Covid denial and climate denial seem bizarrely unexplainable, but a recent article plumbs the roots of the distrust of science from the 1920’s forward. Understanding why some people reject what seem to be obvious scientific facts is the first step toward building a better relationship between science and society.

The reading list:

• How Americans Came to Distrust Science
  • Through all of this disputation, the core image of science as a value-neutral, and thus innately amoral, enterprise has sunk ever deeper into the cultural bedrock. Generations of commentators have taken for granted that science entails a morally detached approach to the world, even as they clashed bitterly over its applications and implications.
• Tuskeegee Study suggests why some might distrust science.
  • In order to track the disease’s full progression, researchers provided no effective care as the men died, went blind or insane or experienced other severe health problems due to their untreated syphilis.

Because we recognize the necessity of personal accountability for our actions, because we accept responsibility for a building a durable future and because we believe it is our patriotic duty as citizens to speak out, we must insist the United States transform it’s energy sector, over the next decade, under a just and equitable plan, that uses regulations, investments and a price on carbon to safeguard our collective future.

Thanks for listening.

…Ted McIntyre