Junk Science: Enviros, Anarchists, and Spin, Oh My!

Junk Science: Enviros, Anarchists, and Spin, Oh My!

FOXNews.com - Views - Junk Science - Enviros Commence Election-Year Attack

The Union of Concerned Scientists (search) issued a widely covered report last week condemning the Bush administration for allegedly politicizing science on a number of controversial issues, ranging from global warming to HIV/AIDS to Iraq’s nuclear weapons efforts.

It was quite an ironic charge coming from a self-described activist group whose left-wing, eco-extremist, anti-biotechnology, anti-chemical, anti-nuclear, anti-defense and anti-business screeds embody the very antithesis of the scientific ideal of objectivity. . . .

. . . the UCS . . . advised its members to give media interviews about global warming in a 1997 memo:

“1. Stay on message. The message is simple … global warming is a serious problem … we must take action now to fight global warming.

“2. Don’t confuse them with doubt. In other words, don’t talk like a scientist, with caveats and error bars. Emphasize the word consensus.

“3. Don’t talk too much. So practice your soundbites and don’t get trapped into giving the reporter what he is looking for. Set your time limit in advance … so that you can terminate the interview before you are in over your head without appearing to be evasive … Your main purpose is to advocate, not to educate.”

Contrary to UCS’ message, the reality is that global climate is anything but simple. There is much uncertainty. Advocacy with utter disregard to the complexity and uncertainty is tantamount to scientific malpractice.

As part of its accusation that the Bush administration suppressed scientific research and information, the UCS cites Nixon-era EPA Administrator William Ruckelshaus as saying that it’s not legitimate to withhold a scientific analysis just because you don’t like the outcome.

Ruckelshaus, of course, had a special talent for dealing with scientific analysis he didn’t like ¯ he just ignored it.

At the conclusion of the 1971-1972 EPA hearings on whether the insecticide DDT should be banned, the EPA judge concluded that DDT was not a threat to human health or to the environment.

Then-EPA Administrator Ruckelshaus banned DDT anyway.

But Ruckelshaus never attended the hearings, didn’t read the transcript and refused to release the materials used to make his decision. He even rebuffed a U.S. Department of Agriculture effort to obtain those materials through the Freedom of Information Act, claiming they were just “internal memos.”

This wasn’t surprising given Ruckelshaus’ bias. As it turns out, he was a closet environmentalist who personally raised money for the Environmental Defense Fund, an activist group that led the charge to ban DDT.