Science, Belief, and Democracy
The United States was founded on ideas that reflected Enlightenment thinking, including the importance of science and the separation of church and state.
science
Podcast from the Prairie: Mad About Science
In Episode 3, titled “Mad about Science,” host Robert Jensen asks Wes how formal science differs from, and is similar to, the folk science he learned on the farm growing up.
An alternative agriculturist’s guide to science
SCIENCE is a political claim that the human world should be organized in a particular way on the basis of ‘scientific principles’ or what ‘the science’ tells us to do, or other formulations of that sort (some people call this scientism).
Seeing White: Skulls and Skin
Scientists weren’t the first to divide humanity along racial – and racist – lines. But for hundreds of years, racial scientists claimed to provide proof for those racist hierarchies – and some still do.
The New Green Revolution, a.k.a. The Grand Transition to… ?? – Part I
How naive it is to think than the “New Green Deal” will allow us to continue our current lifestyles, just by other greener means. This, my friends in the developed, power and resource hogging countries is impossible.
Revealed: How the Tobacco and Fossil Fuel Industries Fund Disinformation Campaigns Around the World
The fossil fuel industry and the tobacco industry are funding disinformation campaigns so societies and countries can’t take action in ways that would generally benefit everyone except the fossil fuel and tobacco industries.
An Uneasy Alliance: Indigenous Traditional Knowledge Enriches Western Science
Science is a multicultural enterprise that benefits from and indeed requires competing views. Indigenous observations, perspectives and values enrich, not threaten, our collective knowledge of the world.
So, You Think Science Will Save the World? Are You Sure?
I understand that by publishing this post I may be giving ammunition to the anti-science crowd. But we can’t just hide in the ivory tower and tell people that science is perfect as it is. We need deep reforms in the way science is done.
Science Denialism is Dangerous. But So is Science Imperialism.
Calls for strict science-based decision making on complex issues like GMOs and geoengineering can shortchange consideration of ethics and social impacts.
Why We are Marching for Science
Why do we “March for Science”? A central impulse is to fight the exercise of power for private gain at the expense of broad interest; oil companies ought not determine the quality of climate science!
Fie on Nye? Was the Science Community Right to Censure the Science Guy?
It turns out that un-clapping Democrats were not the only ones accused of treasonous acts involving Trump’s first State of the Union (SOTU) performance. Bill Nye “, The Science Guy,” was roundly condemned by colleagues in the science community and progressive political activists for having consorted with an enemy of science.
Of Bad Science and Bad SCIENCE: The Angry Farmer Meets the Angry Chef
Despite the rather toxic debate we’ve got into recently concerning the status of experts in the wake of Michael Gove and Charlie Gard, this doesn’t seem a great historical moment to be extolling scientific progress, the cult of the expert and ‘development’ as virtues. In fact, I think books like Mr Angry’s are part of the problem. Which makes me kind of…angry.