SAN FRANCISCO ¨C Scientists are worried about the Trump administration: His pick for the Environmental Protection Agency doesn¡¯t seem interested in protecting the environment, his energy secretary lacks the publication record of his highly academic predecessors and the president himself once tweeted that global warming is a Chinese hoax. In light of such issues, they¡¯re planning a march to advocate the use of scientific evidence in political decision-making.
Was there ever an alternative to evidence? Most policymakers already believe that their decisions are firmly rooted in science. The best science. Problem is, it¡¯s often hard to distinguish between fact-based scientific evidence and marketing material. It¡¯s not even clear that the Science March organizers have a very good understanding of the issue. One of their tweets (since deleted) read: ¡°colonization, racism, immigration, native rights, sexism, ableism, queer-, trans-, intersex-phobia, & econ justice are scientific issues ¡ª March for Science (@ScienceMarchDC) Jan. 29, 2017¡±
Along with a march, maybe we need better education on the difference between science and politicized pseudoscience.
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