This Wednesday, I will hit the half-century mark. In my 50 years on this Earth, I have seen mankind walk on the moon. A computer that once was the size of a warehouse now fits in the palm of my hand. That computer that fits in the palm of my hand has more computing power than than all of the Apollo missions combined.
Growing up, we were taught that there were nine planets in the entire universe. Today, we know that there are at least 1,500 within 50 light years of Earth. We have gone from wondering if we are alone in the universe to being on the cusp of discovering other life. It’s no longer a question of are we alone? Now it’s just a matter of time before we find alien life, or it finds us.
We have SUV-sized rovers driving around on Mars. Think about that. We were just beginning to build cars and barely learning to fly at the beginning of the 20th century. Since then we have gone to the moon, and are driving remote-controlled cars on Mars.
When I was a child one of the first rites of adulthood was learning to drive. Fast forward half a century, and children being born today may never learn to drive. Henrik Christensen, who leads the robotics research lab at the University of California in San Diego, says:
[That] he sees vehicles operated by humans as being a thing of the past in the U.S. within the next 15 years. He said companies like GM and Ford already say they’ll have autonomous, driverless cars on the roadways in five years.
My son was born in 2000, and he may be part of the last generation that will learn to drive.
Dying from measles, mumps, smallpox, or a host of other diseases is almost unheard of today. Chicken pox was once a disease so common that parents would hold “pox parties” to ensure all the neighborhood kids would be infected so they would get it over with. Today, outside of anti-vaxxers, you no longer even hear of children getting chicken pox.
In 1975, the chances of surviving cancer were 50/50. Today, the odds of survival have increased to 69 percent. In the ‘70s, the childhood cancer survival rate was 62 percent. Today, it stands at 81 percent.
None of these achievements would have been possible without science. Yet today we have corporations and politicians attacking science. They have turned climate change into a political argument, denying its very existence. As Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson states in the video above, “When you have an established scientific emergent truth it is true, whether or not you believe in it.”
Science has no political affiliation. Science is the process that we use to understand the world around us. If you don’t believe in evolution because it is only a theory, you are showing how little you understand about science.
If you think there is some kind of grand liberal conspiracy in the scientific community to push climate change on the world, then you are responsible for the politicization of science. Fully 97 percent of climate scientists agree on man-made climate change. Climate change is happening, and sticking your head in the sand and denying it will not make it go away.
There was a time in my life when we looked toward the best and the brightest to lead this nation. We had faith that scientists, teachers, doctors, and other professionals would enlighten our children, and make the world a better place for all.
The same thing can not be said today. The current occupant of the White House thinks that climate change is a Chinese hoax. Our vice president says that evolution is only a “theory,” not understanding that in science, a theory is pretty much a proven fact. It is not, after all, the “hypothesis” of evolution.
In November 1863 Abraham Lincoln spoke these words at a battlefield in Gettysburg:
[T]hat we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Today, the government of the people, by the people, and for the people is teetering on the brink of perishing from the Earth. Not because of war, famine, pestilence, or disease. No, we are going to perish from this Earth much sooner than necessary because Bubba, who barely paid attention in his high school science classes and now sits at the end of the bar spouting off all the things he read on the Internet, is “smarter” than all of the scientists in the world—especially after he has had a few beers.