Politics and Science
cmooney | December 21, 2007Because we hope to forge a truly broad and bipartisan coalition to push for a presidential debate on science, you can imagine how heartened we were to add the following name:
Calvin DeWitt
President, Academy of Evangelical Scientists and Ethicists; Chair, Advisory Council, Evangelical Campaign to Combat Global Warming and Climate Change; Professor, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at UW-Madison
Furthermore, we are currently sitting on more big news that I can't share yet, but that we'll release soon. Suffice it to say that since we've gone public, not a day goes by but there is…
cmooney | December 20, 2007I'm pleased to say we brought in the following new endorsers yesterday:
Congressman Vern Ehlers, R-MI, 3rd District, Michigan, Ranking Republican, House Subcommittee on Research & Science Education
Mark Emmert, President, University Of Washington
Harold M. Evans, Author of They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine, Two Hundred Years of Innovators and of The American Century; BBC Columnist, editor at large, The Week
Ehlers is our third Republican congressman to endorse the statement supporting the science debate. And Emmert is the third major university president--…
cmooney | December 19, 2007ScienceDebate2008 added the following names yesterday:
Sheldon Glashow. The Metcalf Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Boston University, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1979
Geoffrey West, President, Santa Fe Institute, Time 100 list of the 100 most influential people of 2006
Meanwhile, our blogger coalition, I'm pleased to say, added some top hurricane folk:
Eric Berger, SciGuy
Jeff Masters, Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog
In short, they just keep on coming in...
Which brings me to the current outlook on this project and where it stands (I know a lot of you want to know). Right now, the…
cmooney | December 18, 2007While Sheril is riling up the geeks, I thought I'd provide the first of what I'm sure will be many updates this week on the ScienceDebate2008 endeavor.
There's immensely heartening news, anywhere you look. The op-ed by myself and Lawrence Krauss announcing this project has now appeared in major papers across the country: The Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury News, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Charlotte Observer, and Newsday. Our ever-growing Facebook group is nearing 2,000 members. And though I cannot give a precise number at the moment, I do know for certain that many, many more people than…
sheril | December 14, 2007There's wonderful reason I've been quieter here than usual... ScienceDebate2008 has hit the ground running to so much enthusiasm and excitement, Chris and I are incredibly busy keeping up with all the hullabaloo! And we're also having a lot of fun working to make this incredible idea into a reality...
We've been following the blogosphere and media reports, and here's the latest from WIRED:
A Who's Who of America's top scientists are launching a quixotic last-minute effort this week to force presidential candidates to detail the role science would play in their administrations -- a question…
cmooney | December 13, 2007Well it has been a wild ride so far...I wish this was my day job.
ScienceDebate2008 now has, by my count, more than 80 bloggers in our coalition. And honestly, I'm very much afraid that some bloggers seeking to join up may have slipped through the cracks or not been added yet.
And that's just one indication that we have generated a seismic online discussion of the need for a presidential debate on science in the current campaign cycle. Bora, who invaluably tracks such things, tallies well over 100 posts on the subject since Monday. This is, like, bigger than the famous framing debate. No…
cmooney | December 12, 2007Okay: In the further further interest of promoting a presidential debate on science, Sheril and our ScienceDebate2008 ringleader, Matthew Chapman, have now published a great piece on HuffingtonPost announcing and elaborating on the idea.
Larry Krauss and I, in the LA Times, pretty much made the case (not very hard to make) for why the candidates ought to debate science and technology policy. But Chapman-Kirshenbaum go further, seeking to clear up some misconceptions about precisely what we are proposing:
Our idea, which is already flourishing in the blogosphere, has generated great enthusiasm…
sheril | December 12, 2007I love being a scientist. That said, science is far too vast to be limited to me and my test tube holding, statistics-savvy, lab-coat-wearing, and/or globe-trotting colleagues who traverse the spectrum of 'ologies'... You see, science reaches out infinitely beyond the realm of those who 'do' it as a profession.
Science is life.
It's intimately connected to everything we do and never independent of how we spend our days wandering about our great green and blue home. The thing is, we often lose our way as most of us plod through high school wondering how science is actually relevant to our…
cmooney | December 12, 2007Folks: In the further interest of promoting a presidential debate on science, there's a joint op-ed in the LA Times today by Lawrence Krauss (one of our top ringleaders) and myself. [It felt really cool, incidentally, to wake up this morning and find my op-ed in my own hometown paper; I haven't had that feeling since, like, 2003 when I was writing with some regularity for the Washington Post.]
I think the argument that I'm making with Krauss will not be a surprising one, but let me quote a few choice paragraphs:
And, in fact, it's not going too far to say that science in its broadest sense…
cmooney | December 11, 2007Some numbers I think say it all:
Number of blogs that have joined our blogger coalition so far: 67
Number of blogs that have posted on Science Debate 2008 according to Bora: 60
Number of members joining the ScienceDebate2008 Facebook group (as of this post): 457
Number of cobloggers without whom this wouldn't have been possible: 1
cmooney | December 10, 2007So, finally, Sheril and I can tell you what we've been working on.
Let's begin with some background: Nearly a month ago, I linked up with Matthew Chapman, the author, screenwriter, and great grandson of Charles Darwin. Chapman, I already knew, had a great idea that I wanted to write about in my forthcoming Seed column: A call for a debate among the current crop of presidential candidates solely devoted to issues in science and technology.
One thing led to another, and before long--along with many others, including Sheril (whose contribution has been invaluable) and Physics of Star Trek author…
sheril | December 10, 2007Science. Such a simple term inextricably involved in every aspect of our being. It's exploring the past while looking toward our future. Science is life.
Step back and consider what we read, watch, hear, and experience in the news and everyday--stem cells, terrorism, immigration, human health, global sustainability, data mining, safety, geoengineering, socioeconomics, and beyond--all goes back to understanding our world: SCIENCE. So I can't fathom why research, innovation, and technology aren't already highest priority on the collective national agenda.
We'll be revealing big news…
sheril | December 4, 2007 may be a bit too doped up on red bull and reality tv to have our finger on the pulse of every issue in national policy, but this kind of ridiculous propaganda on the Lieberman-Warner climate bill isn't fooling anyone.
While I can wax poetic on what's blatantly problematic with this approach to influence policy decisions, I expect readers already recognize when some advocacy group is attempting to take us all for a ride by way of alarmist scare tactics. I mean really! Note this, errr... 'gem' from their youtube page:
These consequences will usher in a Dark Age for America.
A 'dark age'?…
cmooney | October 31, 2007
[Marbled Murrelet: "Hey, over here! Look how cute I am! Forget the CDC scandal, focus on me!"]
Okay: We all know about the forced editing of the CDC testimony. Outrageous stuff--and the kind of misbehavior that just makes the White House look silly and lame. But ask yourself: How much harm resulted here? What was at stake, other than the White House's (and John Marburger's) already very damaged credibility?
In a less publicized, but also recently exposed, misuse of science case study, the consequences could be much more dramatic. As this Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorial notes, a rather…
sheril | October 29, 2007It's nice to wake up in The District again. Today I'm headed over to the Hill to talk about the interface between climate and oceans. Iron fertilization and U.N. Law of the Sea are among the myriad of topics to be discussed.
And being back is also reason to share one of my very favorite legends from this town...
Last year, a Lieutenant Colonel friend in the Department of Defense took me out to the Pentagon - an interesting and impressive place. The building is enormous and it's quite easy to get lost. Still, among all of the facts and figures, the most memorable thing I learned had to do…
sheril | October 26, 2007This weekend I'm returning to my old stomping grounds to brief Hill folks on oceans, climate, and their interface in the policy realm. I'm looking forward to catching up with friends and Autumn is a wonderful time to be back because the humidity has finally subsided. While my heart is always with New York, I appreciate that DC is deliciously unique. Everyone bustles about making their way in the world, and for the most part, residents don't settle in for more than a few years. A land of nomads from everywhere with big dreams on a million different trajectories. The District is seductive…
sheril | October 25, 2007
It was with great interest I read last weekend's Executive Order to protect America's striped bass and red drum fish populations, but I'm left wondering whether the President should have the power to make important decisions in fisheries management and conservation? A few excerpts from his speech:
The Vice President tells me there's a lot of fine fishing here, and I'm looking forward to going out and trying to catch some. I love to fish. And the good news is there's a lot of good fishing here is because the Secret Service won't let me go hunting with him. (Laughter.)
I'm going to sign an…
cmooney | October 24, 2007Um...wasn't the Bush administration supposed to be taking global warming seriously now?
If that's the case, then why was the Office of Management and Budget involved in bowdlerizing the testimony of CDC director Julie Gerberding on the public health risks associated with a climate change? From AP:
Her testimony before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee had much less information on health risks than a much longer draft version Gerberding submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review in advance of her appearance.
"It was eviscerated," said a CDC official…
sheril | October 18, 2007Stephen Colbert - comedian, anchorman, and bestselling author of the 'I Am America (And So Can You!)', - penned an Op-Ed for NYTimes columnist Maureen Dowd this week. He does a pretty ummm... 'comprehensive' job of discussing politics and the upcoming presidential election. Since we expect to be covering some of the same topics here as November 2008 approaches, I thought it best to point readers to his column for a, well, 'fresh' perspective. Or better yet... perhaps start your Thursday with a smile.