While our kids are dying to prop up a puppet government, and the CIA manipulating dictators around the world, it's important to remember that the other war is still being fought in this country--the war on science. Sporadic skirmishes occur every week in towns and cities across the nation.
A major battle conference occurred in Boston last weekend at the annual meeting of AAAS. (The American Association for the Advancement of Science features some primary research, but its primary focus is on the communication of science and engineering to the public.)
Let me share a bit of news from the front.
Every week or so we win a skirmish here or there. After a major debate, a lot of uncertainty, and a frantic phone campaign, the Florida Board of Education finally decided that after 150 years they might allow a little "Darwin" in the state's classrooms last week.
But we lose some too. CNN reported on the current court battles to save the spawning grounds of the Humpback Whale from Navy sonar testing with more double-speak than even Glenn Beck would be capable of. They suggested the tests were needed to protect the San Diego naval base from attacks from submarines. (Perhaps Iran is planning to take the long way around?)
It was pretty obvious that the scientists involved hadn't communicated their case as well to the media as they had to two judges.
Unlike the current administration, the nation's scientists are able to look at themselves in the mirror and try to figure out how their past strategies have gone wrong. In a packed session on communicating science sponsored by the National Science Foundation, scientists and world media met to talk about "Communicating Science." A representative from CDC talked about the "urban myth" that vaccinations had caused the dramatic increase in childhood autism over the past decades. (Thymoserol has been removed from vaccines for over six years and the rate in entering school children is still rising. I wonder if Don Imus will get the message.) A reporter from the Wall Street Journal described the misuse of statistics. One of his best examples (that I've used many times with my students) is the insurance industry-funded estimates of named hurricanes that come out every spring, just before the companies raise their rates. (The estimates always come down, but the rates never do.) A third speaker who served as Congressional Liaison for many years slammed scientists for speaking obscurely and even, at times, in ways that insulted the intelligence of their audience at hearings. Elitism never won a war.
There were many other sessions urging scientists to come out of the labs, take off the lab coats and put on the gloves. AAAS maintains a website on scientific issues related to the election, and in partnership with AAU compares the candidates' positions on key issues. Here's one specific area of comparision:
Senator Clinton's platform includes:
A cap-and-trade program that auctions 100 percent of permits
Cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, and cut foreign oil imports by two-thirds from 2030 projected levels, a reduction of more than 10 million barrels per day.
Establish a $50 billion Strategic Energy Fund
Reduce electricity consumption 20 percent from projected levels by 2020
Provide full funding for NASA's Earth Sciences program and a space-based Climate Change Initiative
Double the federal investment in basic energy research, including funding for an Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy (ARPA-E) program
Increase fuel efficiency standards to 55 miles per gallon by 2030
Restore the National Assessment on Climate Change
Create a new "Connie Mae" program that will aid low and middle-income Americans in buying and investing in green homes and green home improvements
Require all publicly traded companies to report climate change-related financial risks in annual reports
Create a "National Energy Council" within the White House to implement her innovation plans across the Executive Branch
Require all federal buildings designed after January 20, 2009 to be zero emissions buildings.
Statement: Powering America's Future: New Energy, New Jobs
Senator Obama's platform includes:
Establishing market-based cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050
Auctioning off 100 percent of the emission allowances
Creating a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) that will spur low-carbon alternative fuels and reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions 10 percent by 2020
Establishing a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that will require renewable energy sources to represent 25 percent of electricity consumed in the U.S by 2025
Requiring that renewable energy make up 30 percent of the federal government's electricity by 2020
Setting a national goal of reducing 50% of the economy's energy intensity by 2030
Doubling the fuel economy standards in 18 years
Investing $150 billion over 10 years in next-generation biofuels and fuel infrastructure, commercialization of plug-in hybrids, commercial-scale renewable energy, low-emissions coal plants, and a new digital electricity grid
Increasing the renewable fuel standard (RFS) to produce at least 60 billion gallons of biofuels by 2030
Re-establishing U.S. leadership in international climate agreements
Restoring federal financing for water and wastewater treatment infrastructure and protecting the Great Lakes from industrial pollution, water diversion, and invasive species
While the points may seem similar, Obama specifically calls for a return to "Kyoto-like" treaty cooperations, while Clinton does not. Obama also has a "Chicago-driven" understanding of the Great Lakes that Clinton doesn't seem to mention. And McCain? He's staying safe by being vague:
McCain has been a leader in Congress for years on action to address global warming, drafting the first Senate bill calling for mandatory cuts in carbon dioxide emissions. He supports a market-based approach that would set caps on carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions, and provide industries with tradable credits. McCain supports the use of nuclear power. Though he supports increased use of biofuels, he opposes subsidies for ethanol.
To win this war, scientists have to exert political muscle. In a specially arranged head-to-head forum between representatives of the Obama and Clinton campaigns in Boston, Alec Ross (an Obama advisor) said: "It's not a question of specifically disagreeing with positions that he's [McCain] taken, it's a question that he's been silent on these issues." (As I pointed out in a diary last week, McCain's position on totally free trade makes just about anything he says on the environment hard to believe.)
So while you are registering everyone on your block to vote, remember that keeping up with science is a great way to fight the good fight.