YOUR GOVERNMENT suppresses the science that doesn’t fit its religious, political and economic agenda, forcing present and future generations to pay a terrible price.
12/18/06: Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey are the latest to come under the Bush regime’s suppression and distortion of scientific research. It is standard procedure in all scientific fields to go through the process of peer review, whereby scientists subject their findings to review by their colleagues to determine if they are accurate before publication. But USGS scientists must now get their findings reviewed by agency supervisors before publication or public presentation. The Associated Press reported:
The new requirements state that the USGS’s communications office must be “alerted about information products containing high-visibility topics or topics of a policy-sensitive nature.”
The agency’s director, Mark Myers, and its communications office also must be told – prior to any submission for publication – “of findings or data that may be especially newsworthy, have an impact on government policy, or contradict previous public understanding to ensure that proper officials are notified and that communication strategies are developed.”
USGS research has already been forcibly changed by the political motivations of the Bush regime. When USGS scientists warned that oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would harm the Porcupine caribou herd in 2002, a week after the warning a new report was issued contradicting the original conclusion. When the Interior Department attempted to remove a jumping mouse from the endangered species list earlier this year to make way for developers wanting to use grasslands in Colorado and Wyoming, it was a USGS scientist who discovered the inaccuracies of the Interior Department’s findings.
These new rules are a clear attempt by the Bush regime to prevent scientific fact from getting in the way of its agenda. Already, NASA scientists have been suppressed and had their findings distorted about the reality of global warming. Earlier this month, the EPA abruptly announced it was closing three of its libraries that contain unique documents on crucial issues such as the health risks caused by pollution.
The Associated Press reported:
Some agency scientists, who until now have felt free from any political interference, worry that the objectivity of their work could be compromised.
“I feel as though we’ve got someone looking over our shoulder at every damn thing we do. And to me that’s a very scary thing. I worry that it borders on censorship,” said Jim Estes, an internationally recognized marine biologist in the USGS field station at Santa Cruz, Calif.
“The explanation was that this was intended to ensure the highest possible quality research,” said Estes, a researcher at the agency for more than 30 years. “But to me it feels like they’re doing this to keep us under their thumbs. It seems like they’re afraid of science. Our findings could be embarrassing to the administration.”
(Source: New publishing rules restrict scientists, Associated Press, 12/13/06)