Of Maps and Politics

Instead, says Wingerter, "this is about control of the message, and that is very definitely a political decision. Ian's termination has sent a chilling message through the Department of the Interior. I've been getting phone calls from other federal scientists who fear that publishing their scientific findings will risk their jobs." PEER has asked Interior Secretary Norton to issue a statement promising that scientists who simply post scientific data will not face retaliation, but, at the time of this writing, the watchdog group has had no reply.

Bob Ferris of Defenders of Wildlife agrees that there's now a frightening level of self-censorship among federal scientists as well as outright tampering with scientific data. The information regarding ANWR on the USFWS site, he says, has changed dramatically since January 14.

Plunged into the highly divisive politics of the ANWR controversy, Thomas has nevertheless charted a route back to the work he loves. Highly respected in his field, the mapmaker had an offer from the World Wildlife Fund, where he now works, within a day of losing his government job. Now the soft-spoken Thomas burns his midnight oil posting information about the ANWR and censorship to his own Web site (www.maptricks.com), which had more than 20,000 visitors in its first few weeks, and answering thousands of e-mails from around the world. "Who would have thought this would have happened?" he laughs.

Joni Praded is a contributing editor for Animals.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group