2017 Apr 22^nd

This is Earth Day and many scientists are out marching to promote science as a partial cure for what ails earth. As you can imagine, in these fraught times, there are those who believe that scientists should stay in their laboratories. One of these protesters against scientists’ political activity is Mona Charen, the very far right political columnist. Ms. Charen has a column in this morning’s paper in which she attempts to make her case. Her title is, “March for Science contributes to the politicization of it.” And so it does…and so what?

Charen then backs up to protest protests in general: She writes, “…it is hard to think of a better way to undermine the public’s faith in science…than to stage demonstrations modeled after the Women’s March on Washington, an anti- Donald Trump festival…which I found vulgar and demeaning to women.” She writes, “… the march contributes to the politicization of science, exactly what true upholders of science should be at pains to avoid.”

But these issues have already been politicized: Trump, needing the votes from the coal and oil producing states, has asserted that global warming is a Chinese plot. Other right-wingers from these states agree. Trump has gone so far as to appoint Scott Pruitt, a climate change denier, as head of the EPA and he has stocked the agency with a bunch of like-minded people. Trump has made sure that in spite of the fact that 99 percent of climate scientists agree that global warming is here and agree about what should be done about it, none of them are in his administration.

Mona tells us that, “Whether temperatures are rising dangerously is a scientific question; what to do about it is a political question.” That has a nice rhetorical ring but if you think about it. It is nonsense. Had she said, “What can be done about it is a political question.” she would have made some sense. What needs to be done about it is still a scientific question and we know that this must start with reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. A good portion, but far from all of that, comes from burning fossil fuels.

Charen almost comes to terms with some facts when she writes that, “…this president has been heedless and reckless with the truth or falsity of his comments…” She cites his endorsement of conspiracy theories about vaccines causing autism and climate change a Chinese ruse to harm American companies. Then she writes, “But he hasn’t said these things lately…” And neither has he accused President Obama of hiding his birth certificate …lately.

There is much more anti-science pushed by this administration: Dr. Ben Carson is head of HUD. Dr. Carson is a competent neurosurgeon and gained fame by coming from a poor background to head a neurosurgery department at a major university hospital. This fame has not led him to be open-minded about all areas of science. Carson believes that evolution is quite literally the devil’s trick to discredit God. Incidentally, there is no assistant HUD secretary. Perhaps serving as Carson’s assistant given his bizarre beliefs is off putting.

Bizarre notions about evolution are not all that critical in a HUD administrator but we have similar bizarre ideas about evolution from Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education. DeVos is an ardent follower of the Dutch Reformed faith. DeVos and her children have never darkened the doorway of a public school for educational purposes. DeVos is a firm believer in providing public money to support religiously themed education. Writing for the primary orthodox journal of their church an author takes exception to a previous writer’s view of evolution and writes, “In the first part of the article Walthut presents his Godless theory of evolution as fact.” If your tax dollars are spent on high school biology programs sponsored by the Dutch Reformed Church they will produce precious few evolutionary biologists. Trump’s war on science takes many forms most of which Charen knows nothing about.