Conservatives are often accused of being anti-science. Some say this because of the religious wing of the Republican Party and their belief in creation over evolution. In fact, it may actually be the other way around. (As an aside, I’m not sure why no one has ever seen the obvious compromise that God created evolution.)
Take global warming. There’s more than enough evidence to suggest that mankind has little affect on our climate. There’s even more concrete evidence that says the earth’s climate is an ever-changing and dynamic organism that has been undergoing extreme heating and cooling since well before humans existed – not to mention it’s entirely intuitive that this would be true.
Like with many things, activists come to their conclusions by doing a static analysis of something that is very unpredictable and dynamic. They use flawed data models to predict a future that never comes.
The activist approach to endangered species is much the same. While research and estimates both showed a growth in the polar bear population, some concluded, based on predictions and a few scary photographs, that there are only a few polar bears left – ignoring the facts.
Lately, environmental activists have been saying that something is scientifically proven because there is a “consensus” among scientists.
You don’t need to be a scientist to know that scientists don’t prove or disprove established facts based on consensus. Something either is or is not.
Nuclear power is the cleanest form of energy the world knows, and waste clean-up is not the environmental threat it used to be (and it never was the threat activists said it was). Yet environmentalists stand in the way of this obvious path toward American energy independence in the name of science and then accuse conservatives of not listening to the science.
DDT was always proven to be non-threatening and critical to our efforts to eliminate diseases like malaria. Now, while hundreds of thousands in other countries are dying from insect-carried diseases that DDT could eradicate, this country is slowly seeing new infestations of bed bugs. If we were to bring back DDT, we could eliminate that menace with no significant harm to people or our environment.
The biggest problem society faces regarding science is that no one knows whom to believe anymore. Everything appears to be so agenda – driven that whenever a scientist or group of scientists makes a declaration or finding about anything, the first thing people do is wonder who’s funding them or what their agenda is.
Anything that disproves an element of global warming is discredited without diligence because it’s funded by the oil industry. Anything pro-global warming is discredited because it’s coming from scientists that are funded by an agenda-driven government or think tank.
Science has no sides and is free of passion and allegiance. Facts either are or are not. We must stop considering the source and start analyzing the findings. Science is not something we should, or even can, be arguing about. Science is. And we must continue to pursue it, in earnest, with honesty, for the sake of innovation and advancement.
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