[Vision2020] Union Of Concered Scientists Target Bush Misuse Of Science

[Ted Moffett]

http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/interference/scientists-signon-statement.html

On February 18, 2004, over 60 leading scientists–Nobel laureates, leading
medical experts, former federal agency directors, and university chairs and
presidents–signed the statement below, voicing their concern over the misuse
of science by the Bush administration.

For example, in support of the president's decision to avoid regulating
emissions that cause climate change, the administration has consistently
misrepresented the findings of the National Academy of Sciences, government
scientists, and the expert community at large. Thus in June 2003, the White
House demanded extensive changes in the treatment of climate change in a
major report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). To avoid issuing
a scientifically indefensible report, EPA officials eviscerated the
discussion of climate change and its consequences.

Across a broad range of policy areas, the administration has undermined the
quality and independence of the scientific advisory system and the morale of
the government's outstanding scientific personnel:

   - Highly qualified scientists have been dropped from advisory
   committees dealing with childhood lead poisoning, environmental and
   reproductive health, and drug abuse, while individuals associated with or
   working for industries subject to regulation have been appointed to these
   bodies.
   - Censorship and political oversight of government scientists is not
   restricted to the EPA, but has also occurred at the Departments of Health
   and Human Services, Agriculture, and Interior, when scientific findings are
   in conflict with the administration's policies or with the views of its
   political supporters.
   - The administration is supporting revisions to the Endangered Species
   Act that would greatly constrain scientific input into the process of
   identifying endangered species and critical habitats for their protection.
   - Existing scientific advisory committees to the Department of Energy
   on nuclear weapons, and to the State Department on arms control, have been
   disbanded.
   - In making the invalid claim that Iraq had sought to acquire aluminum
   tubes for uranium enrichment centrifuges, the administration disregarded the
   contrary assessment by experts at Livermore, Los Alamos and Oak Ridge
   National Laboratories.

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Ted Moffett
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