A Wired News article (Scientists: Bush Distorts Science) reported yesterday that 60 scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, signed off on a report claiming that “the Bush administration has distorted scientific fact leading to policy decisions on the environment, health, biomedical research and nuclear weaponry.” #

The article further reports “President Bush’s science adviser, John Marburger, said he was disappointed in the report, and called it biased. #

“He said he was troubled by the fact that some very prestigious scientists signed the statement.” #

I’m sure he was. #

I’m troubled by the fact that the website for the Union of Concerned Scientists seems to have a lot of broken links that prevent me from finding out exactly who these scientists are. However, the link to the report page works, so read it for yourself. #

I have no better comment than the way user “American AC in Paris” put it in the Slashdot discussion of the report, #

“The response to this has been that these scientists are motivated by partisan considerations and are trying to create a political issue. #

“Trouble is, if you can’t count on 20 Nobel laureate scientists to make an honest, apolitical assessment of the state of science in our government, who on earth can you trust?” #

[Update – 2:27 pm: There’s a much better discussion on this topic over at CalPundit.] #

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Thursday, February 19th, 2004 @ 11:12 am Politics Matters
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