Scientists Say Bush Administration Distorts Facts

JAMES GLANZ published this article in the New York Times about a report charging the Bush Administration with failing to use scientific finding appropriately. Dr. John H. Marburger III, science adviser to President Bush and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House is also sourced defending the Administration.

Guy Gugliotta and Rick Weiss have a similar article in the Washington Post.

One of the reports mentioned in these articles is a new publication of the National Research Council: "Implementing Climate and Global Change Research: A Review of the Final U.S. Climate Change Science Program Strategic Plan". The NRC summarizes this as follows:

"The federal government should implement its revised strategic plan for climate change research as soon as possible, says a new report from the National Academies' Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate. The committee that wrote the report said the plan is "much improved," broader in scope and more ambitious than a previously reviewed draft, but commitments to fund many of the newly proposed activities are lacking."

The Union of Concerned Scientists website contains links to both the analysis cited in the articles linked above, and the signup point for scientists to add their names to the petition. It seems to be getting a lot of visitors at the moment, and the response is slow.

The issue of use of scientific knowledge in government policy making, regulation, and management is clearly central to our topic of Knowledge for Development. It adds to the challenge to see how controversial the issues are even in an "advanced, scientifically developed" nation such as the United States.