Announcements
Live Radio Discussion Today with Roger Pielke, Jr. and Al Teich on Science Integrity Guidelines
On December 21 Roger Pielke, Jr. will be on the Patt Morrison show on Southern California Public Radio at 1:40 Pacific time appearing with Al Teich of the AAAS to discuss the guidelines for scientific integrity released by the Obama Administration.
1:41 – 1:58:30
Separating the politics from the science, Obama administration releases new guidelines
The Bush administration was blasted for tainting science with politics, perhaps most notably in 2006, when scientist James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute, accused White House officials of preventing him from talking about findings that linked carbon emissions to global warming. Now after a long delay, the Obama administration is releasing its guidelines to wall off science from politics. The four-page document prohibits agencies from editing or suppressing reports and says scientists are generally free to speak to journalists and the public about their work. It also instructs agencies to describe both optimistic and pessimistic projections, one guideline experts feel might have helped the administration avoid overly optimistic estimates during this year’s BP oil spill. But not everyone thinks the wall is high enough—some scientists say the guidelines are too general, give too much discretion to the government agencies and leave open the possibility of another Hansen episode. Reading between the lines, what do the guidelines say and are they strict enough to keep science objective?
