When Science Sells Out To Political Expediency
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
Like the story about the boy who cried “wolf” the lessons of backlash for telling things that aren’t so should be on the minds of those in the profession of “science”. As we see here the problems of cooking the results to achieve a political policy objective don’t always bode well for those who are connected with the kitchen.
The University of Nevada’s efforts to carry out Senator Reid’s directives to acquire water for Walker Lake is another similar example of “show us the money – and we’ll bring you a ‘world-class research center’”.
Promoting concepts that advance the “it’s okay to pretend that this will be a science project because it gets us the funding we need” certainly keeps the institutions in business, but what about the true purpose that needs to be served? (Although to be fair, now that they have taken the money they could get for overhead and research -- and don’t need to launder the money which wasn’t supposed to be spent on water or land acquisition they are in the process of turning things over to the professionals for diverting water away from “willing sellers” and productive uses.)
The downside for these short-term advances is that we all end up losing, no longer having the confidence that we can count on factual research and sound principles for making the kinds of decisions on which we need to base actions.
Mr. Newton’s science of gravity didn’t have political ends of trying to make successful economies falter for social good. It didn’t require expanded government intrusion and taxes for force people into compliance. International conclaves weren’t necessary to force recalcitrant unbelievers into the fold. He didn’t have to tweak the results of his findings in order to avoid things that just hovered, sometimes.
Like the story about the boy who cried “wolf” the lessons of backlash for telling things that aren’t so should be on the minds of those in the profession of “science”. As we see here the problems of cooking the results to achieve a political policy objective don’t always bode well for those who are connected with the kitchen.
The University of Nevada’s efforts to carry out Senator Reid’s directives to acquire water for Walker Lake is another similar example of “show us the money – and we’ll bring you a ‘world-class research center’”.
Promoting concepts that advance the “it’s okay to pretend that this will be a science project because it gets us the funding we need” certainly keeps the institutions in business, but what about the true purpose that needs to be served? (Although to be fair, now that they have taken the money they could get for overhead and research -- and don’t need to launder the money which wasn’t supposed to be spent on water or land acquisition they are in the process of turning things over to the professionals for diverting water away from “willing sellers” and productive uses.)
The downside for these short-term advances is that we all end up losing, no longer having the confidence that we can count on factual research and sound principles for making the kinds of decisions on which we need to base actions.
Mr. Newton’s science of gravity didn’t have political ends of trying to make successful economies falter for social good. It didn’t require expanded government intrusion and taxes for force people into compliance. International conclaves weren’t necessary to force recalcitrant unbelievers into the fold. He didn’t have to tweak the results of his findings in order to avoid things that just hovered, sometimes.
Posted by Doug Busselman at 11/26/2009 7:36 AM 
Categories: Global Warming
Tags: Climate Gate Global Warming Science
Categories: Global Warming
Tags: Climate Gate Global Warming Science
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