And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1998 11:08:16 EST
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: Fwd: _Science Under Siege..._, Wilkinson (fwd)
>
>FYI
>Martha
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1998 08:29:50 -0500
>From: Steve Kurtz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: gaiapc-list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: _Science Under Siege..._, Wilkinson
>
>Reminds me of the Ehrlich's Brownlash. Good to see some journalists & media
>continue to piblicize these issues.
>
>Steve
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Article written by Scott Stouder of Corvallis, Oregon; Published by the
> Corvallis Gazette-Times on Sunday, September 27, 1998.
>
>
> McCarthyism in America isn't dead, it's simply shifted to environmentalism
>
> That's the message in Todd Wilkinson's new book, "Science Under Siege. The
> Politician's War on Nature and Truth."
>
> Wilkinson says political and institutionalized efforts toward scientific
> spin-doctoring of environmental truth are taking place today via a
>ruthless
> fanaticism that obfuscates the message by destroying the messenger.
>
> "Politics... have become the cultural filter through which (environmental)
> truth flows," Wilkinson says. "A campaign of stifling attacks on the
>essence
> of scientific truth is present and thriving both within the ranks of the
> federal government, and within the ranks of natural resource agencies."
>
> Science Under Siege is a long overdue story of "whistleblowers" and
>"combat
> biologists" who have challenged the union of "Good 'Ol Boy' agency
>employees
> and politicians joined at the hip with industry.
>
> Every chapter is a story of an employee or biologist assigned to seek
> scientific truth, that once documented, is suppressed, attacked or
> discredited by the very agency that assigned it.
>
> When he first began researching the book, Wilkinson admits he was
>skeptical
> about agency whistleblowers. But he changed his mind when initial
>inquiries
> resulted in insinuations of reprisal from both industry and government.
>
> If institutions could threaten him "for merely writing," he wondered what
> they were actually doing to people as:
>
> Bear biologist David Mattson whose research for the National Fish and
> Wildlife Service clearly demonstrates the perils of delisting grizzlies.
>
> David Ross, a herpetologist whose research on frogs threatens fortunes
>from
> the exploding real estate speculation and development in Utah.
>
> Al Espinosa, an Idaho fishery biologist whose research on cutthroat
>and bull
> trout blocks the clearcut path of powerful timber interests.
>
> Wilkinson tells the stories of conscientious agency biologists and public
> servants who take seriously their public duties to protect the
>environment
> and natural resources, but are intimidated, ostracized and discredited for
> their efforts. In doing so he uncovers a natural crisis augmented by
> institutional dogma that few Americans see, but many sense. Nobody
> epitomizes that crisis more than Jeff DeBonis, who in the late 1980's,
> stepped from the closed ranks of the Forest Service and founded Forest
> Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (FSEEE), a non-profit
> organization that protects employees who report agency transgressions.
>
> After 12 years of working as a Timber Sale Planner and viewing landscape
> destruction caused by decades of clearcutting, road building and
> unsustainable timber cutting - and after repeated urging by superiors to
> alter environmental documents - Debonis had to admit he was no longer
> working for an agency of foresters, but an agency of de-foresters.
>
> "That's when I realized the system didn't work," he said. "The agency will
> only do the right thing if it's challenged in court or believes it will be
> exposed."
>
> Wilkinson pulls no punches. The 350 page book echoes with names. He points
> to Northwest politicians in particular who continually attempt to
>circumvent
> science and twist federal laws to cut more trees. He says politicians like
> Frank Murkowski and Don Young from Alaska and Larry Craig and Helen
> Chenoweth from Idaho, "have fostered an environment of lawlessness" by
> ordering the Forest Service to continue cutting even when and where
>the best
> science reveals destruction of species and ecosystems.
>
> Wilkinson accuses these wise-use stratiticians of rhetorically blending
> ecology and economy in a re-definition of ecosystems that are designed
>more
> to enrich developers and industry than wildlife and nature. In Utah he
> points to this new order of politically defined ecosystem truth as a
>direct
> result of a cozy relationship between wildlife agencies, developers and a
> coalition of western politicians called the "Cowboy Caucus."
>
> "What you don't understand," a biologist from Utah tells him, "is that
>rural
> politicians in this state believe it is still their duty to tame the
> frontier. Manifest Destiny didn't die at the turn of the century. It
>merely
> shifted from ranching to development, and woe to the environment caught
> in-between."
>
> Science Under Siege sends a clear message that most Americans would
>rather
> not hear: That our natural world - the same pure water, diverse wildlife,
> lush forests and fertile soil that lured us to this continent, has
>given us
> the world's most affluent lifestyle and made us a world power - has been
> systematically destroyed within only a few decades.
>
> And today's political answer to that message is to shoot the messenger.
>
> Like Theo Colborn's Our Stolen Future and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring,
> Todd Wilkinson's Science Under Siege will take its place on the book
>shelf
> of the 20th century as one of the great wake-up calls regarding our
>natural
> world. But unlike Carson and Colborn who uncover hidden attacks
>against the
> structure of the natural world by deadly manufactured toxics, Science
>Under
> Siege uncovers a hidden attack against nature fueled by the heady
>toxics of
> politics, money and power. This is a critical book for anyone who cares
> about being involved with the future of truth and nature in the
>American West.
>
> Science Under Siege is available from Johnson Publishing Company, 1880
> South 57th Court, Boulder, Colorado for $18. e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> The End
>
> ** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
> is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
> in receiving the included information for research and educational
> purposes. **
>
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment
...http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
`"` `"` `"` `"` `"` `"`
