{"id":38763,"date":"2014-01-27T12:00:33","date_gmt":"2014-01-27T12:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=38763"},"modified":"2015-05-05T22:20:02","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T21:20:02","slug":"scientists-speak-out-against-canadas-war-on-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/01\/scientists-speak-out-against-canadas-war-on-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Speak Out Against Canada\u2019s \u2018War on Science\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seven of Canada\u2019s most prized scientific libraries are being shut down and some of their contents have already been burned, thrown away or carted off by fossil fuel consultancy firms. This development is part of a Harper administration plan to slash more than $1<\/a>60 million<\/a> in the coming years from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, or DFO \u2014 an agency charged with protecting the country\u2019s vast waterways.<\/p>\n

The Harper government has portrayed<\/a> the move as necessary in order to reduce the country\u2019s deficit and provide Canadians with greater access to scientific information through the Internet. But alongside the cuts, the Harper administration has doled out billions in subsidies to the fossil fuel-dominated energy sector \u2014 $26 billion<\/a> in 2011, according to a recent International Monetary Fund report. As for accessing the information at the shuttered libraries, an internal DFO document<\/a> labeled \u201csecret\u201d obtained by Postmedia News in late December, along with the scientists who utilize the research facilities, tell a different story.<\/p>\n

The once-secret DFO document speaks of \u201cculling\u201d materials in the libraries, a term that critics believe to be far more devastating than it sounds. Much like its original meaning \u2014 the killing of animals with undesired genetic traits \u2014 they see the budget cuts as a way to do away with undesirable science. <\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Harper government is not simply influenced by the fossil fuel industry, it is<\/i> the fossil fuel industry,\u201d said Brad Hornick, a lead organizer with of the Vancouver Ecosocialist Group<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Harper administration has long been known for its anti-environment stance. Harper\u2019s environment minister, for instance, has publicly cast doubt<\/a> on research documenting Arctic sea ice melt. Observers have also complained of a revolving door<\/a> between the government and industry that has effectively placed Canada\u2019s natural resources at the disposal of fossil fuel corporations supporting hydraulic fracturing, carbon-rich tar sands extraction and pipeline projects. In the process, a host of conservation laws and sovereignty treaties with Canada\u2019s First Nations population have been unwound at the behest<\/a> of oil and gas lobby groups. The Center for Global Development ranks Canada last<\/a> among wealthy nations in terms of environmental protection.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, 2,000 government scientists<\/a> have been fired over the past five years and hundreds of environmental programs that monitor food, water and air quality, study and prevent oil spills, as well as track atmospheric changes have been shut down for lack of funds.<\/p>\n

Dr. Katie Gibbs with Evidence for Democracy, a grassroots organization composed of scientists mobilizing against the culling, said it is only the latest development in a \u201clong trend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past few years we\u2019ve seen huge cuts in funding for science, layoffs for scientists who work for the government and reduced funding for academic scientists,\u201d Gibbs said. \u201cSome are calling it a war on science.\u201d<\/p>\n

British Columbia\u2019s independent online news magazine The Tyee<\/i> detailed<\/a> the scope of the latest assault, citing several research hubs where scientific literature has been trashed, burned or picked apart. According to The Tyee<\/i>, they include, \u201c[The] Maurice-Lamontagne Institute, which housed 61,000 French language documents on Quebec\u2019s waterways, as well as the newly renovated $62-million library serving the historic St. Andrews Biological Station in St. Andrews, New Brunswick.\u201d Also shut down, were \u201cthe famous Freshwater Institute library in Winnipeg and one of the world\u2019s finest ocean collections at the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Centre in St. John\u2019s, Newfoundland.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a fitting addendum to this assault on science, the magazine noted that Rachel Carson \u2014 a founder of the modern environmental movement \u2014 corresponded with researchers at St. Andrews while writing her pioneering book on environmental contamination, Silent Spring<\/i>, half a century ago.<\/p>\n

According to Gibbs, whose group is circulating a petition<\/a> against the cuts, \u201cThere\u2019s no way this information was digitized. Many scientists have spoken out and said that everything is being done in a huge rush, completely disorganized. Private companies came and picked up truck loads of this material. They<\/i> saw the value in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The gas and dam powered-utility, Manitoba Hydro, plus<\/a> North\/South Consultants \u2014 a firm that counts oil and gas corporations among its clients in the heavily-fracked<\/a> Manitoba province\u00a0\u2014 obtained troves of research documents pertaining to water treatment and aquatic habitats from Winnipeg\u2019s Freshwater Institute. Scientists have also reported witnessing the incineration of literature at DFO libraries and one researcher at the Maurice Lamontagne Institute in Mont Joli, Quebec posted a photo online of a dumpster full of discarded books and journals<\/a>. Although, scientists have done their best to salvage the research, more federal libraries are slated for culling.<\/p>\n

Like the indigenous-led Id<\/a>le No More<\/a> movement and the climate activists who raised a sign that read \u201cclimate justice\u201d over the prime minister\u2019s head at a Vancouver Board of Trade meeting earlier this month<\/a>, scientists are increasingly standing up to Harper, though doing so comes with great risk to their careers.<\/p>\n

Last fall, Evidence for Democracy staged \u201cStand Up for Science\u201d rallies<\/a> in 17 Canadian cities against legal restrictions<\/a> to their ability to share research and communicate with the public \u2014 one of the first steps in the so-called war on science taken by the Harper administration upon its ascent to power in 2006.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe restrictions play into the library closures,\u201d said Gibbs. \u201cWhen scientists have spoken out they\u2019ve had to do so anonymously because they fear for their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to critics of the Harper administration, such attacks on science are part of the prime minister\u2019s small government, big business ideology, which assigns a negative value to any science that adversely impacts the production of fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are going to be in favor of fossil fuel expansion, and tar sands in particular, and you are going to try to sell that to the Canadian public \u2014 part of doing that means dulling the awareness and importance of science,\u201d said Rodger Annis<\/a>, a Vancouver-based environmental activist and writer. \u201cScience tells us in stark terms that if we want to prevent the very serious consequences of climate change<\/a> then we have to leave the tar sands in the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Harper administration may be able to dull, or even subvert the science behind such a message, it\u2019s the scientists who are proving difficult to silence. And perhaps that\u2019s just what\u2019s needed. After all, science is only as strong as the scientists behind it.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 wagingnonviolence.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seven of Canada\u2019s most prized scientific libraries are being shut down and some of their contents have already been burned, thrown away or carted off by fossil fuel consultancy firms. The Harper administration has long been known for its anti-environment stance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglo-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}