Hello, Jason here,
Last weekend (April 22nd; Earth Day) there was a global march for science, and thousands upon thousands of people, both scientists and non-scientists participated to show their support for scientific research. It was incredibly humbling to see so many fighting for the credibility and support of what I and many others do; Science.
Please forgive me as I’m about to rant, for this is something that really gets on my nerves at times.
Recently, in the western world, science has come under increasing attack from people who don’t like the questions scientists are asking, or what they are finding. The so called “deniers” develop elaborate conspiracy theories about how scientists are profiting off of climate change, or are knowingly giving autism to children through the use of vaccines, or are ejecting poisonous chemtrails from airplanes, and many many others. They seem to believe that all of us scientists are part of some evil organization bent on putting all of society through a slow and painful death; that we’re being paid off by “evil corporations”. They think we are all in on some massive conspiracy theory. In all honesty, it is incredibly insulting to us to constantly be called liars. It frustrates us to no end (at least me…), especially since our sole purpose is to uncover the truth, to think critically and only accept what has been shown to be true through the accumulation of many studies. Many of us even go to great lengths to inform the public about what we are doing through outreach programs. We don’t want to keep our findings secret, we want the world to know.
Science is not a career you pursue to become rich. I don’t know of anyone who said, “I want to be rich! So I’ll go be a biologist!” In fact, most scientists are living on a typical government salary (or less…) with limited room for financial growth. We do what we do out because we love it, because we have a passion for traversing the unknown, discovering the undiscovered. We truly enjoy the intellectual change for the sake of the challenge. It is euphoric when you discover something knew, especially when your hypothesis is so incredibly wrong, and your results suggest a radically different possibility that you never could have dreamed of.
In any case, I’m getting off track… Basically, there seems to be a widespread distrust of government in the western world. Somehow it has spilled over and left people distrusting the scientific establishment as well, even though what we do often directly benefits them. I’m sure it largely comes from the fact that the average person is scientifically illiterate, meaning, they don’t really understand how science is done or how to interpret it. They think one study (even if redacted) disproves hundreds of previous ones showing opposite results that all confirm one another. No scientist worth his salt would ever accept something is fact after only 1 study. The great Carl Sagan once said:
“We’ve arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.”
I think that perhaps now is that time. It is now blowing up in our faces, and so America now has Trump as its glorious leader, leading it down a path of destruction and scientific denialism. But boy is he wrong if he thinks we will go down without a fight. This is one of those rare times I really wish I was in America (besides missing my dog, family, and friends), so that I could fight the good fight.
Alright, my rant is over. haha Thanks for reading.
~Jason
