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Summary: a courageous, relentlessly readable book
Review: His subject is the fate of scientists whose research brings them into conflict with the policies of the agencies they work for, especially the Forest Service, The Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Wilkinson's profiles of responsible scientists dislodged because of political pressure create a portrait of environmental irresponsibility-comtempt, even-within the bureaucracies whose ostensible mission is to serve the public interest on federally owned lands.
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Summary: An excellent primer for science mythology
Review: I am quoted quite extensively in the chapter entitled "River Keeper". While the quotes have captured the essense of many comments I have made over the years, I point out that I have no memory of ever speaking with the Author. Yet, he quotes me as if he did interview me. Also, I looked and looked, but found no references or footnotes. This struck me as strange for a supposedly serious review of issues surrounding the protection of the planet. I gave the book a one star only because your rating scheme allowed for no lower a grade. Also, I am very proud to be one politician who stands up for the human race, and at the same time has developed a track record on environmental protection that most on the other side only drool about. Harold Vangilder, Councilman, City of Sierra Vista, Arizona
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Summary: An important if highly disturbing book
Review: If this book doesn't provide a wake-up call for anybody who is truly concerned about our environment, I'm not sure what will. A must read for anybody who cares.
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Summary: Science Under Siege named a book of merit by Choice Magazine
Review: In its annual assessment of new titles, Choice Magazine, published by the Association of College and Research Libraries, named Science Under Siege: The Politicians' War on Nature and Truthan "Outstanding Academic Book." Science Under Siege "is an inspirational andeye-opening work for those interested in environmental issues...Carefully selected from among the new publications reviewed in Choice...Outstanding Academic Book titles are truly the 'best of the best," writes Choice editor and publisher Irving Rockwood. "Selection criteria include excellence in scholarship and presentation; significance with regard to other literature in the field; and recognition as an important, often the first, treatment of a specific subject in print..."
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Summary: Chronicle of the "real" environmental trenches
Review: In riveting detail . . . Wilkinson shows that as the clear-cutting of America's forestland goes, so goes the habitat of the fish and the grizzlies-and of the humans as well.
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Summary: An important read for those who care about wild things
Review: Let this book move you as it has moved me. David Brower, Berkeley
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Summary: The real Science Under Siege
Review: Much better than the junk science from that other book.A note on the Amazon.com review: Rachel Carson had left the Fish and Wildlife service before she started "Silent Spring". And she was not hounded for years afterward, she died two years after the book was published.
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Summary: You Could Call This Book A Thriller in The Election Year
Review: My boss gave me this book after seeing it mentioned on the Los Angeles Times paperback-best-seller-list. Relaxing its not. Intense yes but I can't put it down. You wonder why the government has problems with how its supposed to look after our environment. Read Science Under Siege.
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Summary: A reply from the author to Harold Vangilder and to readers
Review: Nice try, Harold. Amnesia, in this case, will not get you off the hook. Lest Mr. Vangilder continue to be forgetful, I would be happy to provide him, or for that matter, anyone requesting it, with a copy of my telephone bill confirming the lengthy conversation we had as I researched my book, "Science Under Siege: The Politicians' War on Nature and Truth." In response, I say let councilman Vangilder's own words and values speak for themselves. He makes no apologies for promoting the kind of land use activities that collectively threaten to destroy the San Pedro River, one of the last great aquatic gems in the desert Southwest. Like the other chapters in my book, this one, "Riverkeeper," is about the fight to save a genuine American treasure. Unfortunately, if the river runs dry -- as numerous scientific studies suggest is occurring -- disappearing with it will be more than 500 species of animals and plants that depend upon the San Pedro for survival and make it a world-renowned wildlife sanctuary, especially for birds. What does Mr. Vangilder have to say about such a prospect? "All right, there may be five hundred species of wildlife found along the San Pedro. My response is, so what?" he said. "What benefit do these animals have for humans? . . . We [humans] are the ones who rule supreme, and if a plant or animal can't adapt to our needs, then it's too bad." Thank you, Harold, for reminding us who the real radicals are. I hold your assessment of my book as a high compliment. And I'm pleased that the vast majority of readers, among the thousands who have bought the book, have been inspired by the battles of scientific whistleblowers -- a.k.a. "combat biologists" -- across America who choose to defend nature, even if it means facing punishment and political retaliation for erring on the side of conservation. There is no question that doing what is right to protect our wild heritage demands courage, and I consider the civil servants in "Science Under Siege" to be freedom fighters waging a noble, silent war against government corruption and dysfunction. I'm more than happy to help honor these true environmental heroes of our time.
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Summary: Buy it, read it.
Review: Science Under Siege: The Politicians' War on Nature and the Truth. By Todd Wilkinson. Johnson Press, Boulder, CO. 343 pp. Reviewed by Pete Geddes, Program Director, Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment From the Civil War until roughly Earth Day, commodity production dominated federal land management. This was often at the expense of ecological integrity, economic efficiency, and social sustainability. Todd Wilkinson's new book Science Under Siege: The Politicians' War on Nature and the Truth adds personal ethics to this list. He demonstrates how bureaucratic and political pressures sacrifice both environment quality and careers to political expediency. Wilkinson, a western correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor has been following western environmental issues for the last ten years. Science Under Siege reaffirms that bureaucracies function ultimately as machines to protect and perpetuate their budgets and co-dependent political interests. Wilkinson tells the stories of eight well intentioned and hardworking "whistleblowers" and the personal and professional price they pay when their convictions confront the leviathan. The stories of political manipulation and agency retaliation are depressing but important reading for those seriously interested in federal land management reform or bureaucratic pathologies more generally. For readers east of the Mississippi River, it's important to understand west of the 100th Meridian, the federal government controls of half the Western lands. At the turn of the century, the West was the staging ground for experiments in Progressive Era conservation. Through "scientific management" benevolent, centralized bureaucracies (e.g., the Forest Service) were to stop the abuses of the nation's natural resources. This was a well intentioned, but naive idea. Instead an "iron triangle" emerged among Congress, federal agencies, and clientele (chamber of commerce/stock grower/mining alliances). As this alliance hardened, the federal agencies, dependent upon the political process for budgetary survival, bowed to political pressures. This may come as a surprise to those who believe it's the mission of the Forest Service to preserve 191 million acres of national forests for "future generations". But as Wilkison documents, the interest of these agencies comes at the expense of national taxpayers, sustainable ecosystems, and agency employees. The danger in a book like this is that Wilkinson opens himself to charges of being a pawn for disgruntled employees. For most of the book Wilkison avoids this trap. He insulates himself in two important ways: First, Wilkinson chooses carefully. He selected eight subjects from a field of 110. To each profile Wilkinson brings in a range of supporting characters. This adds both substance and a soothing tone. Second, by profiling scientists who publish in professional journals, Wilkinson avoids "he-said, she-said" mud-slinging. His profile of David Mattson is illustrative. A former Yellowstone National Park grizzly bear researcher, Mattson is an internationally respected as a leading authority on grizzly bear populations dynamics. He arrived at his office one morning to find it ransacked; data gone, computer confiscated, and personal files locked away. Mattson's offense? His research was leading him to conclude that grizzly bear populations in and around Yellowstone may be declining over the long-term. This was counter to the official line preached by bear recovery coordinator Chris Servheen. Servheen maintains that grizzlies in Yellowstone have multiplied since the species was listed as endangered in 1975. Mattson recently opened his data to criticisms of the entire scientific community by publishing his results in the journal Ecology. Servheen has the same opportunity. The ultimate vindication for Wilinkson's whistleblowers may be found on the land itself. Readers can judge the veracity of former Forest Service fisheries "combat" biologist Al Espinoza by visiting the Clearwater National Forest in central Idaho. They can see the steep slopes, denuded of trees from top to bottom, and the miles of logging roads responsible for spilling sediment into fragile salmon streams. (I spent a summer reviewing appeals of Forest Service decisions on the Clearwater and provided Wilkinson information.) In the patchwork pattern of clearcuts on the national forest of Oregon and Washington, whistelblower Jeff DeBonis made his mark. DeBonis, an up and coming Forest Service timber sale planer, was responsible for "getting the cut out" in the region's old-growth forests. The Pacific Northwest is the "Big League" of professional forestry. Here both the trees and the stakes for meeting timber quotas are big. Sometimes the results are disastrous. For example, the Forest Service recently "accepted blame" for trashing the entire Fish Creek watershed on Oregon's Mount Hood National Forest. It will cost taxpayers $5.4 million to restore areas where logging caused some of the "worst landslides in the region" and runs of wild salmon have "been nearly wiped out". After a crisis of conscience DeBonis left the Forest Service and founded the Association of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (AFSEEE). He notes, "For many people who wear the green (Forest Service) uniform, the working environment is like living in East Germany before the Berlin Wall fell". This is a predictable consequence when decisions are made in the political arena. Here, political considerations trump ecological, ethical, and economic factors. Without explicit reference, Science Under Siege reaffirms the thirty year-old message of public choice economists Noble Laureate James Buchanan, Mancur Olson, Gordon Tullock, and others. They described how concentrated, motivated interest groups forming around economic benefits, have significant advantages in political struggles against more disorganized groups. The powerful analytical tools of economics can help explain the causes of maladies environmentalist condemn: money-losing clearcuts on the national forests; federal dams that don't begin to cover operation costs (let alone the amortized costs of construction); federal agents killing predators such as mountain lions and bears on federal lands grazed by livestock at a huge ecological and economic expense, and a gaggle of other environmentally costly practices. The poignant stories in Science Under Siege, provide further motivation for removing resource management from the political process.
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