By Kenneth J. Theisen, 3/9/07
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service quietly issued a rule last month barring its scientists from talking
about polar bears, climate change, or the reduction in sea ice unless cleared
to speak by political appointees of the Bush regime. The government is considering designating the
polar bear as a threatened species but it apparently wishes to limit scientific
knowledge necessary to making such a decision.
According to memos leaked by
scientists who have been told to keep their mouths shut, wildlife agency
scientists must first get a memo stating which officials are allowed to answer
questions, particularly about polar bears, and must include “a statement
of assurance that these individuals understand the Administration’s position on
these issues.” Once again scientists
employed by the government are being told to ignore science and instead follow
the official line of the Bush regime.
The leaked memos include
copies of those given to Janet Hohn and Craig Perham. These scientists are scheduled to attend
international conferences in Russia
and Norway
in the next couple of months. But they,
“will not be speaking on or responding to these issues” of climate
change, polar bears and sea ice according to the memos. Before attending any conference where
scientists expect to speak, they must send such a memo to the administrator of
the Fish and Wildlife Service in Washington.
This occurs at a time when opponents
of global warming are seeking new protections for polar bears in the hope that
their designation as a threatened species will force mandatory limits on
greenhouse gases. But the Bush regime is
trying to place only voluntary limits on emissions. It also claims that the Clean Air Act does
not allow regulation of carbon dioxide as a pollutant.
This latest attempt to gag
scientists and limit scientific discussion is a continuation of the regime
efforts to silence government employees.
Studies that contradict the policies of the regime have been censored,
rewritten, or suppressed entirely. Scientists
at NASA, Fish and Wildlife, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have all been silenced or restricted in
their media access. Scientific papers
have been required to be submitted to political appointees for approval or
censorship. Scientists at the Minerals
Management Service have only been allowed to talk to reporters if the agency is
allowed to record the interviews to make sure the scientists do not say
anything that will hurt or contradict the Bush regime. The Bush regime has proposed shutting down
many of the Environmental Protection Agency’s libraries which disseminate
information to scientists and the public. EPA’s libraries received more than 134,000
research requests from its own scientific and enforcement staff annually.
All of these actions are
further attempts to limit knowledge and access to science by the regime in an
effort to force it fascist political agenda on the world. Do away with science in the schools by
preventing the teaching of evolution. Teach
creationism instead. Eliminate or limit
scientific debate in public. Maybe then
we can have a population which will believe that god chose George W. to lead us
and we will accept any horrors his regime wishes to create. If this is the world you wish to live in,
applaud the most recent actions of the Bush administration. If not, what will you do to prevent the creation of such a world?