Reuters reported the first week in August that some scientists had accepted thousands of dollars in personal payments from tobacco interests to write commentary articles panning the genuinely junk science used by the US Environmental Protection Agency to justify its position on secondhand smoke. That news was dismaying enough.
But the same week we received the following press release, announcing a $1.5 million grant from the Packard Foundation to Oregon State University to teach scientist-activists how to work the news media, especially on the global warming issue.
Such developments do not bode well for science. In the future, will ANY scientific study have credibility, or will the results simply get lost in a witch hunt to see who paid for what? Will we see an analogous situation in medicine where quackery gets grants for the purpose of further advancing the acceptance of what is worthless or even harmful? Will medical researchers refuse to speak out against it unless someone writes them a check?
What can we infer from the involvement of Time magazine and National Public Radio in the OSU effort? Time's "deeply held beliefs" about Operation Tailwind resulted in scandal just weeks ago. Now Time editors are heading down that same path on the global warming issue, proving they have learned nothing about the need to base their stories on facts.
FYI, Dr. Judith Vergun, listed in the press release as the Program's director, is also director of OSU's "Native Americans in Marine Sciences" program, another of Oregon State's politically correct activities. Note her quote, "The current rate of ecological change is unprecedented "IN THE HISTORY OF THE EARTH" [emphasis ours], which has to be one of the more asinine statements we've seen on this issue outside of the news media itself.
Also mentioned is Dr. Jane Lubchenco, recently president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and known in some Washington circles as "Calamity Jane" for her promotion of global catastrophes. While at the AAAS, Dr. Lubchenco was noteworthy for approving a link on the AAAS web site to Ozone Action, a Green activist group that was trying to secure signatures to a pro-global warming petition. Despite access to a AAAS membership of more than 130,000, and efforts to secure signatures from university faculty groups and others, Ozone Action was only able to secure a total of some 2,600 signatures--largely graduate students, college administrators, activist group press relations officials, even a few veterinarians.
In contrast, Dr. Arthur Robinson of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine has thus far secured some 17,000 scientists signatures on a petition against the Global Climate Treaty--not that the news media has bothered to tell anyone.
PRESS RELEASE: August 4, 1998
Headline: "OSU to run new program to improve communication" (OSU News Service)
BALTIMORE - Scientists this week announced an innovative new program to train "scientist communicators" for the future and hopefully improve the flow of accurate, credible scientific information to policy makers and the general public on critical issues of the environment.
Under this concept, some of the nation's leading environmental scientists will become "Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellows" and more actively share their expertise in water and air quality, diseases, fisheries, agriculture, contaminants, global climate change, endangered species and other critical issues with local communities, the news media, political leaders and local, state and federal policy makers.
The program is named for Aldo Leopold, a famous environmental scientist known for effectively communicating his scientific knowledge.
Oregon State University will operate the new program on behalf of the Ecological Society of America, supported by a $1.5 million, five-year grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
"The current rate of ecological change is unprecedented in the history of the Earth," said Judith Vergun of OSU, the project director.
For instance, on the issue of global warming, many people may be confused by complicated studies and pseudo-scientific critics who argue the phenomenon is an unproven theory of no particular importance, Vergun said.
But the vast majority of credible scientists say global warming is now a reality, that the time for action is here and that the looming crisis is very real, with implications for everything from severe weather events, to the spread of disease, disruptions of agriculture and forestry, rising sea levels and habitat loss.
That gap between common perceptions and scientific reality has to be bridged, experts say. The new program is designed to make professional communicators out of researchers who usually think more in terms of professional journals than newspapers or legislative committees.
"We envision a leadership and communication training program designed to help environmental scientists become more effective communicators of science to the public and policy makers," said Jane Lubchenco, an OSU distinguished professor of zoology. "The need for clearly presented, scientifically credible information on environmental issues is greater now than ever before. We're very grateful that the David and Lucile Packard Foundation shares the vision and is making this program possible."
A past president of both the Ecological Society of America and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and chair of the steering committtee for the Leopold Leadership Program, Lubchenco outlined the new program at the ESA's annual meeting in Baltimore.
Twenty tenured, academic scientists from a range of environmental fields of study will be chosen during each of the next three years to attend one-week workshops for intensive study in five areas:
Members of the steering committee or advisory board for the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program include representatives from leading universities, governmental and private agencies, and the news media. They include OSU, Stanford University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Time Magazine, National Public Radio, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Smithsonian Institution, National Science Foundation, and a former member of the U.S. Senate.
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