USATODAY.com : : Survey: Science, politics at odds
Politics trumps science:
According to a survey taken by the Union of Concerned Scientists and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, 44% of those who responded reported they have been ordered for "non-scientific" reasons to refrain from recommending protections for endangered species. 56% said businesses used political influence to have science findings reversed or withdrawn. Of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service scientists who replied to the survey, 71% said the agency cannot be trusted to save endangered species.
According to a survey taken by the Union of Concerned Scientists and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, 44% of those who responded reported they have been ordered for "non-scientific" reasons to refrain from recommending protections for endangered species. 56% said businesses used political influence to have science findings reversed or withdrawn. Of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service scientists who replied to the survey, 71% said the agency cannot be trusted to save endangered species.
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Survey: Science, politics at odds
By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY
Politics trumps science when it comes to the government's role in protecting endangered species and the environment, federal scientists said in a new survey.
Of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service scientists who replied to the survey, 71% said the agency cannot be trusted to save endangered species.
The 42-question survey released Wednesday was taken by the Union of Concerned Scientists and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. Both groups have been harshly critical of the Bush administration's stance on science.
"The survey reveals an alarming disregard for scientific facts among political appointees at the Fish & Wildlife Service," says Lexi Shultz of the scientists group. The scientists surveyed are responsible for studying endangered species, fisheries and wildlife conservation.
Recent agency decisions to remove federal hunting protection for wolves, to not place the sage grouse on an endangered species list and to maintain logging roads in grizzly bear territory have drawn fire from conservationists.
The survey comes a year after a highly publicized study by the scientists organization criticized the administration's science decisions in areas that include air pollution, public health and national defense.
Of the 1,410 agency scientists who received the survey, 414 replied. Among the responses:
• 44% reported they have been ordered for "non-scientific" reasons to refrain from recommending protections for endangered species.
• 56% said businesses used political influence to have science findings reversed or withdrawn.
In written responses, scientists complained that agency chiefs are overly friendly with ranchers who are hostile to science and whose cattle graze on public lands.
Interior Department spokesman Hugh Vickery "flatly disagrees" with the assertion that politics overrule science at the agency. "The Endangered Species Act is being administered by statute and appropriately," he says.
The survey has become a First Amendment issue for critics of the agency who say free speech was stifled. A memo from agency headquarters Feb. 2 told employees not to answer the survey during working hours. But agency spokesman Mitch Snow acknowledges that Great Lakes and Southeastern regional offices went beyond this directive to forbid employees from answering the survey at all, even from home.
"This is a clear violation of their First Amendment rights as private citizens," says Beth Daley of the Project On Government Oversight, a government watchdog.
The 30% response rate adds a note of uncertainty to the survey results, says Al Teich of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. But the sentiments are consistent with past complaints by scientists, he says.
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