Sort of like our own domestic war on science. This is not a side show – it’s the main event. Knowledge is a threat to those who seek to profit thru the destruction of the planet’s living community. What’s happening in Canada will happen everywhere soon, unless it is opposed.
Scientists across the country are expressing growing alarm that federal cutbacks to research programs monitoring areas that range from climate change and ocean habitats to public health will deprive Canadians of crucial information.
“What’s important is the scale of the assault on knowledge, and on our ability to know about ourselves and to advance our understanding of our world,” said James Turk, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers.
n the past five years the federal government has dismissed more than 2,000 scientists, and hundreds of programs and world-renowned research facilities have lost their funding. Programs that monitored things such as smoke stack emissions, food inspections, oil spills, water quality and climate change have been drastically cut or shut down.
This week, scientists went public with concerns that irreplaceable science could be lost when Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) libraries are closed. DFO plans to shut down seven of its 11 libraries by 2015. Already, stories have emerged about books and reports thrown into dumpsters and the general public being allowed to rummage through bookshelves.
The government responded that the information will not disappear. On Monday, DFO told CBC News that “all of its copyrighted material has been digitized and that the rest of its collection will be soon.”
“Users will continue to have completely free access to every item in DFO’s collections. All materials for which DFO has copyright will be preserved by the department,” Fisheries Minister Gail Shea wrote in a statement to CBC.
But Turk says the problem is not just the loss of existing library collections.
“It also means that going forward, whether it be policy analysts or scientists or members of the public, there won’t be a library there that collects material for them to use. So there’s not only the danger of losing what we’ve had, which may be irreplaceable, but it’s also in future, that resource isn’t going to be there in the first place.”
First has everyone noticed that Peter has broken the 1400 mark?
“You are following this blog, along with 1,401 other amazing people”
Crock’s numbers are rising faster than the CO2 level in the atmosphere (if that means anything).
Congratulations, Peter, and everyone keep spreading the word about Crock.
Back to Canada. The news like this post that keeps comeing out of our not-so-friendly “friendly neighbor” is appalling. In my more paranoid moments, I think that the Kochs and their ilk are sending much hidden $$$ to Canada, and using it as a test bed for their plans to turn the world into a fossil-fuel-friendly corporate feudal state. Main event indeed! Peter missed the chance to append “Coming soon to a library or university near you” to the title of this post.
There are no doubt plenty of others, like myself, who follow the blog and are not signed up to the email. I have a live RSS bookmark so I can keep up to date.
Always find it informative. Keep up the good work Peter.
It’s become a truism on the right wing that scientists are political interventionists who seek only to benefit themselves.
The truth is that most research scientists have as much or as little interest in politics as most politicians have in actually doing scientific research.
And anyone who thinks they’re in it for the money is ignorant.
Most of them would be better off becoming plumbers or football coaches.
Also, there is no funding in place to digitize the existing files and much has already been either discarded to given away without record.
As for collecting information, also note that Statistics Canada has also been ‘downsized’. The short- rather than the long-form census has been approved to be the standard… getting rid of our ability to measure the social ramifications and trends from policy effects over time.
Scientists who say ‘boo’ about negative consequences of law-breaking federal approvals (exempting by ministerial fiat from legislated concrete plans and costs for having to mitigate and restore environmental degradation from resource extraction) have either been fired or their public funding cut. This includes affecting some publicly funded university faculties that have produced research that exposes negative effects from current practices that have received prior federal approval suddenly facing shortfalls when funding is yanked.
Yes, it is a kind of war against those who would dare to criticize and demonstrate with evidence adduced from reality the ideological shortcomings of poor public policy… and I think a natural consequence of embedding partisan politics as the norm.
And, once again, an example of faith-based belief – this time in the ‘rightness’ of the ruling party’s philosophy – in action when coupled with power to enforce.
What kind of worldview or ideology allows for greed to overshadow real threats to civilization?
Out of control free marketry or run amok capitalism, perhaps?
Outstanding and rare commentary. I have little doubt that the careers of the people that created it will soon be threatened.
The real threat to science is not government budget squeeze, it is pecuniary & political corruption, mostly by leftists, and there are few areas in which corruption has more comprehensibly displaced scientific integrity than in the field of climatology.
And the conservative’s resident village idiot on Crock shambles over and says out of the side of his mouth as if it were a revelation—-“It’s the leftists who are the bad guys”.
Lord love a hundred ducks, Dave, but this is one of the least coherent things you have ever said here. Did you watch this video? I don’t think so. You are just spouting a few mindless lines you have carelessly picked out out of the “talking points for conservative and anti-AGW trolls” manual.
If you had viewed the video you would have realized that the video is something that conservatives should just plain try to hide from, rather than try to “debunk”. But then again, maybe you’re just not that smart? You HAVE picked some pretty dumb battles before—remember the “poor little man trying to sell flowers”? A classic.
Analysis free obsession about immediate growth, jobs and “prosperity” is the same Cocaine/Cognac thinking that spawned the last two real estate bubbles.
I see that you still loyally includes a link to “How Science Will Get Rid Of The AGW Dogma” authored by Omnologos, our resident philosopher, in which vague analogies comprehensibly displace scientific integrity.
Don’t forget that Dave is a paid shill for NC-20, a group that would like to have a real estate bubble appear in NC before the land is submerged by the rising oceans. Dave is not a disinterested observer, he has “skin in the game”.
You’re hilarious, Old Guy. You liberals live in a fantasy world.
If you know so much about me, why don’t you find out and tell me about my “real estate agent wife.”
How can you be so sure I’m a “liberal”, Dave? Just because I pick on fools like you that are an embarrassment to the very idea of “conservative”? For all you know, I’m a REAL conservative that is trying to keep you from doing damage to the conservative image (as you are doing yet again with this comment).
After his little ad hominem, and rather than saying something of substance, Dave brings up his “real estate agent wife” yet again. That’s not something I brought up originally, Dave—someone else did. I have mentioned “her” only as a joking aside in some of my comments.
Why do you keep bringing “her” up anyway? And seeming to be so amused by it? Is there some private “big joke” that you’re laughing at us over? Is it that you’re gay and you have a husband rather than a wife? That can’t be because the NC legislature has banned gay marriage, just as they forbid sea level to rise, so it must be something else.
So tell us, what’s the real joke behind your “real estate agent wife”? I love jokes.
PS Before deleting Dave’s message, I hit the link. What kind of idiot links back to a whole series of comments from several folks that tore him several new anal orifices? It’s almost as if he is saying to us “Go back and look at this if you don’t believe I’m an idiot”.
I DO recommend that everyone look at the link and read the half dozen or so comments that talk about NC-20, Dave’s “wife” (very briefly), and Dave’s many shortcomings. He DID invite you to do so, after all.
Corruption in Washington (and myriad smaller centers of power) knows no party. There is one party, the party of money; the people wearing the “D”, “R”, “I” and other jerseys are just the visible part of the kabuki theater.
I hate to question Ewwwww-Pot’s superior knowledge and intellect, but I would suggest that there is a actually quite a bit of a “skew” in the data about who has been most corrupted by “money” (in all its ramifications).
It’s obvious that it’s the Repugnant Party. and sad to say, all too many Democrats and Independents (but not Bernie Sanders) have been forced to follow their lead in order to get re-elected. I have mentioned Winner Take All Politics, Death of the Liberal Class, and Jack Abramoff’s book before on Crock. They tell a compelling story.
If E-Pot could put down his nuclear power textbooks for a moment and explore the world of politics instead, he might develop a more nuanced understanding of what he speaks to us about in such a superficial manner.
My earlier comment was based only on Peter’s quotes. I have since watched the entire 46+ minutes, and agree with stephen that it is outstanding. It is powerful and hard hitting, and far exceeds in quality what we typically see here in the U.S. I am not familiar with Canadian TV networks, so I googled Fifth Estate and found that it has been around since 1975, and has “gone after” a lot of folks, so it may survive this bit of truth-telling. Canadians? Is it on a PBS-like station or is it on a station that would be considered MSM?
I thought that what the George W. Bush administration did re: science and AGW was horrendous. I had some knowledge of the undue influence of the the petroleum lobby and the various ecological disasters occurring in Canada, but what is going on in Canadian politics and science right now leaves me nearly speechless.
(BTW, has anyone noticed that a substitution of only three letters turns H-A-R-P-E-R into H-I-T-L-E-R. The corporate fascist state may become a reality yet on this planet.)
Re: Is it on a PBS-like station or is it on a station that would be considered MSM?
The Fifth Estate is on CBC Television.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Estate_%28TV%29
CBC is akin to the BBC or PBS, as well as being considered pretty mainstream.
In the common usage in the U.S., BBC and PBS are not quite MSM, in that they maintain a certain “seriousness” and openness that the commercial networks often do not. The MSM has been castigated by the right wing for being “liberal” as a matter of propaganda—the truth is that there is no such thing as a “liberal” media in the U.S. We have the right wing circular firing squad and the corporate media that is more concerned with just plain entertainment—-“spohts”, crime, scandal, sensationalism, and “reality shows”—-rather than with issues of public policy and real concern. Real news about real issues is mostly found on the web anymore (if you can get by the trolls), and to some extent in the print media, although it too is being coopted and corrupted.
Hi Old Guy,
When I said CBC is “mainstream”, I was comparing it in my own mind to choices we have (here in the U.S. via the net and/or cable) such as Free Speech TV, RT.com, The Real News Network, al Jazeera English, Pacifica, Democracy NOW!, The Daily Show, etc. Compared to these excellent sources, alas, the BBC, PBS and CBC are all pretty much mainstream pabulum. YMMV. 🙂
I do agree with you about the corruption of the MSM to become mere infotainment. As is being pointed out, we cannot run democracies if the public are fed a constant diet of bull$#!+. Sadly, that seems to be the intention of our corporate masters intent on creating and/or maintaining the simulacrum of self-rule for the masses.
***
Refreshing, the BBC has some willingness to burst out of the bubble and allow some cheeky observations about the state of the world. Such as the various projects of Charlie Brooker. Here’s a recent example:
I hadn’t thought about things like RT and Al Jazeera, who often do provide more real “news” about what is happening in the U.S. than the MSM. Good point.
Good olde Charlie Brooker! Not for the faint hearted…well if you’re a conservative anyway!
Harper is a sock puppet for the US Republicans, at best.
That is one powerful documentary and paints a gloomy picture for the state of science in Canada. Harper was voted into the PM spot in 2006, before the US financial recession which spread to the rest of the world from December of 2007 (so that can’t be blamed).
Interestingly the Canadian government have a governmental “Climate Change” site that paints a dynamic picture of Canada’s involvement.
http://www.climatechange.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=E18C8F2D-1
It is also addressed in their “natural resources Canada” site.
http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/environment
after seeing the docu, one can’t help being very sceptical about the spin and pr work.
What is the opposition Liberal party doing there I wonder, hope they are fighting back.
Yes, the whole thing seems to be ‘spin” and “PR”, and it’s actually quite blatant and insulting. Just to pick out one sentence from the links,
“The Earth Science Sector’s Climate Change Geoscience Program (CCGP) is focused on developing geoscience information to help land-use planners, industry and regulators mitigate the risks in northern resource development arising from climate change”.
If that says what it appears to say, the whole focus is on supposedly trying to find out how to do as little damage as possible as they take advantage of the new opportunities for “resource development” brought on by AGW. In other words, now that they can go farther north to rape and pillage the environment, how can we do so without getting the treehuggers upset? Drill, baby, drill! (Once the ice is gone). They are actually hoping for the arctic sea ice to disappear, and my quick scan of the sites found little concern about the tar sands either.
Does anyone know if there is even such a thing as a “liberal” party up there? If so, they don’t seem to be doing much to counter Hitler (ooops, meant Harper) since the putsch of 2006—-7+ years now.
Well, I’m ‘up here’ so I can tell you that the program is on CBC, the national and public broadcaster. We have two main opposition parties, both considered centrist but with Left leanings. Harper’s Conservative government has a slim majority and represents slightly less than 18.5% of the Canadian population’ preference. On this basis of a majority, Harper has tremendous authority. We had an inkling of how much respect he granted to the importance of science and its finding to public policy when he appointed as Minister of Science and Technology a chiropractor.
Think about the what affect that might have on approving and allocating appropriate public financing for scientific endeavors… by someone who thinks there’s a vital energy causing health that can be blocked by joint misalignment that then requires correction by manipulations to overcome subluxation dysfunction. This is the depth and scope of scientific understanding accompanying the man in charge of science and technology funding for the entire public sector, including healthcare and education.
Is it any wonder that Harper can find such willing allies to gut the pursuit of knowledge if it interferes with faith-based beliefs in prosperity economics?
Please hold up a cue card for us at this time:
Choose between “Laugh Loudly” or “Cry”
Being a rather crusty old SOB, I think I’ll laugh. It doesn’t mean I don’t feel your pain up there, though. You have my sincerest condolences.
I hope the wonderful Canadian podcast ‘Science For the People’ can do a show on this. I really have a hard time understanding how this kind of anti-science nonsense has gotten such traction in Canada. I have always held them up as a beacon of hope that the U.S. could learn some good lessons from.
Re: Does anyone know if there is even such a thing as a “liberal” party up there?
Yes, there is a Liberal Party in Canada but it has suffered from a lack of charismatic leadership in the last few election cycles. This may be changing. The new leader of the party is the son of former PM Pierre Trudeau. He’s creating a bit of a buzz. http://tinyurl.com/jw9uxrv
Traditionally in Canadian politics, the Liberals dominated and the Conservatives were a party of cranks and Hudson Bay trading company types.
On the Left, there is the New Democratic Party which once were the socialists. These were the people responsible for creating the Saskatchewan Medicare system which was miraculously adopted by an enlightened Conservative PM in the mid-1960s.
There’s a wonderful CBC miniseries on this history called “Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story”. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in being nostalgic about how government was when it actually had the best interest of the people in mind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prairie_Giant
I was talking to some Canadian academics about how things were. They pointed out that Canada was leading the world in research and production of certain technologies, notably Fuel Cells.
Now however, they are well behind, their fuel cells look old fashioned next to what’s coming out of China, in part because all those scientists who lost funding went to Europe and Asia and took they’re ideas (and the associated jobs) with them.
And Stephen Harper claims to be “pro business”!
I believe he is – if it helps or doesn’t hurt the oil business.