Silencing Scientists (NY Times Editorial)

This is a New York Times, Sunday Review, Opinion Pages, Editorial/Notebook piece by Verlyn Klinkenborg. It was published on September 21, 2013. 
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Over the last few years, the government of Canada — led by Stephen Harper — has made it harder and harder for publicly financed scientists to communicate with the public and with other scientists.

It began badly enough in 2008 when scientists working for Environment Canada, the federal agency, were told to refer all queries to departmental communications officers. Now the government is doing all it can to monitor and restrict the flow of scientific information, especially concerning research into climate change, fisheries and anything to do with the Alberta tar sands — source of the diluted bitumen that would flow through the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Journalists find themselves unable to reach government scientists; the scientists themselves have organized public protests.

The Importance of Urgently Addressing SLCPs and GHGs

While we need to reduce all greenhouse gases (GHGs), cutting short lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) alone can reduce the rate of global warming in half. Cutting SLCPs could save millions of lives per year and prevent billions of dollars in agricultural losses and reduce Artic warming by two-thirds. As reported in an ENN article, a new World Bank report warns that we must act quickly to cut SLCP. This is the finding of a report titled "Turn Down the Heat: Why a 4C Warmer World Must be Avoided."

“This report should be a wakeup call to the world that we must work harder and faster to combat climate change,” said Durwood Zaelke, President of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development. “Rapid cuts in CO2 emissions are necessary to stabilize long-term temperatures, but in the near-term, aggressively addressing short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon, methane, tropospheric ozone, and HFCs can provide rapid climate, health, and food security benefits, particularly in the critical vulnerable regions that are already suffering some of the worst impacts of climate change.”