Classified public information

Information is kept secret by authorities for reasons ranging from risk to national security to risk of embarrassing people still alive (or their relatives). Given the importance attached to such information, a significant proportion of it must necessarily offer new insights into the current condition of society and the forces which inhibit any effective remedial action. Projects proposed and implemented in ignorance of these factors therefore run the risk of being inappropriate to the real conditions. Restricting access therefore directly impedes efforts to respond to the crises of society and encourages dependence on bureaucratic initiatives with a poor record in doing so.

Within the USA it has proved difficult for the responsible agencies to determine exactly how many classified documents they control. The Information Security Oversight Office, established in 1978, devised new procedures and determined that for 1989 the number of new secret documents numbered 6,796,501. The cumulative total is not available. As a specific example, researchers trying to model how the climate will change as a result of the greenhouse effect cannot obtain access to secret data on sea ice thickness collected by the nuclear submarines operated by the superpowers.