Real, honest to goodness scientists, like myself, work long and hard on a project. We must produce volumes upon volumes of statistical data before we go to the next research step. That next step requires controlled testing and impecable record keeping, along with strict scientific analysis. All the way through the process the data must be kept "clean" and it must be analyzed by several different teams for absolute accuracy. Anybody gets caught "fudging", or presents falsified data they get canned (never to work in research again) and the entire project goes back to the beginning, do not pass "go", do not collect $200. Millions of dollars are wasted when this happens. Sometimes the project is dumped all together. Many of you that don't work in medical research don't realize that this has happened, and happens to this day. The people responsible for this are thrown out of the medical research community, they are branded, and they are never permitted to do ANY research activities again. The scientific community does not allow these breaches of protocol, they can't afford to.
Now, one might argue that this doesn't compare with medical research. Afterall, medicine deals with human life, and it should be held to a higher standard.......RIGHT? Well, are the lives of the farmers and ranchers in these areas any less important than a sick patient with a certain disease? Are the incomes and families of the people that live there any more important than that of those same sick people? Is the premise of the Constitution that accorded private property RIGHTS to the citizens of these here United States less important than the sick people with some terrible illness? Should environmental "science" be held to the same strict standards that medicial research is held to?
Those are a bunch of questions to answer, I know. I see it every day. Remember when the einvirals got their underwear in a bunch about alligators? They made all these "factoids" about the alligator is an endangered species. Stop killing the poor, innocent alligator. They came up with a statistic that supported their claim that the alligator was disappearing in north america. We believed it, and we stopped killing alligators for shoes, suitcases, and handbags. But, the Cajuns in the swamps of Louisiana didn't! Where they live they don't really get much "government intervention". Now we have an over proliferation of alligator populations in FLA (they were liberal enough to believe the "cooked" numbers of the envirals). They eat dogs, cats, potbellied pigs, and (sadly) little kids. When this debacle hits the envirals proclaim that they have saved the species and the harvesting of alligators can go ahead (regulated, of course). Here's the payoff----Louisiana never had this problem. They never stopped the hunt. Consequently, Louisiana never had to play catch-up with the rest of the south on this manure! Thank God for those defiant Cajuns in those southern Louisiana swamps. It turns out they were much better "conservationalists" than your average, run of the mill, ivy league educated, yankee, enviral, sommitch! How do you count alligators? You live with them, you hunt 'em, you eat 'em, that how! Believe me, those Cajuns, in those swamps are more of a scientist that 300 of those arrogant bastards that claim a degree!
Thank you.
Breaches like these would not/should not be tolerated by research in any scientific field.
Government sponsored "scientists" don't get a pass.