NULLIUS IN VERBA

  In 1663, a group of savants formed a London club to discuss "useful knowledge." John Milton's "Areopagitica" was very much on the minds of those early scientists, for it warned that Puritan control of the press could turn into state control of thought. Dissent could get you killed in Restoration England, at sword's point if gentlemen took umbrage, or on the gallows if it traduced royal policy or Holy Writ. So they were mighty relieved when King Charles II agreed to join them, for, with such a patron, Fellows of the Royal Society would not fear for their necks or purses when speaking truth to power or questioning authority-at least not until today.

The Royal Society's view of the conflict between authority and evidence is made clear by its motto. Nullius in Verba is Latin shorthand for what Harry Truman meant when he said "I'm from Missouri. Show me."  It's a notion the full quote from Horace--  Nullius addictus judicare in verba magestri expands into the gold standard of object- ivity: "Not compelled to swear to any master's words."

In political terms that translates into : don't let policy proceed from mere perceptions of authority. Abroad, the Royal Society shares the outrage of American scientists at pious politicians seeking to constrain stem cell research funding. But at home the Royal Society seems bent on stopping research at odds with the environmental agenda of the Labor Party.

Old Labour's hoariest political stratagem, class warfare, collapsed along with communism a generation ago. In that implosion's aftermath, the environment has become New Labour's communitarian fallback excuse for justifying societal intervention. The Royal Society has been a Whig institution since Darwin's day, encompassing a dynasty of left-wing science popularizers going back to J.B.S. Haldane and Bertrand Russell. Now it is trying to establish itself as a virtual Leviathan in the world of Green politics by extending the political correctness of Tony Blair's nanny state into the scientific realm.Its latest outburst is an Orwellian call to defund scientific inquiry instead of defending it.

The Royal Society's senior manager for policy communication, Bob Ward, has tried to browbeat Exxon Mobil into blacklisting 39 groups whose inconvenient dissent casts doubt on the policy agenda shared by the Society and the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change. A letter from Mr. Ward to Exxon leaked to The Guardian reveals that he wants those he deems to have "misrepresented the science of climate change" put on a Do Not Fund List because "[t]he next IPCC report gives people the final push that they need to take action and we can't have people trying to undermine it." In other words, stop gainsaying the science that Green foundations are paying good money to advertise.

The source of political contention is less the science in the IPCC's indigestibly erudite 4,000-page reports than their translation into vivid Green rhetoric by the bureaucratic masters of the U.N. Environmental Program (UNEP). Those floridly political "executive summaries" have driven everything from the Kyoto Treaty to EU regulation of refrigerators.

Those who aspire to New Labour's science establishment may feel compelled to swear by such words, lest they end up blackballed from the other London club frequented by the Society's last president , the House of Lords. Lord May owes his peerage to faithful service as Tony Blair's chief science adviser, and echoing Foreign (and past Environment) Minister Margaret Beckett's repetition of whatever Green publicists air. The laboratory cash flow of the honorable Eco-Lord's pals will also swell if the Royal Society can empower UNEP by silencing disloyal whispers that no one knows how to forecast climate 344 years hence.

And silence them it will-protracted scientific controversy about global systems models is tedious, and the authoritarian backroom boys at the Royal Society understandably intend to end it. Mr. Blair's "Yes, Minister" nanny state scorns free speech. True, some of the contrarian organizations on the blacklist are no great loss to science because they are run by registered lobbyists. But their reluctance to acknowledge climate change is no excuse for freezing out freedom of scientific inquiry.

The Royal Society must choose between its motto and using other people's purse strings to throttle dissent-if the motto goes, it must abdicate its divine right to pontificate as well. If it persists in toying with censorship, it deserves to be privatized for seeking to subjugate the Republic of Science to the words of its political masters.

If it wants to reinvent itself as a Green PR firm, fine-let the private foundations pushing the UNEP foot the bill. Perhaps they can underwrite the hostile takeover of scientific independence by selling Royal Society Fellowships, just as New Labour does peerages , for payments in cash or political kind. But what about the clubhouse?

Lord May & Co.'s palatial premises overlooking St. James's Park should of course revert to the crown, whence the late Society's grace and favor so long flowed. Her Majesty's government may want to turn it into condos, like the former Royal Mint, as advertising firms already in the business of selling science would pay handsomely for such a prestigious address, and diehards bent on imposing technical literacy on Parliament (or Congress) can still be locked safely away in its commodious wine cellar. Few in government will notice their absence, because of the deplorable absence of politicized science today. Fashionable as talk of it may be, it cannot fairly be said to exist until both sides have some inkling of what it is they are trying to politicize.

No one compelled Thomas Jefferson to swear "eternal hostility to every form of tyranny over the mind of man." If the recent history of science has anything to teach, it is that there is no place in a free society for a self-appointed Central Committee of Scientific Truth. Until the Royal Society comes to grips with the Enlightenment, its baroque motto deserves a rest.

Copyright 2006   Russell Seitz & Dow Jones inc.

ROYAL SOCIETY PRESIDENT LORD REES REPLIES

Russell Seitz's florid depiction of the Royal Society "Nullius in Verba,"  is entertaining but misleading in the extreme. It is ironic that he labors to portray us as an organization with scant regard for the evidence when he fails even to identify me as the current president. (Lord May was my predecessor.)

Contrary to his accusation, the Society has never sought to prevent the funding of scientific inquiry on climate change or any other area. In fact, the Society champions and promotes academic freedom. It funds some of the United Kingdom's best scientists on the basis of their excellence and does not place any conditions on their research that would in any way compromise their independence.

The Royal Society has never asked Exxon to stop funding any organizations. At a meeting, instigated by Exxon, the Society pointed out that the company was funding a number of groups that have been misinforming the public about the scientific evidence on climate change. The company freely made a pledge to stop this funding, and the letter Mr. Seitz cites in his article followed up that assurance.

The Royal Society and 10 of the world's scientific academies, including the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, have spoken out on climate change in order to clarify where the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence lies. Let us be clear: This points to the need for urgent international action to cut emissions of greenhouse gases.

Ensuring that science is properly represented is wholly in keeping with the Society's motto, "Nullius in Verba." This translates as "on the words of no one," an expression of commitment to empirical evidence as the basis of knowledge about the natural world. The debate about how to tackle climate change must be based on the science rather than misinformation propagated by lobby groups.

Martin Rees
President of the Royal Society

London

Russell Seitz comments:

I did not wish to make Rees a party to a controversy initiated by his predecessor ,  but regret I failed to catch the removal of  'past ' from in front of  'president '  at one point as the essay was edited down to Op-ed length by the WSJ.  I ought indeed to have followed the RS election cycle more diligently.

However, I note that Rees fails to identify himself as having presided over the departure of past  Manager For Policy Communications Ward from the Royal Society's employ ,to join ,of all things , a floridly Green ' lobby group.'

THIS  WALL STREET JOURNAL EUROPE OP-ED AROSE FROM AN ONLINE EXCHANGE  IN THE  INTERNATONAL SCIENCE JOURNAL NATURE:

<http://blogs.nature.com/news/blog/2006/10/when_its_time_to_speak_out.html#comments>

[AS A STUDY IN CONTRAST CHECK OUT THE LETTERS PRO AND CON  FROM GREENPEACE FOUNDER PATRICK MOORE AND  THE CAPTAIN OF THE RAINBOW WARRIOR AT: http://www.climateimc.org/?q=node/652  ]

FOR AN EXCHANGE BETWEEN WARD AND ROGER PIELKE ON THIS LETTER”S INTENT,AND EFFECT, SEE:
http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/prometheus/archives/science_politics/000947bob_ward_commen
ts_on.html

So rarified is the air in  Parliament's upper chamber that even some  hereditary peers hallucinate when contemplating climate change . Poor Viscount Monckton's recent Daily Telegraph screed is the latest symptom  of this syndrome. it has  been Fisked unto death at :

http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2006/11/chinese_navy_disproves_global.php

Contrary to Fred Singer’s assertion in the November 4 issue of his newsletter The Week That Was  ‘Nullius in verba’ makes no reference to the Stern Report . However, Singer regretably does  figure in its assertion  that  "some of the contrarian organizations on the blacklist are no great loss to science"  , as do the egregiously self-referential  'JunkScience' website , and the Competitive Enterprise Institute' s feckless efforts to substitute authority for evidence in the Climate Wars. It will take  more than this  rump parliament  to effect a glorious restoration  of Republican science policy

Post Script-

  Robert Ward has extended his  war on Exxon  to The American Geophysical Union.In  Real Climate  he invited moderator Gavin Schmidt  to:

"raise the question of the ethical implications of AGU allowing ExxonMobil to promote itself at the Fall Meeting through the Morning Mixer for students on Wednesday morning.

 

. 

Comments

[TierFlyer]

"Abroad, the Royal Society shares the outrage of American scientists at pious politicians seeking to constrain stem cell research funding."
Argh! Failure to fund one particular form (or all) of stem cell research is not the same as constraining it.

Else you would have to say that, while the federal government supports traditional marriage by in/direct subsidies, it constrains same sex marriages by declining to extend the same funding.

Oh, heck, baseball over cricket if you prefer.

I found you via the WSJ op-ed.

-TF

[Mark Bahner]

"Abroad, the Royal Society shares the outrage of American scientists at pious politicians seeking to constrain stem cell research funding."

And I share the outrage of British cooks being constrained by pious politicians regarding preparation of children for dinner.

I've read that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.

RESPONSE:
Who has not read of Doctor Bahner's ingeniose Plan to transfer the Genes embodying the culinary Virtue of infants into Breadfruit Trees , to encourage the cannibal classes to offset their Fixed Air footprint ?

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