Emails reveal details of elimination of Australian climate science positions

Guardian : After Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) cut 120 climate science jobs in early February, the organization’s executives claimed that the decision was not part of an effort to move away from “public-good science.” Now the release of 700 pages of emails and other documents, as part of an investigation into federal budget cuts, suggests that the opposite was true. One email stated that CSIRO executives wanted climate scientists to focus on research that is “linked to jobs and growth” and “not doing science for science sake.” Another email advised how many employees to let go to “allow a clean cut in terms of eliminating all capability associated with ‘public good/government-funded climate research.’” In March, addressing a Senate inquiry, CSIRO executive director of environment, energy, and resources Alex Wonhas categorically denied that cutting public-good research was a guiding principle for determining which jobs were eliminated.