The Australian: A government climate scientist says he’s stifled by his bosses
Quite a row is underway in Australia, where many leaders embrace carbon trading as an effective and affordable way to wean itself from fossil fuels. And then there is a government economist named Clive Spash who, one gathers, thinks the numbers don’t add up but who also says he can’t publish his paper to that effect because his overseers are seeing that he cannot.
At the Australian reporter Nicola Berkovic has three punchy accounts of events (CSIRO is somewhat like the US’s National Science Foundation + Dept of Energy + NOAA and more…)
- CSIRO ‘gagging climate debate’
- Climate expert Clive Spash ‘heavied’ by CSIRO management ;
- CSIRO bid to gag emission trading sheme policy attack ;
The issues are several, including censorship of a scientist and whether the government has overpromised the low cost and high impact of a cap and trade strategy. It’s difficult from here, even after scanning through the press accounts, to risk trying to summarize things too finely. But there certainly is a lot of dust in the air. Must be a dog fight in there somewhere.
Other stories:
- Melbourne Herald Sun Olga Galacho : Liar, liar, your scheme’s on fire.
- ABC News/The World Today – Shane McLeod: CSIRO stance not censorship: Minister ; One learns that at CSIRO, the boss says, everybody should know that scientists are not permitted to talk about policy. Hmmm. But it’s not censorship. Hmmmmmm.
- Charlie Petit
