I never thought I'd see a more anti-science politician than George Bush. Now we have two tied semi-finalists for top honors, McCain and Palin. John McCain always gets a laugh line with his schtick about the DNA of bears. So just for fun, clip and pass this explanation for the guy at the donut shop who thinks the old gentleman has a clue what he's talking about.
Here's the skinny:
Scientists charge that an important study of grizzly bear DNA has gotten caught in the crosshairs as the veteran Arizona lawmaker attempts to showcase his creds as a crusader against wasteful government spending.
Follow the flip to the explanation.
The grizzly has been listed as an endangered species since 1995. What makes a species endangered (and ultimately, extinct) is not just its numbers but its gene pool. If there are only a few males (like the Florida panther) or the population is too inbred, it can disappear in a geologic "heartbeat." Knowing how much genetic diversity there is in a species is absolutely vital to making protection decisions. As habitat decreases (or habitats get separated by roads, as McCain/Palin proposes for ANWR) the possibility of islands of inbred bears becomes greater.
To find out how much diversity was in the population, USGS designed a low impact technique--a system of wires that caught hairs off passing bears. The cost of the entire project--$4.8 million over 5 years, not $3 million in one year.
This is not just a scientifically stupid example, it's a political dead end, since Sarah Palin asked for an earmark for an almost identical study of harbor seals last year.
Alaska requested $3.2 million for "Seal and Stellar Sea Lion Biological Research," which would among to things be used to monitor ice seal populations in Native villages and study the "specifies delineation and genetics of harbors seals to understand the declines in populations and provide for population restoration."
The state also sought $2 million to look into Bering Sea crab productivity and sustainability" and $494,900 to collect data for an assessment of recreational halibut harvest.
So ultimately, John McCain's laugh line (like many others he uses) isn't so much about politics but about the reverse-elitism of the ignorant who are determined to stay that way. The genetic techniques that will be used (and the training that the grad students get who actually do the work) have important implications when we study the genetic defects found in children of the Amish, the Appalachian "hollers," or even big city religious minorities who prefer to marry within close communities. It may provide improvements in the way we diagnose children's genetic deseases and will certainly (OMG) provide more data for the overall body of evolutionary research.
If you want to live in a world with no grizzlies or harbor seals, I guess it's just a waste of money. But we spend 100 times this much money in Iraq every day--and scientific research money keeps scientists in the country, rather than encouraging them to emigrate.