On February 15, President Shirley Ann Jackson announced her support for Science Debate 2008, a grassroots campaign to hold a presidential debate on issues in science and technology, including climate change, drug patents, species loss, and stem cell research. Jackson joins tens of thousands of supporters, including the presidents of the Massachussetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Stanford University, as well as numerous leaders of industry.
Jackson has previously expressed her concern over the “Quiet Crisis” facing the United States. “Our science and technology position is a looming national crisis,” she wrote in an open letter to President George W. Bush in 2005. “It robs us of our capacity for innovation.”
The campaign for this debate is commendable; our nation’s scientific and technological advancements are sorely inhibited by the policies. Consider that five of the nine original Republican candidates in this current presidential race reject evolution, and Florida just approved the subject in its high school curriculum a few weeks ago. Our government only provides federal funding for embryonic stem cell research on 21 existing lines and prohibits the creation of new ones, while over 3,000 embryos are destroyed at abortion clinics each day. The current administration has been called out—most notably by James Hanson, who heads the Goddard Institute for Space Studies at NASA—on its suppression of climate change research, despite the United States’ disproportionally large carbon dioxide emissions. Clearly, the policymakers haven’t met the needs of the nation’s scientists, and this is a detriment to our ability to stay competitive as the world advances without us.
As students of an institution geared towards science, we have much to lose when politics hold back scientific innovation. We are heavily invested in the interplay between these forces and should therefore take notice of them, making our voices heard when the freedom of scientific pursuit is threatened. Jackson’s recognition of this is laudable, but we must not expect others to carry this message on our behalf.
Readers interested in learning more about Science Debate 2008 may visit its website at http://www.sciencedebate2008.com/, where you can register your support or donate to the cause.
