With a Whimper
Posting just the essay from my May 14 Newsletter, for ease of sharing
This week we learned that, like the dodo bird, scientists face extinction due to an implacable killer for which they have no defense. Their attempts to defend themselves through the use of logic and appeals to evidence are as pathetic as the wild snapping of the dodo’s impressive beak.
Donald Trump fired the entire National Science Board, responsible for guiding all federally funded science research in America. The nation’s most powerful science organizations and academies responded with strong statements of dismay and helpful reminders of the importance of the scientific enterprise– responses as effective as the dying squawks of a clubbed dodo.
Sadly, it’s really all that we have. Tinkerbell dies when enough people stop believing in her, and science is no different. The club that strikes the killing blow is simply “we don’t believe in your evidence and data; we have our own facts, they’re more interesting and easier to understand than yours and, best of all, they mean exactly what we want them to mean.”
Donald Trump, RFK, Jr., Lee Zeldin and Chris Wright have proclaimed their rejection of gold-standard science, which is peer-reviewed research, and the creation of Gold-Standard Science, which is whatever Trump and his cabinet order up and spray paint gold.
Science has no response for that, aside from “You can’t do that!” And their response is “We just did.”
This just in:
NOTE: I just saw this post from the group Stand Up For Science. They are circulating this letter, which they urge all supporters of science to sign, urging Congress to overturn the firing of the National Science Board.