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Suppression
of Science and Destruction of the
Environment
Thick Layer of Oil From the BP Oil Spill Deposited on the Gulf Sea Floor: Government Tries to Evade and Ignore Crucial Scientific Findings - Restarts Deep-Sea Drilling in the Gulf
Less than a year ago, April 20, 2010, the world watched in horror as the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded resulting in up to 60,000 barrels (2.5 million gallons) of oil per day spewing into the Gulf of Mexico for several months. BP and the government proved unable to stop the gusher of oil for months. At the time of the spill the Obama administration put a temporary halt on off-shore drilling and promised it would not begin until a full assessment of the impact was done and until if was proven safe to resume.
... just recently, a team of researchers led by Samantha Joye from the University of Georgia reported disturbing findings at the annual meeting of the AAAS. Joye's team used a deep sea submersible and collected over 250 ocean floor core samples over an area of the Gulf covering 2600 square miles including at the Macondo well site where the spill occurred. A large number of those core samples showed a 4 inch thick layer of oil deposition.
...On February 28, 2011, barely a week after Joye's findings were released, the Interior Department announced that deep-sea oil drilling was resuming in the Gulf. A company called Nobel Energy has already been granted a license to begin drilling again in 6500 feet deep waters and more license approvals are not far behind in the approval pipeline.
Unable to ignore Joye's findings, NOAA head Jane Lubchenco, representing the Obama administration, tacitly acknowledged and at the same time attempted to downplay and muddle the significance of these results stating: "it's not a contradiction to say that although most of the oil is gone, there still remains oil out there." No – there is a massive amount of oil out there and it is having a devastating impact on marine life.
read
the entire article...
Federal Gulf Oil Report: A Flawed Abuse of Science - Gulf
Crisis Is Not Over
The federal government's National Incident
Command has released it's report on the gulf oil spill “BP Deepwater
Horizon Oil Budget: What Happened To the Oil?” The main message of this
report – and certainly the main spin it has been given in statements by
government spokespeople and the major media is - “it's all but over,
we've accounted for most of the oil, most of it's gone and what's left
is disappearing fast”.
But the report's conclusions are at best
premature, based in many respects on guesswork, and evidence that
didn't fit its conclusions was suppressed. The conclusions drawn from
the report and being pushed out broadly to the public are wrong.
Leaving aside the dangerous implications this report may lead to in
terms of governmental policy, this report is itself an attack on and
abuse of science.
read
the entire article...
BP Attacks Science and Scientific Integrity - Attempts to Buy
Scientists' Silence
BP has been caught attempting to employ
scientists engaged in (or likely to engage in) study of the Gulf oil
spill under contracts that would "...restrict the scientists from
publishing research results, sharing them with other scientists, or
even talking about them for up to 3 years". In one case, BP attempted
to hire the entire marine science department at one Alabama university.
read more:
BP
and Academic Freedom (statement by national president American
Association of Unversity Professors)...
BP, Scientists, and Gag Agreements (blog
from Mike the Mad Biologist)...
Oil's Stain On Science
by Linda Hooper-Bui (from The Scientist -
re-published by LibraryThing)
Functioning as an independent researcher in
and around the Gulf of Mexico these days is no simple task. I study
insect and plant communities in near-shore habitats fringing the Gulf,
and my work has gotten measurably harder in the wake of the Deepwater
Horizon disaster. It's not hazardous conditions associated with oil and
dispersants that are hampering our scientific efforts. Rather, it's the
confidentiality agreements that come with signing up to work on large
research projects shepherded by government entities and BP and the
limited access to coastal areas if you're not part of those projects
that are stifling the public dissemination of data detailing the
environmental impact of the catastrophe. read the entire article...
Minerals Management Service (MMS) Suppresses its Scientists
"Managers at the agency have
routinely
overruled staff
scientists
whose findings highlight the environmental risks of drilling,
according to a half-dozen current or former agency scientists.
"The scientists, none of whom wanted to be
quoted by name for fear of reprisals by the agency or by those in the
industry, said they had repeatedly had their scientific findings
changed to indicate no environmental impact or had their calculations
of spill risks downgraded.
'You're simply are not allowed to conclude that the drilling will have
an
impact,' said one scientist who has worked for the mineral agency for
more than a decade. 'If you find the risks of a spill are high or
you conclude that a certain species will be affected, your report gets
disappeared in a desk drawer and they find another scientis to redo it
or they rewrite it for you'." (New York Times, May 13, 2010)
Except for this one article, news of this suppression is itself being
suppressed. And while the MMS is being re-organized, there is no
mention of dealing with this suppression of science and scientists.
Attacks on
Climate Scientists - National Academy of Science members publish letter
of protest
The letter begins: "WE ARE DEEPLY DISTURBED
BY THE RECENT
ESCALATION OF POLITICAL ASSAULTS
ON SCIENTISTS in general and on climate scientists in particular".
read entire letter...
Defend Science started
with the Defend Science statement in 2005 - a statement
from scientists sharply calling out the attacks on scientific thinking
and
method which unfolded under the Bush administration. Nearly 3000
scientists and members of the scientific community signed the
statement,
and we raised funds to run it as a paid ad in the New Republic, the
Nation, and the New York Times.
join the Defend Science supporters email
list...
sign the statement...
view a selected list of
signatories...
The Statement began:
IN THE UNITED STATES TODAY SCIENCE, AS SCIENCE, IS UNDER ATTACK AS
NEVER BEFORE.
“The
signs of this are everywhere. The
attacks are coming at an accelerating pace, and include frequent
interventions by powerful forces, in and out of the Bush
Administration, who seem all too willing to deny scientific truths,
disrupt scientific investigations, block scientific progress, undermine
scientific education, and sacrifice the very integrity of the
scientific process itself -- all in the pursuit of implementing their
particular political agenda. And today this dominant political agenda
is profoundly allied and intertwined with an extremist (and extremely
anti-science) ideological agenda put forward by powerful fundamentalist
religious forces commonly known as the Religious Right. These
fundamentalists now have extensive influence and representatives in
major institutions of the U.S. government, including Congress and the
White House. This itself goes a long way towards explaining why science
itself is under such unprecedented attack.
”This excerpt
is from the
Defend Science
Statement. To read the full Statement,
click here.
There are many ways that people can help which are outlined here on the
website, and we encourage you to send your suggestions and thoughts on
this by emailing us at mail@defendscience.com
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Obama Administration Overrules FDA Approval Of Plan B – Right Wing Politics Trumps Science Again
For the first time ever, the Health and Human Services secretary – Kathleen Sebelius - has publicly overruled the Food and Drug Administration's approval of a medication. Her decision continues the policy of refusing to allow the emergency contraceptive Plan B to be sold over the counter to women under 17 without a prescription from a doctor. It overruled the FDA that was finally prepared to approve over-the-counter access to minors - a policy that is recommended by the entire scientific and medical community.
Kirsten Moore, president of the Reproductive Health Care Technologies Project voiced what many are feeling:
"For me personally this is an incredibly disappointing moment, because I was in the East Room of the White House in March 2009 when [President Obama] signed an executive order saying this administration was committed to restoring scientific integrity to the policymaking process. And that commitment just went up in smoke today."
To read the
entire article click here...
Embryonic Stem Cell Research Upheld in Federal Courts ... for now
In a most welcome development, the federal court which last year caused chaos and huge damage to embryonic stem cell research when it issued a preliminary injunction that halted all federal funding for such research (the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Chief Judge Royce Lamberth) has now reversed itself and ruled that stem cell research can proceed.
But several strong words of caution must be raised here:
First, this case will be appealed, possibly all the way to the Supreme Court. If this appeals process goes on for years it will still keep those who are planning and conducting their research in a state of limbo and insecurity for years.
Second, this legal victory is fragile. It is based on accepting the terms of and not challenging the legality (or the morality) of the infamous Dickey-Wicker amendment, the law passed by Congress every year since 1996 that prohibits federal funding for "research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed."
To read the
entire article click here...
Proposed Cancellation of the James Webb Space Telescope: a Major Attack on a Foundational Science Program for the Next Generation
The move by the House Appropriations Committee to cancel the James Webb
Space Telescope (JWST), the planned successor to the Hubble Space
Telescope, represents a major attack on a foundational science program for
the next generation – an attack on science itself. Though occurring in
the context of major budgetary battles in the government, any claim that
this is somehow needed for budgetary constraint, would be laughable if
this were not so serious. To take just one example, the government spends
over $20 billion dollars annually for air conditioning the military in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
To read the
entire article click here...
The Climate Crisis
and The Assault on Science
Any objective assessment of climate
change and the development of the science of climate change can only
conclude: climate change is continuing relentlessly;
climate science has
continued to develop a deeper understanding of why that is happening
and its very dangerous implications; human society's greenhouse gas
emissions is driving global warming.
But instead of the public understanding of this getting
clearer and determined global action beginning in earnest, the last
year has seen the opposite - significantly because of a relentless
assault on climate science. This assault is not based on reason
or on evidence - it is driven by economic, political, and ideological
currents and compulsions and not by the reality of what human society
is doing neither to the planet, nor by flaws or weaknesses in climate
science. And unfortunately, in the face of this, many who have
once taken better positions have been intimidated or retreated, and in
particular the positions taken by the US government have continued to
fall far short of taking responsibility for the future of the
planet. In this situation, the role of scientists speaking in
defense of a scientific understanding of what is going on has great
importance.
To read the entire article
click here...
Open
Letter From Scientists Calls For
Repeal of Dickey-Wicker Amendment
An
open letter calling for repeal of Dickey-Wicker has been signed by
nearly 100 scientists To read the
entire letter click here...
Join in the battle to defend
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You can sign the Statement on this
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Scientists
and Members of the
Scientific Community:
• Sign and Circulate This Statement.
• Help Raise Funds to Have it Printed in Newspapers Across the Country,
and Internationally.
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• Help raise funds to print the Statement in as many newspapers and
journals as possible, in the U.S. and internationally.
One
small sample from hundreds of the depth of concern to Defend Science
and the broad & growing support for this initiative:
"I am a retired science
teacher in Kansas. For several years we put stickers in the front of
science textbooks and then took them out the next year. Teaching
science we could only say," It happened a long time ago." Teaching the
"Big Bang" theory one had to accept that "God created the earth" and as
answer to test questions. I had several parents come talk to me about
this issue. Basically the teachers still taught the same content and
only the parents got upset not the kids. Kansas students were the ones
to suffer as they graduated from high school with limited knowledge of
science."
--Marion McElroy, retired
public school science teacher, Kansas
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