Sensible remarks from a dynamical systems theorist.

NL

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'Loony' jibe at US policy over climate

Robin McKie, science editor
Sunday November 27, 2005
The Observer


Britain's most senior scientist warned last week that UK research is being
stifled by an 'appalling, obsessive' bureaucracy. 'A bunch of academic
apparatchiks' is threatening our scientific brilliance, said Lord May,
retiring president of the Royal Society.
'Today, Crick and Watson's work on DNA would have been blocked before they
had got started. Crick would have been sacked for being idle and Watson
would have been told to piss off and stop messing about with his grant.'

May - in short - is in typical form. The Australian-born mathematician -
scourge of greenies, homeopaths, lawyers, bureaucrats and politicians -
leaves office on Wednesday, but he is not going quietly. He described the
beliefs of US climate chief James Connaughton as 'loony' and warned that
Christian and Islamic fundamentalists now threaten to create a blighted,
blinkered world worthy of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four

He also attacked arrogant doctors for fuelling the recent MMR crisis and
lambasted author Michael Crichton - whose State of Fear claims that global
warming is a myth - for writing nonsense. 'Crichton's ... book is presented
as something important. In fact, it is total rubbish.'

May, aged 69, remains convinced that science can make the world a better
place, despite attempts to stifle it by fundamentalists, errant writers and
bureaucrats: 'Ten years ago, UK science was pretty poorly supported. Now it
is relatively well-funded.'

Unfortunately, a new layer of academic administration has been created to
ensure this money is well spent, he added. 'We have pro-vice-chancellors for
any old thing. Many are not very good. We have created an obsessive
bureaucracy that masquerades as accountability. Crick and Watson would have
had no chance.'

For a man at the peak of his profession, such directness is unsettling. For
a Brit, emollient diplomacy is expected. But for May, an outsider to our
class system, bluntness has been tolerated.

He grew up in Sydney, enduring a childhood of 'genteel poverty', but found
that he shone at school. 'I topped every class for every subject,' he once
recalled, a typical piece of unswerving self-confidence. As a colleague
remarked: 'The trouble is Bob thinks he is five times cleverer than everyone
else, but is really only twice as clever.'

An expert on animal populations and chaos theory, he ended up in Oxford,
where, in 1995, he was appointed the government's chief scientific adviser,
a job that required him to defend the UK's handling of the BSE crisis and
the planting of GM crops. Five years later, as the Royal Society's
president, he made similar pronouncements on MMR and autism, homeopathy (it
doesn't work) and other issues, defending science and its practitioners with
fierce loyalty.

'Scientists are trusted by most people,' he said. 'Polls make that clear.
They are up there among doctors, particularly for young people. It is a myth
that people do not have confidence in scientists.'

Trusting them is a critical issue for May, hence his outrage over the fact
that Connaughton - 'a slick, charming lawyer' - heads George Bush's
environmental affairs, and is not a scientist. 'Of course, if you are trying
to defend the indefensible, the first thing you do is hire a good lawyer.
That might explain it. Personally, I think Connaughton's argument that US
carbon dioxide emissions are really going down - if you compare them with
America's rising GDP - is loony. He and I live on different planets.'

'And it is very worrying. By the middle of the century, America's gulf
states could be uninhabitable thanks to global warming. I hope people
realise the danger sooner rather than later.'

As for claims that Tony Blair is wavering over the issue of compulsory
carbon emission limits, May remains confident: 'I see no signs. I hope I am
right.' The last remark is intriguing. May is rarely unsure about anything.
His hesitancy therefore speaks volumes, though those who think there is
nothing to fear from him now he has left office could be in for a shock. He
has left the Royal Society but fully intends to keep battling over
scientific issues in the House of Lords. Britain - and the Prime Minister -
has not yet heard the last of Robert May.