Politics and science; is science being corrupted? (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, February 11, 2010, 17:55 (5398 days ago) @ David Turell

David is updating us on the latest grim revelations, and has also referred us to Jerome Ravetz's comprehensive analysis of how these problems arise and mushroom. Extremely revealing and beautifully presented. He's right, there has to be dialogue. We need to examine the whole climate question again, starting from scratch with no preconceptions. Even if it turns out that climate change is indeed the threat it's been made out to be, without an open debate in which all voices are heard, there's no way that we ordinary folk are going to trust the scientists or the politicians who have led us into this state of confusion.-Meanwhile, another depressing tale for you, but at least the scientists come out of it rather well. Last October our benighted government sacked Professor David Nutt, Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Drug Misuse, because his findings on ecstasy and cannabis went against the wishes of the Home Secretary Alan Johnson. Five other members of the committee resigned in protest. Now the government is proposing a set of rules which would effectively gag scientific advisers from publicly disagreeing with government policy. Many scientists have said they will refuse to join advisory committees under such rules, and the managing director of the charity Sense about Science says, "The academic community is outraged." One fears that the politicians ... just like industrial and pharmaceutical companies ... will always find some "expert" to toe their preordained line, but it's reassuring to hear that there's vociferous opposition to this scandalous abuse of power from the scientific community itself.