SCIENCE-ILLITERATE POLITICS - DANGEROUS TO US ALL

No matter what your political bent there is no issue more important for an elected official to embrace than science literacy; and, yet, so many of them are complete idiots when it comes to science and math. A favorite declaration is, “I’m not a scientist...,” appearing to be believe that not being a working scientist or mathematician excuses them from reading anything about science and math. Or that not being a scientist protects them in some way from the “bias” toward evidence-based policy-making. The refusal to accept that science is the most potent purveyor of truth about the world is just criminal.
It’s bipartisan stupidity: the right denies climate change, the left rails against GMOs and vaccines. Neither has a decent understanding of the cold, hard science behind these issues.
This endanger us all. The fool who ignores climate change will vote against bills that might curb the release of gases that contribute to the growing greenhouse effect. The numbskull who denies the safety of GMO crops will vote against funding for research into making plants more resistant to insects without pesticides. The idiots who won’t vaccinate their children will weaken the “herd immunity” of the whole community and children suffer and die from diseases that are completely preventable.
Maybe we should demand that our elected officials take some college-level science courses before they file for election. [1]


[1] Bill Nye, "Bill Nye: From Ebola to Climate Change, Science Illiterate Leaders Endanger Us All," Big Think, October 4, 2016, accessed October 5, 2016, http://bigthink.com/videos/bill-nye-on-science-literacy-and-elected-officials.

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