By: Katharine Mieszkowski
It looks like it's time to add one more species to the 'endangered' list at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: scientific facts.
When asked to respond anonymously to a survey regarding their work that was conducted by the watchdog groups Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Union of Concerned Scientists, some scientists received memos from higher-ups ordering them not to answer, even from home and on their personal time.
The results of the anonymous survey suggest why certain agency leaders might not have wanted the scientists' opinions to become public. Some 400 of the 1400 biologists, ecologists and botanists responded -- despite the intimidation -- and many of them reported that scientific data at U.S. Fish and Wildlife has been polluted by politics.
Forty-four percent of those who work on endangered-species issues said that they have been ordered to avoid findings that would require greater protections for wildlife. And one fifth of the agency's scientists who responded to the survey revealed that they have been personally directed to alter or omit technical information from scientific documents."
Another example of the Bush administration suppressing scientific fact when it goes against their political policies. At least this one won't start a war.
