Angie Craig: “I will not take a great deal of time, but I want to visit this issue in the context that it has just been presented by…”

“I will not take a great deal of time, but I want to visit this issue in the context that it has just been presented by our colleague from Massachusetts. First, I think it is awfully important to understand a couple of things that just have transpired that the Senator referenced as it relates to these National Academies of Science. On the surface, when one reads that and sees that the G8 academies are all standing together, including ours, one would say, wow, that is a powerful statement. What I am terribly afraid has happened is that good academicians and scientists have in some way been co-opted and in this case possibly politicized. Let me explain what I am talking about. It is terribly frustrating for me--and I trust it is for the Senator from Massachusetts--to see a group of scientists say one thing at one time and something else a little later. After that statement came out, I asked Bruce Alberts, the president of our National Academy of Sciences, what was meant by this statement. In his reply to me, here is what he said: The press release is not an accurate characterization of the eleven academies' statement, and it is not an accurate characterization of our 1992 report. I have enclosed a copy of the letter that I sent yesterday to Dr. May, President of the Royal Society [who is pushing this initiative right now because, obviously, Prime Minister Blair is the chairman of the G8,] expressing my displeasure with their press release.…”