Under attack: Our Science Voices Must Be Heard

Scientists usually avoid extending their arguments into politics.  Politics is all about persuasion and belief.  Science is all about evidence-informed conclusion.  In science, we continuously measure the strength of the evidence supporting initially-tentative hypotheses.  Evidence often gradually accumulates in support of a great general conclusion or theory.  On this basis, one can now state, with almost absolute certainty, that your brain is plastic, shaped by what you do continuously, throughout the course of your life.  So too, on this basis, one can now state, with almost absolute certainty that the climate of the planet is being destructively—and without correction ultimately catastrophically—altered, for all of its living inhabitants, by the actions of its dominant species, the rather inappropriately named Homo sapiens (“wise man”). In the face of that overwhelming scientific evidence, how can we, as scientists and as scientifically-informed citizens, accept our newly elected leader’s appointment of an anti-science climate change denier, charging him with the organizing the transition of leadership in the Environmental Protection Agency (a name which, through this appointment, is in great danger of becoming an oxymoron)? With this blog, I’ve decided to cross the line, for the first time in my life, by taking a public political stand.  These actions are an attack on science, and on our planet, by a patented Yahoo.  As a scientist, I do not accep...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Neuroscience Source Type: blogs