Scientists are being threatened for doing their jobs

I wasn’t aware that there is some kind of an award for scientists who speak out. However, if you notice in the blurb below, the EPA scientists are often restricted from speaking out. It has nothing to do with the Trump administration. It’s just the fallacies of the reporter and the newspaper). Anyway, that is not the point here.

I did speak to someone from EPA and was surprised to know that there is a routine cover-up of pollution and environmental degradation. It has a lot to do with the big industry and the political collusion, but it is a known fact.

It is of no joy to anyone that the competition drew a record 206 entries from 38 countries. Scientists, like journalists and politicians, face increasing hostility for speaking out. Some are targeted by industry or fringe groups; others, as the Scholars at Risk network points out, by their own governments. The academic freedom to tell inconvenient truths is being eroded even in supposed strongholds of democracy. Greece’s former chief statistician Andreas Georgiou has been repeatedly convicted, and acquitted on appeal, of manipulating data. In fact, statisticians worldwide insist that Mr Georgiou has been victimised for refusing to massage fiscal numbers. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has restricted the extent to which US Environmental Protection Agency researchers can publicise their work.

What is important is that we should engage with the community to explain what science is doing and why it is crucial. I am well aware of our scientific institutions not being able to do anything that would have a public impact. It is time to change it.

via Scientists are being threatened for doing their jobs | Financial Times