The Hindu : Opinion / Leader Page Articles : Where science is a dirty word

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 24, 2005

Opinion

Opinion - Leader Page Articles

Where science is a dirty word

By Tristan Hunt

In America's right-to-die controversy the facts were not allowed to get in the way of evangelical populism.

THE INTERFERENCE by the White House in the case of Terri Schiavo — the woman at the centre of America's latest right-to-die controversy — marks another milestone in President George W. Bush's campaign for faith over fact. More concerned with the wonder of miracles than Ms. Schiavo's 15-year irreversible vegetative state, Mr. Bush and his allies have blithely overturned multiple court decisions to maintain artificial feeding and let evangelical populism triumph over medical opinion.

Thanks to the policies and prejudices of the Bush administration, science has become a dirty word. The American century was built on scientific progress. From the automobile to the atom bomb to the man on the moon, science and technology underpinned American military, commercial and cultural might. Crucial to that was the presidency. But Mr. Bush's faith-based, petro-chemical administration has reversed that tradition: excepting matters military, this presidency exhibits an abiding aversion to scientific inquiry that is in danger of affecting the entire country.

Neal Lane, former science adviser to Bill Clinton, has spoken of "a pattern of abuse of science" in policy-making within today's White House. What they don't like, they suppress and distort. Given the cultural influence of the White House, it is no surprise this disregard for science is trickling down into civil society. In some school districts, the study of evolution is now in danger of extinction. A New York Times survey revealed that not only was it being replaced in certain curricula by creationism, but even where it was on the syllabus some teachers were too afraid to teach "the E word" for fear of evangelical reaction.

In many classrooms, the teaching of evolution is hampered by the teachers themselves — circumstantial evidence suggests that about a third of American biology teachers support the unscientific theories of "intelligent design."

Meanwhile, in a belated attempt to stem the steady collapse in foreign students and scientists entering the U.S., the State Department has begun to revise its onerous visa requirements. However, it will take more than a few shifts in security clearance to reverse the first enrolment decrease since the 1970s.

More broadly, science is playing a diminishing role within public debate. America is experiencing a range of irregular weather patterns from unprecedented rainfall in California to powerful storm cycles across Florida. The suggestion that such extreme weather — along with hotter summers and wetter winters — might just have something to do with climate change is rarely entertained. Instead, the Bush administration continues to befuddle the science (despite a consensus within the U.S. National Academy of Sciences that human activity is causing climate change), and so quietly sanctions the culture of excess.

Rather than attempting to mitigate climate change trends, the White House seems intent on encouraging them. Its most recent budget proposal cuts funds for the EPA while increasing resources for missile defence.

The Orwellian Clear Skies Act lets industry polluters off the hook while the Healthy Forests Initiative encourages logging and road-building in forests.

Even if the Department of Homeland Security starts to let foreign scientists back in, many have to be asking: given such official disdain, is there any point doing the science?

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

(Tristram Hunt is a visiting professor of history at Arizona State University.)

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

News Update

Stories in this Section

TWO CHEERS FOR PATENTS

A NEW BONHOMIE

Global threats and U.N. reforms

Where science is a dirty word

Judicial intervention