Scientists, newspapers and policy experts speak out.

	The Record: Examples of the Bush administration's systematic distortion of science to serve political ends. Words of Concern: Scientists, newspapers and policy experts speak out. The Junk Science of George W. Bush by Robert Kennedy Jr. Hard Job of Blowing the Whistle Gets Harder, from the Christian Science Monitor

"In my 30 years with the federal government, this is the worst administration I've seen for squashing science and rewriting it at will."

    -- Erick Campbell, retired biologist, Bureau of Land Management, PBS's "NOW" show, July 22, 2005

"Obviously it's of great concern if you've got people, a substantial percentage of the scientists who are, who were interviewed for that report saying that their ability to give their frank opinion is impeded because they feel that there's political pressures on them. I think that we can only make good public policy if we have honest scientific advice and if it's all going to be skewed we'll wind up in the same mess that the Soviet Union used to find itself in, where basically if you didn't agree with Stalin's view of what the science ought to be they didn't want to hear from you. We don't need that in this country."

    -- U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman (R-New Mexico) in response to a question about the White House's alleged suppression of science, E&E TV's "On Point" show, March 15, 2005

"The Bush administration has from time to time found it convenient to distort science to serve political ends. The result is a purposeful confusion of scientific protocols in which 'sound science' becomes whatever the administration says it is. In the short run, this is a tactic to override basic environmental protections in favor of industry. In the long run, it undermines the authority of science itself."

    -- "Junking Science" editorial, New York Times , September 14, 2004

"This administration seems to make no accommodation for anything besides humans' economic desires. Any creature in the way may find itself legislated, litigated or regulated out of existence."

    -- "Junking Science" editorial, New York Times , September 14, 2004

"'We don't know enough', fossil-fuel industries usually cry as they argue against controlling carbon dioxide emissions. The administration seems determined to keep it that way.… The White House seems equally determined to prevent the public from getting access to what is known about abrupt climate change."

    -- from "Abrupt Climate Change: Money and Info Frozen," Society of Environmental Journalists "TipSheet," June 9, 2004

"If you believe in a rational universe, in enlightenment, in knowledge and in a search for truth, this White House is an absolute disaster."

    -- Dr. Michael Oppenheimer, Princeton University

"We were geotechnical engineers determined to find the truth. We simply wanted to get to the heart of the matter - find out what happened and why, and to prevent it from happening again. But all that was thwarted at the top of the agency by Bush appointees who obstructed professionals trying to do their jobs."

    -- Jack Spadaro, former superintendent of the Mine Safety and Health Administration

"It's hard to decide what is more demoralizing about the administration's politicization of the scientific process, its disdain for professional scientists working for our government or its willingness to deceive the American public."

    -- Roger Kennedy, former director of the National Park Service

"It was like the politics trumped the science."

    -- Bruce Boler, EPA biologist and water-quality specialist who resigned in March 2004, in protest of an industry-funded study that concluded wetlands contribute to pollution

"The morale is very low among scientists here. We are under pressure to get the right results. This administration is putting the species at risk for political gain. And it's not just the Klamath."

    -- Mike Kelly, fisheries biologist on the Klamath River who drafted a biological opinion for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that concluded that under the Bush administration's plan coho salmon are probably headed for extinction.

"I am convinced that I would have been again asked to change my conclusions, or that the biological opinion would be re-written by someone else based on a less rigorous examination of the scientific evidence and without an appropriate level of caution. … Properly conducted, objective science always describes the amount of uncertainty present in a conclusion. However, it appears that this agency, and others under the current administration, routinely abuse the science by giving inappropriately high significance to very small amounts of scientific uncertainty, if that uncertainty supports a desired outcome. Not only does this lack of caution and misuse of science adversely impact natural resources, it misleads the American public about how science and the scientific method work."

    -- from Mike Kelly's resignation letter, May 18, 2004

"[There has been] a pattern of political interference with science by the Bush administration. This pattern has involved gagging scientists, suppressing research, and rewriting reports to eliminate scientific answers that conflict with the administration's political or ideological agenda."

    -- Rep. Henry Waxman, the ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee

"I could no longer tolerate the scientific charade where agency officials pretended that the Florida panther was not in jeopardy."

    -- Andrew Eller, Jr., a 17-year USFWS biologist, who spent the past ten years working in the Florida panther recovery program before being fired after denouncing the agency for using faulty science when approving development projects in the critical habitat of the endangered Florida panther

"Panther literature considered 'best available science' by the USFWS contains unsupported assumptions, uses inappropriate analytical methods and selectively uses data to support conclusions."

    -- Andrew Eller, in his formal complaint that the USFWS used faulty science when approving development projects in the critical habitat of the endangered Florida panther