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Union of Concerned Scientists has Nothing to do with Science

by Lewis Loflin

The UCS is not a science organization, but a left-wing lobbying group. They are headed by a biased political hack. Kevin Knobloch, President of the Union of Concerned Scientists (www.ucsusa.org), "is an expert on many environmental and arms control issues" they claim. He is not a scientist and "issues" is what they are really about.

His bio is as follows: Executive Director, Union of Concerned Scientists; director, CERES; former Director of Conservation Programs, Boston Appalachian Mountain Club; former Leg. Dir., U.S. Sen. Timothy Wirth (D-CO); former Leg. Asst. and Press Sec., U.S. Rep. Ted Weiss (D-NY).

In other words, he is a lifelong political activist, he is not a scientist. But his organization is treated as scientific by the press on a number of issues. To quote the membership page of the so-called Union of Concerned Scientists:

The Union of Concerned Scientists offers a singular opportunity to make a lasting difference on issues ranging from the effects of global warming to the threat of nuclear weapons. When you become a member of UCS, you join more than 75,000 individuals committed to finding solutions to some of the most challenging environmental and global security issues of our time.

UCS combines independent scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative, practical solutions and to secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices.

UCS members are people from all walks of life: parents and businesspeople, biologists and physicists, teachers and students. We are showing that thoughtful action based on the best available science can help safeguard our future. We care, and we get results. Please join us.

It is not independent anything being headed by an eco-political hack associated with Al Gore and Tim Worth. Anyone can join, and issues such as nuclear weapons is standard left-wing politics.

CERES (www.ceres.org) has a direct financial interest in the results of their "independent scientific research and citizen action." It means millions of dollars in Knobloch's bank account. To quote,

Ceres (pronounced "series") is a national network of investors, environmental organizations and other public interest groups working with companies and investors to address sustainability challenges such as global climate change. Mission: Integrating sustainability into capital markets for the health of the planet and its people.

Who is Tim Wirth? According to Wiki,

Timothy E. Wirth (b. September 22, 1939) is a former United States Senator from Colorado. Wirth, a Democrat, was a member of the House from 1975 to 1987 and was elected to the Senate in 1986, serving one term there before stepping down. He was Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs during the Clinton Administration.

In the State Department, he worked with Vice President Al Gore on global environmental and population issues, supporting the administration's views on global warming. A supporter of the proposed Kyoto Protocol, Wirth announced the U.S.'s commitment to legally binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Wirth left government to head the United Nations Foundation, begun in 1997 by media mogul Ted Turner with a pledge of $1 billion. See Exposing the UN Climate Change Panel and Its Politics

Wirth is married to Wren Winslow Wirth, the President of the Winslow Foundation; together they have two children, Christopher and Kelsey Wirth. Their daughter, Kelsey Wirth, is the co-founder of the orthodontic production company Align Technology, makers of Invisalign. [1] His nephew, Peter Wirth, was elected in 2004 to the New Mexico State Legislature. His brother, the late John Wirth, was a professor at Stanford University.

The University of Colorado at Denver currently has an endowed Tim Wirth Chair in Environmental and Community Development Policy. The current holder of the chair is the man Wirth replaced in the Senate, Gary Hart.

This person (Wirth) also proclaims paid activist (about $1 million) Dr. James Hansen a "hero" over global warming. By the way, what is the Winslow Foundation headed by his wife? As of 2001 the Foundation has $30,000,000 in assets and funds ($5 million) a number of radical environmental groups such as Greenpeace.



Who is Ted Weiss?

Rep. Ted Weiss, 64, Dies; Liberal Stalwart in House. Published: September 15, 1992 New York Times: "Representative Ted Weiss, a Manhattan Democrat who for more than 15 years was one of the most outspoken advocates of liberal policies in Congress, died yesterday at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in Manhattan. He was 64 years old and lived in Manhattan and Washington." In other words he was a another big city environmentalist more interested in political activism than birds and trees.

There's also some question as his ethics in regards top science. To quote The Multinational Monitor Corrupting Science Dec. 1989 - Vol. 10 - Number 12,

Capitulating to intense pressure from universities and the biomedical industry, Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan recently quashed conflict of interest guidelines proposed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The proposed guidelines recommended that recipients of funding from NIH or the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration disclose their financial holdings and divest their stock holdings in companies whose products they test.

In scrapping the guidelines, Sullivan said it is "important that we not impose on our scientific community regulatory burdens which may be unnecessary or counterproductive. Likewise, it is important that we not unnecessarily jeopardize the international leadership position we have built up through years of cooperative government and private investment."

NIH initially proposed the guidelines in response to Congressional pressure and several well-publicized incidents involving conflicts of interest. Most of the Congressional pressure came from Representative Ted Weiss, D-N.Y., and his Human Resources and Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee. The Subcommittee scrutinized NlH's conflict of interest policy at hearings held in 1988 and 1989 to examine scientific fraud and university-industry relations.

[...]

The future of NlH's conflict of interest policy is murky, but some change is probably inevitable. NIH and Sullivan's office say they remain committed to implementing new standards in the form of mandatory regulations. If NIH does not move quickly to implement stronger regulations, however, Congress will probably enact legislation on the issue. "That seems where [we are] headed now," Weiss's assistant says, adding that legislation "will make the scientific community much more unhappy than they were with the guidelines."

As of 2008 nothing has changed. Political meddling in science while handing out billions of tax dollars goes on today. There's still no accountability. Original URL http://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1989/12/front.html

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