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troutman · 07-11-2012, 09:14 AM

Scientists vs. Harper

http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/07/10/t...sts-vs-harper/

Over the phone, the University of Ottawa conference organizers told Science-ish that they are disturbed by what they believe is the government’s disdain for evidence. They also provided an impressive media backgrounder, obviously prepared by science nerds with a zest for evidence and footnoting. The alleged crimes included the scrapping of the mandatory long-form census, cutting the federal funding for Canada’s Ozone Network, closing the Experimental Lakes Area, as well as the elimination of the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy and the position of National Science Advisor.

Such examples demonstrated “an erosion of the capacity of the federal government to actually collect evidence, and the capacity of civil society to bring evidence forward into public debate,” conference co-organizer Dr. Scott Findlay, said. This protest about the federal government’s anti-science stance seemed right on point.

But while rational, evidence-based decision making may be the ideal, one would be hard pressed to find governments that rely solely on science, and we probably wouldn’t want our politicians to operate that way anyway. As this recent comment in the British Medical Journal points out, “Although it may frustrate scientists when politicians are swayed by the possible electoral consequences of various policy options, few scientists (including us) would want to live in a society in which politicians completely ignored the views of those who have elected them as their representatives.”

Besides, at least one episode in the series “scientists vs. Harper” seems to have been an invention of the media.

We need to keep a close eye on Harper and make sure his government doesn’t gut the research that voters and policymakers alike need to make informed decisions. But scientists who call the government anti-science are hardly helping their own cause: they risk polarizing the discussion and losing the trust of the public. That’s just as bad as a government that willfully ignores the evidence, and it glosses over a number of more nuanced questions that need addressing—in the spirit of scientific inquiry, and with an open mind.

07-11-2012, 09:14 AM	#4
troutman Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Crowsnest Pass Exp:	Scientists vs. Harper http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/07/10/t...sts-vs-harper/ Over the phone, the University of Ottawa conference organizers told Science-ish that they are disturbed by what they believe is the government’s disdain for evidence. They also provided an impressive media backgrounder, obviously prepared by science nerds with a zest for evidence and footnoting. The alleged crimes included the scrapping of the mandatory long-form census, cutting the federal funding for Canada’s Ozone Network, closing the Experimental Lakes Area, as well as the elimination of the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy and the position of National Science Advisor. Such examples demonstrated “an erosion of the capacity of the federal government to actually collect evidence, and the capacity of civil society to bring evidence forward into public debate,” conference co-organizer Dr. Scott Findlay, said. This protest about the federal government’s anti-science stance seemed right on point. But while rational, evidence-based decision making may be the ideal, one would be hard pressed to find governments that rely solely on science, and we probably wouldn’t want our politicians to operate that way anyway. As this recent comment in the British Medical Journal points out, “Although it may frustrate scientists when politicians are swayed by the possible electoral consequences of various policy options, few scientists (including us) would want to live in a society in which politicians completely ignored the views of those who have elected them as their representatives.” Besides, at least one episode in the series “scientists vs. Harper” seems to have been an invention of the media. We need to keep a close eye on Harper and make sure his government doesn’t gut the research that voters and policymakers alike need to make informed decisions. But scientists who call the government anti-science are hardly helping their own cause: they risk polarizing the discussion and losing the trust of the public. That’s just as bad as a government that willfully ignores the evidence, and it glosses over a number of more nuanced questions that need addressing—in the spirit of scientific inquiry, and with an open mind.