Science

Conservative antipathy to science is nothing new; Republicans have long denied and denigrated the scientific consensus on issues from evolution to stem cell research to climate change. This hostility has several causes, including populist distrust of experts, religious rejection of information that undermines biblical literalism and efforts by giant corporations to evade regulation. But it’s grown worse under Trump, with his authoritarian impulse to quash any facts, from inauguration crowd sizes to hurricane paths, that might reflect poorly on him. We’re All Casualties of Trump’s War on Science By Michelle Goldberg (5/11/2020) NYT
"On the face of it, putting stock in scientific expertise poses a threat to authoritarian governments – which is why Trump has tried so hard to get rid of it." Susanna Siegel is a philosophy professor at Harvard University.
Trump's contempt for science contaminates every government agency 's research & public pronouncements. Politics is prioritized over science at every turn. This same pattern occurs with the Corona virus pandemic, global warming, gun violence, family planning, & a host of other issues. Comment to the New York Times. (6/14/2020)
[GOP] rejection of science partly reflected deference to special interests that didn’t want science-based regulation. Even more important, however, was the influence of the religious right, which first became a major political force under Reagan, has become ever more central to the Republican coalition and is now a major driver of the party’s rejection of facts — and democracy. Paul Krugman 12/14/2020
... Some of the world´s largest corporations and richest people have organized and supported front groups whose role is to slag climate science and resist regulation, just as they did in response to the science that laid the foundation for regulating lead, asbestos, smoking and other toxic substances and behaviors. They pursue this strategy because it works. Delayed regulation translates into greater profits, and no one goes to jail for lying to the American public about the risks of greenhouse gas emissions, smoking or toxic chemicals. Even if in the end there are fines to pay and reputational costs to bear, they typically amount to something more like a tax on profits rather than serious disincentives to engage in the behavior in the first place. Reason in a Dark Time, Why the Struggle against Climate Change Failed and What It Means For Our Future: Dale Jamieson
I believe in limited government ... No government has the right to decide on the truth of scientific principles, nor to prescribe in any way the character of the questions investigated. Neither may a government determine the aesthetic value of artistic creations, nor limit the forms of literary or artistic expression. Nor should it pronounce on the validity of economic, historic, religious, or philosophical doctrines. Instead it has a duty to its citizens to maintain the freedom, to let those citizens to contribute to the further adventure and the development of the human race.
Richard P. Feynman, The Meaning of it All.
Here is an idea that just might save the world. It is that science, properly understood, provides us with the methodological key to the salvation of humanity. Karl Popper, Science and Enlightenment: Nicholas Maxwell (free to download.)
We want to invest in the future of America. So we will put more money into education and basic science. Did you know that half the economic growth in this country since the end of World War II can be traced to taxpayer investments in science? David Cay Johnston
In recent decades, however, American investment in research and development has lagged: Frustration Over a Stalled Bill (12/9/2021) NYT
... the goal of science is not universal truth. Rather,...the modest but relentless goal of science is the gradual removal of prejudices. The discovery that the earth revolves around the sun has gradually removed the prejudice that the earth is the center of the universe. The discovery of microbes is gradually removing the prejudice that disease is a punishment from God. The discovery of evolution is gradually removing the prejudice that homo sapiens is a seperate and special creation." Neils Bohr quoted in The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes

Free science from the grips of for-profit publishers. (5/25/2021)

A Plague of Willful Ignorance (6/22/2020)

We’re All Casualties of Trump’s War on Science (5/11/2020)

The Religious Right’s Hostility to Science Is Crippling Our Coronavirus Response (3/27/2020)

The Trump Virus (3/27/2020)

Science deniers Trump has already put in power:

Science deniers Trump has already put in power:

The Trump administration’s unprecedented attacks on science highlight an urgent need for the next president to restore integrity in science-based decisionmaking. This administration has sidelined scientific guidance from experts inside and outside of agencies, directly censored scientists, suppressed federal scientific reports, and created a chilling environment that has demoralized federal scientists and led to self-censorship of their work. Checklist: Presidential Recommendations for 2020

"No candidate running for the Republican Party's presidential nomination has publicly accepted the theory of evolution. Their views on the subject -- from the imbecile observations of neurosurgeon Ben Carson to the disingenuous position of Jeb Bush -- are calculated to attract evangelical voters." Lou Dubose, The Washington Spectator (1/1/2016)

Science Under Attack: How Trump Is Sidelining Researchers and Their Work (12/28/2019)

Trump administration's war on science has hit 'crisis point', experts warn (10/3/2019)

Links

A War on Science Morals, and Law (12/14/2018)

Science Under Siege at the Department of the Interior (2018)

The EPA is making some alarming changes to its science and health divisions (9/28/2018)

In the Trump Administration, Science Is Unwelcome. So Is Advice. (6/10/2018)

Trump has tried to restrict science almost 100 times already (1/2018)

Trump's Disdain for Science (1/4/2018)

Sidelining Science From Day One

How the Trump Administration Has Harmed Public Health and Safety in Its First Six Months

Whistleblower Case Shows How Trump Tries to Silence Science (7/20/2017)

Man who thinks "God created heavens and Earth" to oversee US space program (7/3/2017)

Nothing Beats Science for Explaining How the World Works (4/17/2017)

The Trump Administration's War on Science (3/27/2017)

Trump is at war with science and knowledge, and that should terrify you (1/26/2017)

Pseudoscience and conspiracy theory are not victimless crimes against science (4/2016)

5 topics that are "forbidden" to science (Over a year ago)

Since President Trump took office in January 2017, his administration (aided and abetted by Congress) has waged a war on science—undermining the role of science in public policy, giving industry undue influence on decisionmaking processes, creating a hostile environment for federal scientists, and reducing public access to scientific information. This pattern of anti-science actions threatens the health and safety of the American people, with the greatest impacts likely to fall on the nation's most vulnerable populations. The science community and the general public have responded to this threat with vigorous resistance, and we must continue to stand up for science if we are to prevent the worst potential consequences of the Trump administration's actions. UCS Full Report
The society of scientists is simple because it has a directing purpose: to explore the truth. Jacob Bronowski
The most beautiful … thing scientists have discovered is the pattern of science itself. Our scientific discoveries are not independent isolated facts; one scientific generalization finds its explanation in another, which is itself explained by yet another. By tracing these arrows of explanation back toward their source we have discovered a striking convergent pattern – perhaps the deepest thing we have yet learned about the universe. … Our discovery of the connected and convergent pattern of scientific explanations has done the very great service of teaching us that there is no room in nature for astrology or telekinesis or creationism or other superstitions.” From Steven Weinberg's book Dreams of a Final Theory
The sciences can be viewed as a hierarchy, ordered like the floors of a building, with those dealing with more complex systems higher up: particle physics in the basement, then the rest of physics, then chemistry, then cell biology, then botany and zoology, and they the behavioral and human sciences (with economists claiming the penthouse). Martin Rees: On The Future
What I was saying is that, we are living at a unique moment in the whole history of the human species. Its seriousness and significance can't be underestimated. You, you and your generation are going to have to make a decision, now, as to whether organized human life will continue on the earth, that's not an exaggeration. The environmental crisis is growing, its inexorable, it's not gonna stop. If concurrent tendencies continue, in your lifetime, that of your children, the prospects for organized human existence will radically decline. This is not really controversial. Take a look at any issue of the science journals every issue that comes along is a more grim forecast. Noam Chomsky - speaking to Big Sky High School (Missoula) students about climate change, May 24, 2016
The real danger that's facing us is we've lost respect for truth and facts. People have discovered that it's much easier to destroy reputations for credibility than it is to maintain them. It doesn't matter how good your facts are, somebody else can spread the rumour that you're fake news. We're entering a period of epistemological murk and uncertainty that we've not experienced since the middle ages. Daniel Dennett

Television did not invent the negative image of science. It only stream-lines the image, puts it on the assembly line, and delivers it into every home. The image of science on television is only part of a broader problem: the skewed image television presents 'of the world. Television works well delivering to the advertiser the largest number of viewers at the least cost, but it does not necessarily do well at enlightening those viewers. George Gerbner

It can be hard to hear the voice of science over the cacophony of misinformation we are subjected to by vested interests whose bottom lines depend on misleading the public. At the same time, lobbying operations and political contributions buy corporations and trade groups outsized influence in Congress. Together, the fractured information landscape and the influence of money in politics jeopardize our health and safety. Center for Science and Democracy

"A substantial percentage of scientists also say that the news media have done a poor job educating the public. About three-quarters (76%) say a major problem for science is that news reports fail to distinguish between findings that are well-founded and those that are not. And 48% say media oversimplification of scientific findings is a major problem. The scientists are particularly critical of television news coverage of science. Just 15% of scientists rate TV coverage as excellent or good, while 83% say it is only fair or poor. Newspaper coverage of science is rated somewhat better; still, barely a third (36%) of the scientists say it is excellent or good, while 63% rate it as only fair or poor." (Survey 7/2009)

"Almost a third of ordinary Americans say human beings have existed in their current form since the beginning of time, a view held by only 2 percent of the scientists. Only about half of the public agrees that people are behind climate change...in fact, there is no credible scientific challenge to the theory of evolution and there is little doubt that human activity is altering the chemistry of the atmosphere in ways that threaten global change." New York Times reporting on a survey comparing public opinion to that of scientists.. 7/18/2009 pg A17

The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences:Eugene Wigner (pdf)

How special interests try to intimidate scientists, and how best to fight back (1/2015)

Right-Wing Backlash Against 'Smartypants' Like Neil deGrasse Tyson (7/30/2014)

Digital Technology will kill jobs, Inflame social unrest says gartner (10/8/2013)

Why We should Choose Science Over Beliefs (9/24/2013)

Meet The GOP's Environment Leaders (7/26/2013)

Lamar Smith, GOP Push Politicization Of Scientific Research (4/29/2013)

House Science Panel Wears Blinders (1/9/2013)

Paul Broun, Member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, is living proof of Republican's ignorance and total Lack of Judgement.

Restore the Office of Technology Assessment

Why The Anti-Science Creationist Movement Is So Dangerous (9/8/2011)

Republicans Against Science: Paul Krugman (8/29/2011)

Loss of the Office of Technology Assessment (2014)
Time For OTA (5/28/2010)
GOP Postmodernism Continues Apace (11/9/2011)

The Death of an Agency: Office of Technology Assessment and Budget Politics in the 104th Congress

Ronald Reagan and the Metric System (2008)

The Republican War on Science

Not all Republicans are against science, but the religious Republican base denies the expanding universe, evolution, climate change, global warming, sustainability, etc. So does money-driven Republican leadership. Corporate media, like the Weather Channel, if it mentions it at all, denies the science of climate change. It's part of the vast right-wing conspiracy.

It is not just that Trump withdrew from the Paris agreement, government websites were scrubbed of references to global warming and the like. Scientists like Jim Hansen was censored and written about it extensively. Office of Technology Assessment was eliminated.

When evidence is not compatible with their ideology, Republicans often suppress it. https://ota.fas.org/

Republican Rep. Paul Broun of Georgia (till 2015) says, "All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell." The Earth, he says, is only "about 9,000 years old" and "was created in six days as we know them."
Broun was a member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.

Republican Science

Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah), the chairman of a House subcommittee on the environment, unlike 97 percent of scientists, denies climate change.

When Republicans don't agree with evidence, they deny it: "austerity is always wise economic policy," "Tax cuts will pay for themselves," "They will greet us as liberators," "Legitimate rape will shut it down," "Climate change is a hoax," "Government is the problem."

After voting to cut the EPA, and end food stamps, they threatened to shut down the federal government unless Congress defunded Obamacare.
R's don't care if they crash the economy, shred the social safety net, wreck the environment, or cripple government. Empowering them guarantees disaster.

When media talk about the decline in US education, they never talk about their complicity in the Republican war on Science.

The science is in for climate change and the GOP is ignoring it. Further, they are keen to burn more fossil fuel, aggressively mining coal, fracking, drilling on public lands. It would be prudent to adapt infrastructure for climate changes, migrate to renewable energy, tax carbon pollution, reforest as much as possible, investigate carbon sequestration at large scale, in view of the danger to the next generation,

Republicans would destroy the planet for profit.

See the Climate Deception Dossiers (a pdf). 7/2015

SCIENCE ON TELEVISION: How It Affects Public Conceptions: George Gerbner

Bibliography

Consilience: The Unity of All Knowledge, E O Wilson (free to download, on-line.)

Truth or Beauty: Science and the Quest for Order by David Orrell

NASA’s New Hubble E-Book Spotlights Universe’s Best-Kept Dark Secrets (2024)

Why Trust Science by Naomi Oreskes

The Infographic Guide to Science by Tom Cabot

The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science... and Reality Chris Mooney

The Republican War on Science. Chris Mooney

Merchants of Doubt: Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway

Censoring Science: Inside the political attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming. Mark Bowen. See this.

Unscientific America, How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future: by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum

The Science of Liberty, Democracy, Reason, and the Laws of Nature: Timothy Ferris

Fundamentals, Ten Keys to Reality by Frank Wilczek

Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies, Geoffrey West

Faith vs Fact: Why Science and Religion are Incompatable by Jerry A. Coyne

Fool Me Twice: Shawn Lawrence Otto

The Vaccine Race: Meredith Wadman

A Dominant Character, The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J.B.S. Haldane by Samanth Subramanian

Our Lonely Home in Nature: Alan Lightman

Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time by Michael Downing (CSPAN)

Dreams of a Final Theory: Steven Weinberg

Undermining Science: Suppression and Distortion in the Bush Administration: Seth Shulman

Our Mathematical Universe, My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality: Max Tegmark

The Weil Conjectures: On Math and the Pursuit of the Unknown: Karen Olsson

The Greatest Show on Earth, the Evidence for Evolution: Richard Dawkins (see Evolution)

7 Favorite Science Books of 2017

The Race Against the Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversably Transforming Employment and the Economy: Erik Brynjolfsson