杏吧原创

THE Bush administration is making a concerted effort to distort scientific data and prevent top scientists from holding key positions, to push a political agenda. So claims the Union of Concerned 杏吧原创s (UCS), a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based non-profit organisation.

In February the UCS accused the Bush administration of 鈥渨idespread and unprecedented鈥� manipulation of scientific data. Government officials dismissed the charges, saying only isolated incidents had occurred.

But the latest UCS report claims such incidents are anything but isolated. It says that the Bush administration has indulged in 鈥渆gregious disregard鈥�, 鈥渄istortion鈥� and 鈥渃ensorship鈥� of the scientific process in studies in a number of areas, including the environmental impact of mountaintop removal mining, the Endangered Species Act and emergency contraception.

The report details instances of scientists who were rejected from top advisory positions after being questioned about their political affiliation. Richard Myers, a geneticist at Stanford University, California, who was denied a National Institutes of Health (NIH) post, recalls: 鈥淭he staffer asked questions that really shocked me. She wanted to know what I thought about President Bush. Did I like him? What did I think of the job he was doing?鈥�

Robert Paine of the University of Washington in Seattle was on a panel that was asked to ignore evidence that supported greater protection of wild salmon. 鈥淸We] were told to either strip out our recommendations or see our report end up in a drawer.鈥�

Kurt Gottfried, president of the UCS and professor emeritus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, says a dangerous new culture reminiscent of the Soviet era is being fostered and may be difficult to escape in the future. Bush administration officials described the report鈥檚 conclusions as 鈥渨rong and misleading鈥�.