The Bush administration accused of manipulating science
Sciences, Misc. (posted at 6:04 PM by Philippe Martin)
Last week, the Union of Concerned Scientists (an independent nonprofit alliance of more than 100,000 concerned citizens and scientists that includes twenty Nobel Prize Laureates) has released a report on the misuse of science and scientific process by the Bush Administration for political purposes (657KB PDF).
Some examples (from an interview given to the French newspaper Liberation by Kurt Gottfried, president of the UCS):
Last spring, a report from the EPA (the Enviromental Protection Agency) had a chapter about the possible impact of global warming on mankind. The Bush administration asked the agency to rewrite that chapter, dropping some scientific data and references to another report from the American Academy of Sciences, and replacing it with a report coming from people close to the oil industry. The EPA preferred to drop the whole chapter.
A comity from the health department gives estimates of the maximum levels of lead (coming mainly from paint) that should be found in children blood. For thirty years, these limits were regularly taken down and one would expect that to continue. But the Bush administration chose to remove some highly qualified neurologists and medical experts from that comity and to replace them with people close to the industry.
A biologist working for the agriculture department found out that some pig farms were releasing into the environment bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. He was forbidden to publish his findings and finally resigned from his position.
This is a very serious issue that can affect the whole world, not only the U.S.A. Ask the people from Patagonia who live under the ozone hole six months a year, and who can't get exposed to the sun without protection because of extremely high risks of skin cancer!
You can act about it!
It's also discussed on Kuro5hin.org
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