Science Under Siege: The Politicians' War on Nature and Truth

Rating:
Summary: Editors' Recommended Book: The San Francisco Chronicle
Review: "Science Under Siege is a remarkable project, both daunting and inspiring. It details almost too clearly one of the most elemental tenets of our time, or any other time: That truth has its own specific and considerable power, and that because of this, we cannot help but be tempted to shape and bend it, to buy and sell it. There are thousands of people in the governmental agencies who are not for sale, who exist, and persist, valiantly, in that strange no-man's land of being paid by the agency, or by Congress--individuals who still possess their integrity--but, as Wilkinson shows us, the cost is not cheap." Reviewed by Rick Bass in the San Francisco Chronicle Book Section, December 20,1998.

Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Book
Review: A friend gave me this book for Christmas and I have not been able to put it down. Mr. Wilkinson knows how to tell a good story but none of it is fiction. It has given me newfound respect for the struggles of whistleblowers trying to protect the environment.

Rating:
Summary: A facade of protection for the truth
Review: As a current employee of the department of defense, I read in absolute amazement these eight cases from other federal agencies. I thought DOD could be restrictive: Now I know they are amatuers compared with BLM, DWF, NPS, and USFS ... This book (and hopefully more like them) need a wider audience ... If a majority of taxpayers only understood the money these bureaucrats waste in the name of some illogical political or management decision, maybe some true meaningful change would occur ... As a postscript, it was surreal watching President Clinton claim last night during his Demoractic convention speech how much he, his party, and Al Gore have done for the environment ... If the current administration, with Bruce Babbit as their enforcer, has helped the environment, then George W. is an environmentalist ...

Rating:
Summary: A facade of protection for the truth
Review: As a current employee of the department of defense, I read in absolute amazement these eight cases from other federal agencies. I thought DOD could be restrictive: Now I know they are amatuers compared with BLM, DWF, NPS, and USFS ... This book (and hopefully more like them) need a wider audience ... If a majority of taxpayers only understood the money these bureaucrats waste in the name of some illogical political or management decision, maybe some true meaningful change would occur ... As a postscript, it was surreal watching President Clinton claim last night during his Demoractic convention speech how much he, his party, and Al Gore have done for the environment ... If the current administration, with Bruce Babbit as their enforcer, has helped the environment, then George W. is an environmentalist ...

Rating:
Summary: "The War Against the Greens" meets "Profiles in Courage."
Review: As reviewed in 'Wildlife Conservation": Veteran environmental journalist Todd Wilkinson tells the story of several scientists and employees of natural resource agencies who put their careers on the line to protect everything from old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest to one of the last free-flowing rivers in the Southwest.

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Summary: Local Heroes
Review: Every now and then these days I hear someone bemoaning the lack of real "heroes" in contemporary America. Perhaps our definition of the term (athletes, entertainment figures, military types, the wealthy) needs to be altered, since the impressive group profiled in Todd Wilkinson's work are entirely admirable, hard-working and scrupulous, and not a little brave (including pure physical courage). This is a maddening book, fluently written, passionately argued and almost unbearable in its chronicling of offical mal- and misfeasance, lying, willful stupidity, and political gangsterism in the pursuit of selfishness. If you think that the smothering of science (and scientists) in the service of political expediency went out with the Middle Ages, think again. Everyone I have recommended it to has responded similarly: FOR GOD'S SAKE!--how can this be happening and why haven't I heard of it till now...check it out while there's still a few trees standing and frogs croaking....

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Summary: "A very important book"--as reviewed in Northern Lights
Review: From a new review by Lance Olsen in the literary journal, Northern Lights: "Early in the 1980s a rumor reached me of a Forest Service wildlife biologist's report indicating that oil and gas exploration wasn't good for grizzly bears. Immediately, the biologist's phone and office were taken away; he was transferred to another National Forest. I shrugged off the incident as an anomaly. Instead, it was followed by other instances of public employees punished for publicly expressing what the public has every right to know. In an era when corporate free speech was rising, scientific/professional speech was being suppressed. Todd Wilkinson's book takes similar tales public. Wilkinson names the names, but he neither deifies the pros who have taken heat for their intellectual integrity nor demonizes their ranking superiors who retaliated against them. His account is more sophisticated and straightforward than that; he reports secrets that have been too long held to too-narrow circles. A silenced battle against truth has been given its voice. Accountability is now possible. Science Under Siege is a very important book. The political habitat enveloping science and nature may get a wholesome and long overdue overhaul because of it."

Rating:
Summary: "A very important book"--as reviewed in Northern Lights
Review: From a new review by Lance Olsen in the literary journal, Northern Lights: "Early in the 1980s a rumor reached me of a Forest Service wildlife biologist's report indicating that oil and gas exploration wasn't good for grizzly bears. Immediately, the biologist's phone and office were taken away; he was transferred to another National Forest. I shrugged off the incident as an anomaly. Instead, it was followed by other instances of public employees punished for publicly expressing what the public has every right to know. In an era when corporate free speech was rising, scientific/professional speech was being suppressed. Todd Wilkinson's book takes similar tales public. Wilkinson names the names, but he neither deifies the pros who have taken heat for their intellectual integrity nor demonizes their ranking superiors who retaliated against them. His account is more sophisticated and straightforward than that; he reports secrets that have been too long held to too-narrow circles. A silenced battle against truth has been given its voice. Accountability is now possible. Science Under Siege is a very important book. The political habitat enveloping science and nature may get a wholesome and long overdue overhaul because of it."

Rating:
Summary: "An extremely good book" ---Bear News
Review: From a review that appeared in Bear News, the journal of the Great Bear Foundation: Calling science "a moral compass for making the right decisions," Science Under Siege argues convincingly thatpublic agencies have lost sight of true north. This book is very hard on bureaucrats--many of them professional scientists who have lost their way--and on political manipulations by elected officials and corporate lobbyists who care not one whit for the bears or habitat! This is an extremely good book; it hits hard but it cleverly lets the bad guys hang themselves with their own words while promoting the good science, the good scientists and government officials. It also makes one sad to realize how the concepts of civil service and specialized agencies have been so destroyed by politicians and Big Money. President Nixon started the trend of replacing professional agency heads with politicial cronies--a problem that is still growing today. Dave Mattson, "the hero of the bears," who studied grizzlies in Yellowstone National Park and others deserve all the credit this book gives them.

Rating:
Summary: "An extremely good book" ---Bear News
Review: From a review that appeared in Bear News, the journal of the Great Bear Foundation: Calling science "a moral compass for making the right decisions," Science Under Siege argues convincingly thatpublic agencies have lost sight of true north. This book is very hard on bureaucrats--many of them professional scientists who have lost their way--and on political manipulations by elected officials and corporate lobbyists who care not one whit for the bears or habitat! This is an extremely good book; it hits hard but it cleverly lets the bad guys hang themselves with their own words while promoting the good science, the good scientists and government officials. It also makes one sad to realize how the concepts of civil service and specialized agencies have been so destroyed by politicians and Big Money. President Nixon started the trend of replacing professional agency heads with politicial cronies--a problem that is still growing today. Dave Mattson, "the hero of the bears," who studied grizzlies in Yellowstone National Park and others deserve all the credit this book gives them.