed to have resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths according to Nicholas Kristof.[9] Popular author Michael Crichton states in his novel State of Fear:
Since the supposed ban, two million people a year have died unnecessarily from malaria, mostly children. The ban has caused more than fifty million needless deaths. Banning DDT killed more people than Hitler.[10]
[edited: comments guide, OT rant]
I agree with what you’re saying, Ron, but wikipedia isn’t a credible source for political debate.
Ron, how do you know I am a Liberal? Because I don’t agree with you? I am in fact a Libertarian not a Liberal. Look it up if you don’t know what that means. It is interesting that you only quote small parts of that article on DDT. Just the part that supports your position. The article also says:
Damn, John, why doesn’t this thing have a preview button? The quote said:
“However, DDT has never been banned for use against Malaria in the tropics. In many developing countries, spraying programmes (especially using DDT) were stopped due to concerns over safety and environmental effects, as well as constraint and incompetence (or corruption) in administrative, managerial and financial implementation. Such limited use of DDT has not become ineffective due to resistance in areas where it is used inside homes.”
I am not going to comment on the people who have been drinking that Right Wing kool-aid. They are under the influence of drugs, and there is nothing that will change their minds.
Ron’s posts remind me of the Sony Flog story above.
I know Wikipedia isn’t very credible, that is why I mention the EPA hearing transcripts, and you can also look at the WHO documents about the need for DDT in Africa, which I do not have time or space to go into here. I just used used Wikipedia as a quick starting point, and that is why I said that was just a 30 second search. Notice no one can cite facts to refute any of what I said. Typical of the left.
As for improbus, why don’t you look at the Cato Institute’s position on global warming? They are a REAL libertarian think tank. You are a liberal, why are you so afraid of that title? I am not afraid of being called a conservative.
I’ve been saying this for a long time. The government should have no power to regulate scientific research whatsoever unless there’s some Nazi-esque “let’s torture one twin to see if the other can feel it” crap going on. And that falls under the human rights issues, not scientific ones. Science regulates itself.
For additional outrage see global warming (my head is still spinning because the scientists, politicians, and normal people are so entangled that I can’t keep the issue straight anymore), stem cell research, evolution (is America the laughing stock of the world yet?), and so on and so forth. Funny, isn’t that just about every field of study that has political ramifications?
Oh, and don’t forget chemistry. We still have politicians convinced that the 3-oz liquid terrorists were going to carry concentrated hydrogen peroxide onto a plane in a plastic bottle.
Ron,
In all fairness, lets use an insecticide that actually kills the insects instead of their food, the birds. It is widely known in the pest control world that the mechanism in which DDT works is not directly on the insects themselves. It kills the birds which the mosquito’s eat. No birds, no mosquitoes. There are a range of chemicals which are better than DDT for actually controlling mosquito populations. Also they break up over time, and do not kill birds…
Never the less, chemical control of mosquitoes ceased, because it doesn’t work that well, regardless of what the petrochemical companies tell you…. The mosquitoes travel on the wind, and the very next time the wind blows, all your poisoning ceases to have effect, so you have to poison again…
Unless you think a massive air campaign of spraying dangerous chemicals is a good idea?
You have been hypnotised by extreme christ’o’fascists, and you don’t even know what the basic DDT issues are… All you can do is quote their psychotic talking points.
GregA, stop. Take a breath. Put down the Kool-aid. Allow me to educate you about DDT. DDT has potent insecticidal properties; it kills by opening sodium ion channels in insect neurons, causing the neuron to fire spontaneously. This leads to spasms and eventual death. It only kills birds in rigged lab tests (where not enough calcium was fed to the bird, guaranteeing thinner egg shells) and Rachel Carson’s mind. No one is advocating spraying DDT all over the place, just were mosquitoes breed. As for better pesticides, that’s great, but many African nations can’t afford them, and DDT is much cheaper.
You have been hypnotised by extreme christ’o’fascists, and you don’t even know what the basic DDT issues are… All you can do is quote their psychotic talking points.
I didn’t realize this was a religious issue, but I realize liberalism is a religion. And by the way, you have no idea what a fascist is.
Am I the only one in this tread with a clue?
Rons post should be removed because he directly plagerized from the wikipedia article on DDT.
And since you actually ready something about DDT, maybe you should point out that the article conclude that DDT is no longer effective? That there are other more effective pestacides? Or how about, there is no actual DDT ban?
“Rons post should be removed because he directly plagerized from the wikipedia article on DDT.” who is the fascist here greggy boy?
Try reading the British reports, the EPA reports and the WHO reports that say it is effective. Or try to learn the difference between a bird and a mosquito. I know its tough, but if you put your mind (ahem) to it you can.
Ron, what does global warming have to do with DDT? I should have known better than to feed the troll. jeez
26, nothing. But it’s another case of science being politicized beyond recognition, which is what these comments started out as and derailed into DDT.
Dear ron,
Do you know that there is a simpler method to kill mosquitoes??
Cheaper also…
AND all it does to other animals is give them diarea for a short time…
DO you know what it it??
Its called Soap.
Breaking the surface tenion on water makes it impossible for the to breath.
Sence Mosquitoes only live in standing water, along with other insects, spraying a small amopunt of SOAP on the surface is enough to kill millions.
Pedro, please be my guest and spray all the soap you want in Africa. With around 2,000,000 children dying a year I’m sure they would be greatful. Try getting that past the greenies.
ECA not pedro. My bad. Sorry. If soap works I’m all for for it. I just want to save the kids lives and not play politics with it.
“Am I the only one in this tread with a clue?”
I don’t know. Let’s see your shoes.
Ron is dead-on with the DDT issue. In the twenty years I’ve been working as an environmental engineer, I’ve observed that “environmental science” consists of 95% political BS and 5% of actual science. Imaging my dismay when I learned the American Medical Association was just another environmental group playing loose and fast with the facts.
Dioxin — “the most hazardous substance known to man?” Well, the “science” behind this statement was based upon a ground breaking, ’70s research study that raised the bar for toxicological studies. The techniques used by the researchers were highly praised and copied, and environmental groups used the study to begin their crusade against dioxin — completely ignoring the conclusion of the researchers that there was no link between dioxin and cancer. A sad example of how science is manipulated by those with a political agenda.
And then there is Global Warming — the politicizing of which has nearly destroyed the credibility of science. And I’m not talking about any subterfuge on the part of the Bush administration.
Ron,
It does work..
There is 1 draw back…soap breaks down quickly…Thats all…
But wouldnt it be easy to spray alittle Soap Every day then to spay somehting that means you cant EAT your crops for 6 months??
and guess what? Phosphate based soaps are GREAT fertilizer..
Hmmm, wonder why thet hasnt been said and done either…
MAYBE, we just want de-population in an over grown area??