Tag Archives: Right-wing politics

My latestest letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal that will not get publised.

Daniel Henninger has a point about the role of science in society and of politics on science but is mistaken about the timing (“Climategate: Science is Dying,” Dec. 3, 2009). Even back in July, before “climategate,” only 84% of Americans said they believed the effect of science on society was “mostly positive,” according to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. And the number of Americans who saw solid evidence global warming dropped 20 percentage points over the last two years. Why? Not because of climategate but because of relentless efforts by right-wing politicians and sympathetic editorial page editors, including the Wall Street Journal’s own, to weaken public regard for science when it conflicted with their political goals.

At least since Ronald Reagan declared ketchup a vegetable and asserted that trees cause more pollution than cars, politicians have been trampling on science for their own ends, cheered on by a cynical media elements on the right. The scientific community must hold its own members accountable for maintaining high ethical standards. Politicians and the media should do the same.