Scientists Protest American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Censorship

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. and PETOSKEY, Mich., Feb. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The following is being released by The Social Contract Press:

One hundred U.S. and Canadian scientists and other scholars are protesting the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) decision to revoke the permission given to Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS), a non-profit organization that advocates for lower U.S. population growth by reducing immigration, to sponsor an exhibit booth at the AAAS annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, February 16-20.

The list of protesters and an account of the AAAS decision to revoke CAPS’s permission to sponsor a booth, appear in the current issue of The Social Contract quarterly.  Authors are David Schindler, Killam Memorial Professor of Ecology at the University of Alberta, Madeline Weld, President of the Population Institute of Canada, and Stuart Hurlbert, Emeritus Professor of Biology at San Diego State University.

CAPS board member Hurlbert said the AAAS was engaged in the unethical suppression of speech and open debate. "With world population surging past seven billion (up from 6 billion only 12 years ago) debate over the implications of population-migration pressures is both urgent and timely," Hurlbert said. "We need to ask why the AAAS fears any discussion of stabilizing U.S. population by lowering immigration, as recommended by many environmental scientists and population experts, to the point that they openly censor speech and access to information," he added.

More evidence of the fear permeating the AAAS over the population, immigration, and environment debate came when the AAAS subsequently rejected another booth application by the Population Institute of Canada (PIC), submitted by Schindler and Weld.

The Social Contract is a quarterly journal of public affairs, which focuses on population and environmental issues. It is published by U.S. Inc., a Michigan-based 501(c)(3) non-profit, educational foundation.