UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS

Statement Restoring Scientific Integrity in Policymaking
On February 18, 2004, over 60 leading scientists–Nobel laureates, leading medical experts, former federal agency directors, and university chairs and presidents–signed the statement below, voicing their concern over the misuse of science by the Bush administration. UCS is seeking the signatures of thousands of additional U.S. scientists in support of this effort.

Science, like any field of endeavor, relies on freedom
of inquiry; and one of the hallmarks of that freedom is objectivity. Now,
more than ever, on issues ranging from climate change to AIDS research to genetic engineering to food additives, government relies on the impartial perspective of science for guidance.

--George W. Bush

Successful application of science has played a large part in
the policies that have made the United States of America the world’s most powerful nation and its citizens increasingly prosperous and healthy. Although scientific input to the government is rarely the only factor in public policy decisions, this input should always be weighed from an objective and impartial perspective to avoid perilous consequences. Indeed, this principle has long been adhered to by presidents and administrations of both parties in forming and implementing policies. The administration of George W. Bush has, however, disregarded this principle.

Attention Scientists
We need you to support this statement calling for an end to scientific abuse—now more than ever. Creating meaningful reform will require the persistent and energetic engagement of the scientific community—in universities, laboratories, government agencies, and companies across the United States. We need engineers and ecologists, physicists and physicians, psychologists and public health professionals—scientists of all disciplines.
When scientific knowledge has been found to be in conflict with its
political goals, the administration has often manipulated the process through which science enters into its decisions. This has been done by placing people who are professionally unqualified or who have clear conflicts of interest in official posts and on scientific advisory committees; by disbanding existing advisory committees; by censoring and suppressing reports by the government’s own scientists; and by simply not seeking independent scientific advice. Other administrations have, on occasion, engaged in such practices, but not so systematically nor on so wide a front. Furthermore, in advocating policies that are not scientifically sound, the administration has sometimes misrepresented
scientific knowledge and misled the public about the implications of its
policies.

For example, in support of the president’s decision to avoid regulating emissions that cause climate change, the administration has
consistently misrepresented the findings of the National Academy of Sciences, government scientists, and the expert community at large. Thus in June 2003, the White House demanded extensive changes in the treatment of climate change in a major report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). To avoid issuing a scientifically indefensible report, EPA officials eviscerated the discussion of climate change and its consequences. The administration also suppressed a study by the EPA that found that a bipartisan Senate clean air proposal would yield greater health benefits than the administration’s proposed Clear Skies Act, which the administration is portraying as an improvement of the existing
Clean Air Act. “Clear Skies” would, however, be less effective in cleaning up the nation’s air and reducing mercury contamination of fish than proper enforcement of the existing Clean Air Act. Misrepresenting and suppressing scientific knowledge for political purposes can have serious consequences. Had Richard Nixon also based his decisions on such calculations he would not have supported the Clean Air Act of 1970, which in the following 20 years prevented more than 200,000 premature deaths and millions of cases of respiratory and cardiovascular disease.

Similarly, George H.W. Bush would not have supported the
Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 and additional benefits of comparable proportions would have been lost. The behavior of the White House on these issues is part of a pattern that has led Russell Train, the EPA administrator under Presidents Nixon and Ford, to observe, “How radically we have moved away from regulation based on independent findings and professional analysis of scientific, health and economic data by the responsible agency to regulation controlled by the White House and driven primarily by political considerations.” Across a broad range of policy areas, the administration has undermined the quality and independence of the scientific advisory system and the morale of the government’s outstanding scientific personnel: Highly qualified scientists have been dropped from advisory committees dealing with childhood lead poisoning, environmental and reproductive health, and drug abuse,
while individuals associated with or working for industries subject to
regulation have been appointed to these bodies. Censorship and political
oversight of government scientists is not restricted to the EPA, but has also occurred at the Departments of Health and Human Services, Agriculture, and Interior, when scientific findings are in conflict with the administration’s policies or with the views of its political supporters.
The administration is supporting revisions to the Endangered Species Act that would greatly constrain scientific input into the process of identifying endangered species and critical habitats for their protection. Existing scientific advisory committees to the Department of Energy on nuclear weapons, and to the State Department on arms control, have been disbanded.

In making the invalid claim that Iraq had sought to acquire aluminum tubes for uranium enrichment centrifuges, the administration disregarded the contrary assessment by experts at Livermore, Los
Alamos and Oak Ridge National Laboratories. The distortion of scientific
knowledge for partisan political ends must cease if the public is to be properly informed about issues central to its well being, and the nation is to benefit fully from its heavy investment in scientific research and education. To elevate the ethic that governs the relationship between science and government, Congress and the Executive should establish legislation and regulations that would: Forbid censorship of scientific studies unless there is a reasonable national security concern;Require all scientists on scientific advisory panels to meet high professional standards; and Ensure public access to government studies and the findings of scientific advisory panels. To maintain public trust in the credibility of the scientific, engineering and medical professions, and to restore scientific integrity in the formation and implementation of public policy, we call on our colleagues to:

Note: Italicized names are those of the original signers of the statement
National Medal of Science * Nobel Laureate † Crafoord Prize #National Academy of Science ^
Andreas Acrivos * ^City College of the City University of New York
Edward Adelberg ^Yale University
Eric Adelberger ^University of Washington
Peter Agre † ^Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Don L. Anderson * ^California Institute of Technology
Philip W. Anderson * † ^Princeton University
Nancy C. Andreasen *University of Iowa College of Medicine
Francisco J. Ayala * ^University of California, Irvine
David Baltimore * † ^California Institute of Technology
Paul Berg * † ^Stanford University School of Medicine
R. Stephen Berry ^University of Chicago
Rosina BierbaumUniversity of Michigan
Nicolaas Bloembergen * † ^University of Arizona
Felix Boehm ^California Institute of Technology
Paul D. Boyer † ^University of California, Los Angeles
Lewis M. Branscomb ^Harvard University
Ronald Breslow * ^Columbia University
Robert H. Burris * ^University of Wisconsin, Madison
Eric Chivian †Harvard Medical School
Joel E. Cohen ^The Rockefeller University
Eric Conn ^University of California, Davis
Robert W. CorellAmerican Meteorological Society
F. Albert Cotton * ^Texas A&M University
James Cronin * † ^University of Chicago
James Crow ^University of Wisconsin
James E. Darnell, Jr. * ^The Rockefeller University
Margaret Davis ^University of Minnesota
Mark Davis ^University of California, Berkeley
Johann Deisenhofer † ^University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Theodor O. Diener * ^University of Maryland
Carl Djerassi * ^Stanford University
Paul M. Doty ^Harvard University
Renato Dulbecco † ^Salk Institute
Paul Ehrlich # ^Stanford University
Herman Eisen ^Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Thomas Eisner * ^Cornell University
S. Walter Englander ^University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
William K. Estes * ^Indiana University
John B. Fenn †Virginia Commonwealth University
Christopher Field ^Carnegie Institution of Washington
Gerald D. Fischbach ^Columbia University Medical School
Edmond Fischer † ^University of Washington
Val L. Fitch * † ^Princeton University
Jerry FranklinUniversity of Washington
Gerhart Friedlander ^Brookhaven National LaboratoryJerome Friedman † ^Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mary Gaillard ^University of California, Berkeley
Richard L. Garwin * ^International Business Machines Corporation
Murray Gell-Mann † ^Santa Fe Institute
John H. GibbonsFormer Science Advisor to the President
Walter Gilbert † ^Harvard University
Sheldon L. Glashow † ^Boston University
Marvin L. Goldberger ^California Institute of Technology
Lynn R. GoldmanJohn Hopkins School of Public Health
Peter Goldreich * ^Institute for Advanced Study
Kurt GottfriedCornell University
David GrimesUniversity of North Carolina School of Medicine
Roger Guillemin * †Salk Institute
Richard Havel ^University of California, San Francisco
Dudley Herschbach * † ^Harvard University
Roald Hoffmann * † ^Cornell University
John P. Holdren ^Harvard University
Norman Horowitz ^California Institute of Technology
H. Robert Horvitz † ^Massachusetts Institute of Technology
David H. Hubel † ^Harvard University
John Huchra ^Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Daniel H. Janzen # ^University of Pennsylvania
Leo P. Kadanoff * ^University of Chicago
Eric R. Kandel * † ^Columbia University
Anne KapuscinskiUniversity of Minnesota
Daniel Kleppner ^Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Walter Kohn * † ^University of California, Santa Barbara
Arthur Kornberg * † ^Stanford University School of Medicine
Lawrence KraussCase Western Reserve University
Herbert Kroemer † ^University of California, Santa Barbara
Neal F. LaneFormer Science Advisor to the President
Robert B. Laughlin † ^Stanford University
Alexander Leaf ^Harvard Medical School
Leon M. Lederman * † ^Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
David M. Lee † ^Cornell University
Anthony Leggett † ^University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Simon Levin ^Princeton University
Gene Likens * ^Institute of Ecosystem Studies
William Lipscomb † ^Harvard University
Jane Lubchenco ^Oregon State University
Michael C. MacCrackenInternational Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences
Lynn Margulis * ^University of Massachusetts
Paul A. Marks * ^Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
James J. McCarthyHarvard University
Harden M. McConnell * ^Stanford University
Jerry M. MelilloWoods Hole Research Center
N. David Mermin ^Cornell University
Matthew S. Meselson ^Harvard University
David MichaelsGeorge Washington University
Mario Molina † ^Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Walter H. Munk * ^University of California, San DiegoJoseph E. Murray † ^Harvard Medical School
Louis Nirenberg * # ^New York University
Marshall Nirenberg * † ^National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Michael OppenheimerPrinceton University
Gordon Orians ^University of Washington
Douglas D. Osheroff † ^Stanford University
Jeremiah P. Ostriker * ^Princeton University
George E. Palade * † ^University of California, San Diego
W.K.H. Panofsky * ^Stanford University
Eugene N. Parker * ^University of Chicago
Martin L. Perl † ^Stanford University
David Perkins ^Stanford University
Gregory Petsko ^Brandeis University
Stuart PimmDuke University
Robert V. Pound * ^Harvard University
Ron PulliamUniversity of Georgia
Norman F. Ramsey * † ^Harvard University
Stuart A. Rice * ^University of Chicago
Anthony RobbinsTufts University School of Medicine
John D. Roberts * ^California Institute of Technology
Wendell L. Roelofs * ^Cornell University
Allan RosenfieldColumbia University School of Public Health
John Ross * ^Stanford University
F. Sherwood Rowland † ^University of California, Irvine
Janet D. Rowley * ^University of Chicago Medical Center
Vera Rubin * ^Carnegie Institution of Washington
Eli Ruckenstein *State University of New York at Buffalo
Liane Russell ^Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Edwin E. Salpeter # ^Cornell University
Allan Sandage * #The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington
William Schlesinger ^Duke University
J. Robert Schrieffer * † ^National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Andrew Sessler ^Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Roger N. Shepard * ^Stanford UniversityRobert Silbey ^Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Richard Smalley † ^Rice University
Franklin Stahl ^University of Oregon
Jack Steinberger * † ^European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)
Joan A. Steitz * ^Yale University School of Medicine
Felicia StewartUniversity of California, San Francisco
Henry Taube * † ^Stanford University
Saul Teukolsky ^Cornell University
E. Donnall Thomas * † ^Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
George Tilton ^University of California, Santa Barbara
Kevin TrenberthNational Center for Atmospheric Research
Daniel Tsui † ^Princeton University
Harold E. Varmus * † ^Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Gerald J. Wasserburg # ^California Institute of Technology
Robert A. Weinberg * ^Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Steven Weinberg * † ^University of Texas, Austin
Frank H. Westheimer * ^Harvard UniversityGilbert F. White * ^University of Colorado
Eric Wieschaus † ^Princeton University
E.O. Wilson * # ^Harvard University
Edward Witten * ^Institute for Advanced Study
Lincoln Wolfenstein ^Carnegie Mellon University
George M. Woodwell ^Woods Hole Research Center
Donald WuebblesUniversity of Illinois
Charles Yanofsky ^Stanford University
Herbert F. YorkUniversity of California, San Diego