Americans of a particular cultural and political persuasion like to regard Europeans as 'more' scientific because surveys reveal that they say 'yes' to the appropriate buzzwords. Not so, even to European scientists. Europeans are instead far more distrustful and dismissive of science than most Americans; they are precautionary principle-obsessed.
Scottish microbiologist Anne Glover would like to change that. She just took office in Brussels as the first European chief scientific adviser and her first goal is to get people information in the hopes that they will stop listening to advocacy groups and accept science overall the same way they do politically charged topics like climate change.
What's the one thing that could make anti-science progressives dislike genetic modifications and medicine even more than they do now? Putting them both together.
A French court on Monday said a French farmer suffered neurological problems including memory loss, headaches and stammering after inhaling Lasso weedkiller in 2004.
Well, inhaling pesticides and herbicides is bad. They are poison, even if a French court had not said so. It's what they are designed to do. That will be a real negative for Monsanto, the maker of the weedkiller, right? Maybe, maybe not. While it opens the door to short-term judgments it will be hard for anti-science hippies to continue to advocate pesticides and herbicides, the synthetic or the 'organic' kind, while irrationally blocking science that can make foods grow their own repellent that is completely harmless to humans and better for the environment.
If someone in 2012 wants to criticize Henry Ford because he didn't know everything about automobiles a century ago, it's a little silly. He knew what he knew given the science and the technology of his day - he revolutionized his field. Freud got a lot wrong about psychology but he created the only unified theory of psychology recognized by people today. Criticizing him is as quaint and pointless and irrelevant as someone criticizing a 19th century analysis of Coleridge - any researcher doing it is likely to get a "someone paid for them to write this?" response.
Efforts at obfuscation and fomenting false concerns by kooky anti-science food activists aren't working. They spent the better part of the last decade blocking science advancements in food security insisting 'the science isn't settled' and muttering Frankenfood denialist jingoisms, but it seems to be failing.
Farmland devoted to improved crops went up over eight percent last year, to 395 million acres. Agriculture strongholds like Brazil, India and Canada join the U.S. in picking science over advocacy.
"Sex education is failing to reduce adolescent birthrates in conservative states, according to a new study" begins a somber Livescience piece. Oooh, that's juicy. We all want to talk about how dumb conservatives are. And if it's a study - and it is, the writer says it right there - they are not injecting any personal bias.
China Sells Western Progressives Solar Panels While Switching To Nuclear Power
If You Care About Earth Day, Stop Buying Organic, Fair Trade And Other Junk Stickers On Products
If A Weedkiller Turned You Gay, We'd Like To Interview You
Study Says Gen X Is 'Biologically Aging' Faster Than Boomers
