20/02/2004

US scientists blast Bush

A group of prestigious U.S scientists have published an open letter condemning the Bush administration's manipulation and misrepresentation of scientific knowledge.

The letter, penned by the independent Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), argues that the regime has misrepresented scientific knowledge on a variety of issues - including climate change - for its own political purposes. The letter states:

"When scientific knowledge has been found to be in conflict with its political goals, the administration has often manipulated the process through which science enters into its decisions.

This has been done by placing people who are professionally unqualified or who have clear conflicts of interest in official posts and on scientific advisory committees;
* by disbanding existing advisory committees;
* by censoring and suppressing reports by the government's own scientists;
* and by simply not seeking independent scientific advice."

The letter concludes "The distortion of scientific knowledge for partisan political ends must cease if the public is to be properly informed about issues central to its well being."

Among the signatories were 60 senior US scientists,including 20 Nobel prize winners.

Meanwhile, an English scientist, Diana Liverman, the new director of the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University has spoken out.

Until recently she was a senior climate adviser in the U.S - for 25 year. She expressed her outrage at the extent of political interference in U.S climate science in an article for the Guardian.

Liverman was one of the scientists working on the US national assessment on climate change. The report, which outlined the potential impacts of climate change on the US, was sued by the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

The CEI will be familiar to regular visitors to the Stop Esso website. The Competitive Enterprise Institute, has received more than $1 million from our friends at ExxonMobil (Esso) since 1998.
Perhaps most interesting is the fact that Exxon's 2002 grant to the CEI was for "legal services."

Diana Liverman talks of the increased anxiety amongst US scientists who are published papers on climate change.

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