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The Management

For new science graduates, New Mexico state senator Dede Feldman has a commencement speech. She warns in an opinion piece in yesterday’s Albuquerque Tribune that amid the politicization of science in Washington and beyond, today’s graduates may have to bear witness tomorrow. If asked their beliefs – in stem cell research, global warming, or some other controversial topic – Senator Feldman encourages graduates to proclaim their beliefs, in data.

“We are counting on you to show us how to resolve differences when theories clash – not through force or intimidation, but by experimentation and research.”

Unfortunately, we can’t rely on scientists to guide our policy processes by themselves. In the unfortunate reality of today’s political climate, we need all graduates – whether they studied Law, English, or Basket Weaving – to stand up for scientific integrity (and it’s not as if most of today’s graduates don’t have several years of high school and college science under their belts). Scientists do not constitute a majority in the electorate or Congress. It’s everyone’s responsibility to recognize the value in untainted research and demand fact-based decision making.

The Union of Concerned Scientists is seeking a summer intern for its Science Integrity Program. The position is in its Washington, D.C. office. More details here.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe has launched an inquiry into the nation’s third leading publisher of climate publications, the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The Oklahoma senator – who called global warming the “greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people” in a 2003 Senate hearing – sent a letter last month requesting information from the director of the National Science Foundation. Inhofe requested more information than we’re able to paraphrase. Here’s the word from Greenwire:

(The senator requested) information on funding and management of (NCAR) and its managing body, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.

Inhofe’s letter, made public Saturday by the advocacy group Climate Science Watch, asserts his committee’s jurisdiction over climate in examining the roles that NCAR and UCAR play in ‘researching, analyzing, and understanding the science of global climate change.’

One area of interest to Inhofe is the cooperative agreement by which UCAR operates NCAR with funding from NSF. About two-thirds of NCAR’s funds are derived from NSF, according to UCAR spokeswoman Lucy Warner. UCAR has managed NCAR since the latter organization’s founding in 1960, but Inhofe has pushed for open competition for the contract, which is scheduled to take place next year.

Inhofe’s letter specifically requests a copy of the competition announcement of the NCAR cooperative agreement, when it is issued. He also seeks a list of NCAR research projects and their funding levels for the last three years.

In addition, Inhofe is seeking a list of all NCAR and UCAR staff, as well as a roster of all NCAR and UCAR employees working at non-NSF federal agencies or nongovernmental organizations and salary information for those employees.

These requests are consistent with the recent style of bullying scientists and scientific agencies that reach politically inconvenient conclusions.

“Senator Inhofe’s letter has the potential to be quite damaging for scientific integrity,” wrote Alden Meyer with the Union of Concerned Scientists. The fear, Meyer clarified, is that the requests imply NCAR may face consequences if it continues to voice its findings.

UPDATE: ClimateScienceWatch.org has posted a PDF of the letter here.

The South Florida Sun Sentinal has an excellent op-ed today highlighting the risks we face in a society that permits the bullying of scientists. Robert L. Moore, a professor of anthropology and Director of International Affairs at Rollins College, suggests that the political war on science may be increasingly fought in our college classrooms, citing an incident at UCLA (unfortunately he fails to note a Oregon State University paper that landed its student-author in a congressional hearing last week). He writes “Certainly students of all political persuasions should be listened to and treated with respect in the classroom. But it is troubling when insistence on this point becomes a Trojan horse through which bullying and intimidation are directed against honest scholarship.”

Moore illustrates that the conservative right is not the natural enemy of science, but that today’s mainstream right is increasingly willing to put its politics ahead of its pursuit of truth. Source