NYTimes editorial board member Verlyn Klinkenborg (No joke!) writes:
Over the last few years, the government of Canada — led by Stephen Harper — has made it harder and harder for publicly financed scientists to communicate with the public and with other scientists.
It began badly enough in 2008 when scientists working for Environment Canada, the federal agency, were told to refer all queries to departmental communications officers. Now the government is doing all it can to monitor and restrict the flow of scientific information, especially concerning research into climate change, fisheries and anything to do with the Alberta tar sands — source of the diluted bitumen that would flow through the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Journalists find themselves unable to reach government scientists; the scientists themselves have organized public protests.
There was trouble of this kind here in the George W. Bush years, when scientists were asked to toe the party line on climate policy and endangered species. But nothing came close to what is being done in Canada.
Science is the gathering of hypotheses and the endless testing of them. It involves checking and double-checking, self-criticism and a willingness to overturn even fundamental assumptions if they prove to be wrong. But none of this can happen without open communication among scientists. This is more than an attack on academic freedom. It is an attempt to guarantee public ignorance.
It is also designed to make sure that nothing gets in the way of the northern resource rush — the feverish effort to mine the earth and the ocean with little regard for environmental consequences. The Harper policy seems designed to make sure that the tar sands project proceeds quietly, with no surprises, no bad news, no alarms from government scientists. To all the other kinds of pollution the tar sands will yield, we must now add another: the degradation of vital streams of research and information.
Should we be so surprised by a fascist theocracy wanting to quell the discoveries of science, or at very least hear them out in public debate? It’s not new, after all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_affair
As if the warmers never tried to silence their critics. Suzuki( the old hypocrite) would throw them in jail or worse for disagreeing with him and his eco-terrorist friends.
Global warming is a sales gimmick to sell the green scam. It is over, and they are loathe to admit it.
NYT can pith off.
Is the NYT going to say the same about the new Aussie PM Abbot?
Socialist wanker scum.
It has occurred to me that warmista scientists in Canada, now faced with the potential of public ridicule through real science, have chosen to moderate their utterances rather than being censored by the Government of Canada. Warmista scum only hunt in packs, picking on individuals … they don’t have the balls confront enlightened and knowledgeable scientists in public debate.