scientific integrity under fire

I have a student who worked last summer in Barrow, AK on a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service project looking at shorebird ecology, specifically the impact of development on breeding and migratory shorebirds.  The USFWS biologists are not overly optimistic that their findings will be taken seriously by the Bush Administration.

This Administration is infamous for its lack of scientific integrity. The Union of Concerned Scientists has a lot of good resources on this topic.  They recently released a survey of 400 USFWS employees (who were told not to respond to the survey, even on their own time).  Some of the results:

Many said they could not openly express concerns about the biological needs of species and habitats without fear of retaliation in public (42%) or even within their own agency (30%)

32% felt they are not allowed to do their jobs as scientists

19% reported having been directed by USFWS decision makers to provide incomplete, inaccurate or misleading information

I personally believe that the brouhaha over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a smokescreen. There is so little oil that would take so much effort to extract in ANWR that the big oil companies are not even particularly behind it (here are the top 10 myths being foisted upon us). However, the National Petroleum Reserve has much more oil, and in 2004, Bush opened up 8.8 million acres for leasing.  The native people are opposed to leasing and drilling in a formerly protected area at Teshekpuk Lake (NPR story here).  And this brings us back to science.

Teshekpuk Lake is a critical wildlife area.  Nonetheless, the Bureau of Land Management has concluded that drilling can safely take place here, ignoring even the USFWS concerns (more info).  In a detailed document, 18 environmental organizations outlined the lack of scientific integrity in the BLMs environmental impact statement. 

This is a dire matter, whether we are talking about drilling in the Arctic, global warming, or endangered species; or whether the science being ignored is from government agencies our outside researchers.  It is frustrating to me to see people ignore facts in day to day life, but when our leaders, making decisions that have ramifications that reach far into the future, ignore or bastardize science, it truly frightens me.