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January 31, 2006
With us or against us
by Sylvia S Tognetti
I was going to follow-up on the last post with a few more comments about scientists taking policy positions but sometimes events and even scientists speak for themselves. So you have probably already seen or heard about the conflict between Jim Hansen, who directs the Goddard Institute for Space Studies at NASA, and the administration, through politically appointed officials in charge of public affairs, about whether or not he or any other government scientist are free to explain or express opinions about the policy implications of their scientific findings. So I'll be brief.
As Dr. Hansen pointed out, in an interview with the New York Times, "It would be irresponsible not to speak out, particularly because NASA's mission statement includes the phrase "to understand and protect our home planet." On the other hand, the job of politically appointed public affairs officers, is "to make the president look good" - according to comments made by the recently appointed George Deutsch to Leslie McCarthy, a public affairs officer at Goddard who is a career civil servant. Of course, as Hansen also points out, there is no paper trail of this - which, as Chris Mooney suggests, is probably deliberate.
So, as in the wiretapping case, what we have here is a president who is circumventing the laws of the United States that he is sworn to uphold. Bush could, of course, seek a change in the law so as to redefine NASA's mission - and admit that he gives higher priority to searching for water on Mars than to the health and welfare of Americans and other human beings, for which maintaining a habitable Earth is a prerequisite. And if he is successful, we would then be able to send him to Mars too. But if not, let the impeachment proceedings begin.
Desperate to hear someone take leadership and present a strategy for this actually happen, I went to hear Al Gore's speech a few weeks ago, live at Constitution Hall, and was not disappointed. Although the main focus of Gore's speech was on illegal eavesdropping on American citizens, his core message was about danger to the Constitution caused by the loss of checks and balances among the different branches of government. Well, Gore wouldn't be Gore if he didn't also make an example out of science and global warming - he also mentioned White House censorship of James Hansen, in making a case for why checks and balances are critical to getting good scientific and other information to be considered in policy decisions. Here I think he departed from prepared remarks when he explained that it is only because of checks on power that policy agendas must be supported with reasons, that are backed up by scientific evidence - and that different perspectives can be presented and challenged. This is normally done through the process of oversight hearings, which haven't happened for a long time. The oversight hearings that Gore himself used to conduct as a Senator were legendary for making world renowned experts feel as if they were presenting a dissertation defense. The point is, science is not and has never been policy neutral. What sets scientists and other experts apart is that they can make a case, and also defend it with the best available evidence - which is the only way that an informed decision can be made. Science for policy is driven by values, which are implicit in policy goals and in the framing of questions it asks - and Bush is either with us or against us.
I have been occupied the past few weeks - moving my office, changing computers and attending a conference and stuff - but my new years resolution is to post on a more regular basis - and I have several posts in the pipeline which include comments on the flurry of recent posts on climate models, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (for which I wrote much of the freshwater chapter in the finally released technical volume on policy responses), and some notes and observations from the 6th Annual conference of the National Council on Science, Policy and the Environment that I attended last week.
Posted by Sylvia S Tognetti at January 31, 2006 1:15 AM
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