‘Visa labyrinth’ blamed for stifling global science

Jan Piotrowski in SciDev.net: Governments must address the “visa labyrinth” that restricts the work-related travel of scientists and engineers if they want to improve progress on international issues such as climate change and build scientific capacity in the developing world, experts have warned.

Martyn Poliakoff, foreign secretary of the Royal Society, United Kingdom, says that, while concerns over immigration are legitimate, current policies that entail long and complicated visa application processes are stifling scientific collaboration and the exchange of ideas.

“While everyone accepts that diplomats must travel for their jobs, I don’t think it is acknowledged that scientists and engineers need to travel,” he tells SciDev.Net. “The visa labyrinth that scientists must navigate is often interpreted as a message to ‘stay at home’.”

In an editorial published in Science last month (31 January), Poliakoff says that the free-flow of expertise is essential for tackling global challenges, such as climate change or antibiotic resistance, and for training a new generation of scientific leaders in the developing world.

He calls on leaders of the G8 leading economic nations, who are scheduled to meet representatives of national science academies in Moscow, Russia, in April to acknowledge the need for a “single, worldwide scientific community”...

Putting climate change politics before people

Will Hewes in American Rivers: Yesterday [referring to June 2] was a sad day for common sense in Washington, DC. The House of Representatives approved an amendment [subscription required] by Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) that would keep the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from participating in the Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force, which is helping to ensure that federal agencies are preparing for potential climate change impacts and that they will continue to function smoothly and efficiently in the future.

…Representative Carter’s defense is that EPA and NOAA are already working on climate change. To begin, much of EPA’s work on climate is related to mitigation, i.e. reducing carbon pollution. He doesn’t seem to get that distinction. But more importantly, every agency needs to thinking about how future change of any kind will affect their operations. The fact that EPA is thinking about climate change does nothing for DHS. Worse yet, DHS is highly vulnerable to climate change. For goodness’ sake, FEMA is part of DHS, and it administers the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)! Increased flooding is one of the key impacts of climate change, and if the future looks anything like the floods we’ve seen along the Mississippi River in the past month, there needs to be some serious reflection about how NFIP should change.

…This is a particularly disturbing example of putting ideology in front of good policy. Sadly it’s part of a trend that has some members of Congress burying their heads in the sand to prove that they’re the most anti-science of the bunch. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. Unfortunately the consequences will reach far beyond Representative Carter’s petty actions. It’s hard to see this as anything but cynical politics at its worst, and a case that, with an ounce of foresight, runs counter to the stated goals of lowering the debt and using government resources efficiently. Putting blinders on DHS and keeping them from coordinating with other agencies will not serve the American people or the federal budget well.

Front page of "The Mascot" newspaper, New Orleans, for 6 June 1891. Unflattering caricature of Louisiana Governor Francis T. Nicholls as a street organ grinder with corrupt monkeys, being rebuked by an allegory of "Public Judgement" arising from a ballot box