comment on US Nat. Biol. Service

[ewan fordyce]

Re the posting by Elaine Hoagland, it is alarming to hear of cuts in
funding of NBS and, for that matter, other parts of government-supported US
science such as US Geological Survey.  The change in philosophical emphasis
is also a matter of concern.   (There are hints of a return to
pre-Darwinian and pro-Genesis view of life on earth - that other life
exists purely for the exploitation and benefit of humans.)   Ironically, in
the past, those of us in small countries could only hope that US science
funding practice and philosophy might be taken as a model by our own
bureaucrats.  With this in mind, those of you in the US could always
solicit email support from overseas for any case that you might wish to
make to your congress representatives on matters such as NBS.

Question for netters in the US:  do proposed changes to NBS undermine US
commitment to the Rio biodiversity accords?

By the way, here in NZ there is a feeling that support for biosystematics
has decreased (mainly through diminishing government funding) since the Rio
biodiversity meeting.

R. Ewan Fordyce, Associate Professor, Department of Geology,
University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, NZ
fax 64-3-479-7527, ph. 64-3-479-7510, home ph. 64-3-473-0463