She Blinded Me with Science

An interesting news story is flying just above the American media radar this week. While the lion's share of news coverage is dedicated to SuperBowl XL and the commercials that appeared during the game's broadcast, some scientists at NASA are trying to get their message through a political filter in tact and uncensored.

Last week, a story in the New York Times appeared about Dr. James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Dr. Hansen claimed that the Bush administration was attempting to muzzle him with regards to some dire climactic data that the doctor was trying to impart to the public. Dr. Hansen said that NASA's public affairs staff was going through his upcoming lecture materials and scholarly papers in an effort to control, soften or otherwise nullify any gloomy message about the current state of the natural environment. Members of the public affairs department have also reviewed Dr. Hansen's website postings and requests from journalists for interviews. NASA's deputy assistant administrator for public affairs ("deputy assistant" is a wonderful bureaucratic designation), Dean Acosta, said that this sort of procedure is routine for all NASA employees. Furthermore, according to Acosta, requests for interviews coming from the media are reviewed by public affairs officers to ensure coordination and a proper flow of information.

Acosta's primary complaint about Dr. Hansen is that NASA scientists should dispense only the meat and potatoes of science--that is, just the facts. It is not the role of NASA scientists to make policy statements. What did Dr. Hansen say that so riled the public affairs department at NASA? That emissions of greenhouse gasses must be drastically reduced in order to maintain a stable climate.

Whether or not Dr. Hansen is delivering a "policy message" is hardly the concern. Here is a scientist who has worked for nearly 30 years at NASA, who has statistical data to demonstrate that the burning of fossil fuels adversely affects the climate; in short, a qualified expert who has something important and immediate to tell us about the world in which we live. The deputy assistant administrator for public affairs, however, apparently has the power to control the volume, gravity and range of this message.

In a country where science and math are already so devalued a currency as to make Confederate dollars seem like crisp new fifties, one of America's most recognized and arguably most inspiring scientific organizations is being diluted by calls of bureaucratic foul and any apparent findings or data that do not correlate with the "message" put forth by the Bush administration.

That is not to say that these presidential appointees in NASA aren't interested in promoting information about the sciences--quite the contrary. In fact, directives came down from NASA headquarters in early 2004 that all press releases related to earth sciences should make some reference to president Bush's call for a return to the Moon and to Mars. In other words, if the scientific "information" recalls Bush's glorious vision of exploring the same satellite we visited 35 years ago, then open the flood gates; if the subject matter is anything else, or worse, detrimental to the current administration's policies, then keep it under your hat.

Some policy makers and administrators at NASA are appointed by the White House, and Dr. Hansen and other functionaries within the public affairs department at NASA claim that these appointees have threatened "dire consequences" if he did not cease his pleas for swift action regarding the decrease in greenhouse gasses. A follow-up story in the New York Times states that "more than a dozen public-affairs officials, along with half a dozen agency scientists, spoke of growing efforts by political appointees to control the flow of scientific information."

I read on another blog today about the curious case of George Deutsch, a presidential appointee at NASA's headquarters. Deutsch seems to be overly concerned about making sure that every scientific proclamation about the cosmos allow some room for the notion of so-called Intelligent Design theory, especially considering he's in the employ of one of the largest science concerns in the country. From the Times (Feb. 4, 2006):

The Big Bang memo came from Mr. Deutsch, a 24-year-old presidential appointee in the press office at NASA headquarters whose résumé says he was an intern in the "war room" of the 2004 Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. A 2003 journalism graduate of Texas A&M, he was also the public-affairs officer who sought more control over Dr. Hansen's public statements.

In October 2005, Mr. Deutsch sent an e-mail message to Flint Wild, a NASA contractor working on a set of Web presentations about Einstein for middle-school students. The message said the word "theory" needed to be added after every mention of the Big Bang.

The Big Bang is "not proven fact; it is opinion," Mr. Deutsch wrote, adding, "It is not NASA's place, nor should it be to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator."

It continued: "This is more than a science issue, it is a religious issue. And I would hate to think that young people would only be getting one-half of this debate from NASA. That would mean we had failed to properly educate the very people who rely on us for factual information the most."

The memo also noted that The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual specified the phrasing "Big Bang theory." Mr. Acosta, Mr. Deutsch's boss, said in an interview yesterday that for that reason, it should be used in all NASA documents.

The Deutsch memo was provided by an official at NASA headquarters who said he was upset with the effort to justify changes to descriptions of science by referring to politically charged issues like intelligent design. Senior NASA officials did not dispute the message's authenticity.

Meh. I particularly enjoy the time and effort this cog devoted to worrying about religion having a place in the Einstein presentations for middle school students. Were those public schools, I wonder? I thought the Republicans were supposed to favor the laissez-faire approach to governmental administration, but Deutsch seemed to be pretty engaged in this seemingly fringe NASA activity. Get 'em while they're young, Mr. Deutsch.

I'm admittedly biased toward this administration. I don't think very highly of this president in terms of his ability to make sound decisions, think on his feet or possess even a tenuous grasp of the intricacies related to domestic and/or foreign policy. Some would say I ask too much of a president; the leader of the free world need not be a Rhodes Scholar or a policy savant. Perhaps, but he or she should be able to pronounce words like "nuclear." Nevertheless, I would have ranked Bush's term a success if he was at least able to keep us out of a war. Well. Wherefore art thou, silver lining? Oh yeah, preservation of democracy--by any means necessary.