Canadian politicians need to be asked some pointed questions about science, said Andrew Weaver, the Canada research chair in climate modeling and analysis at the University of Victoria.
“How do you see the role of science as informing public policy? That’s the overarching question and that’s what we should be asking our candidates,” said Weaver.
Though climate change dominates the federal political dialogue, other issues like science education in elementary schools and basic research funding in universities are just as important, he said.
“I think the public cares about the policies, not necessarily the science itself. There’s a disdain for science happening right now. Science is not informing public policy – it’s being formed on opinion,” said Weaver, who recently authored a book on the subject; Keeping our Cool, Canada in a Warming World.
Peter Nemetz, professor of sustainability and business at the University of British Columbia, said the current Conservative government has allowed opinion and ideals, rather than science, to guide policy decisions.
“A lot of progressive initiatives … have been cut for ideological reasons,” said Nemetz.
The Insite controversy is one obvious example of this scientific and ideological debate; despite scientific evidence proving its success, threats of closure by the feds loom over downtown Vancouver’s safe injection site.
“Another good question for candidates would be, do you think intelligent design should be taught in the school system,” said Weaver. “That’s not offensive, that’s an important question. It’s a very real debate in the States.”
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nominalis
3 years ago
What we call "science" ended
What we call "science" ended when community colleges started offering 2 year courses in "environmental sciences" and labelled the graduates "scientists".
They cranked-out so many of these faux-scientists that we needed to create a whole new industry to employ them.
The industry is called Global Warming/Climate Change.
It's a make-work project.
realisticman
3 years ago
Quote:The Insite controversy
Scientific? This usage above of the word should perhaps and probably be replaced with 'statistical'. The conceit that Insite can
be proven to be a success at what? Providing a warm cozy place for shooting illegal smack? Yes, OK. Further coagulating the wretched and lost within a geographical confine? Yes, OK. Attracting more junkies to the area? Yes, OK. Perpetuating the dope market? Yes, OK. Maintaining the petty crime rate at an astronomical level? Yes, OK. Saving lives? Well, that's debatable, if more sad sacks are attracted to the scene and they start stealing and shooting up, they might live but then again, they might die sooner too. This creteria can only be guessed at using numerical averages. Is that now science?
G West
3 years ago
realisticman
Source please?
That quote doesn't sound like science to me - it sounds a lot like bias.
seth
3 years ago
The Flintstones - a documentary
“Another good question for candidates would be, do you think intelligent design should be taught in the school system,”
I'm sure most conservative candidates would love to answer yes to that question but Harper has made sure they keep their opinions on these issues to themselves.
There were numerous complaints of this same interference with science in the Bush administration and we can expect the same from their Northern sidekicks if they attain the elusive majority status.
Is it possible that we will soon hand the reins of a majority government to a group of MP's who like Stockwell Day and Sarah Palin collectively believe that man walked with dinosaurs when the earth was formed 6000 years ago?
realisticman
3 years ago
Purely Academic
In Canada education is a provincial matter.
G West
3 years ago
Insite
This is from today's Globe and Mail...mainly aimed at Rudy Guiliani, but it has something to say about Insite's critics too.
While Mr. Giuliani is free to claim credit for the reduction of crime rates while he was mayor, his likening of supervised-injection sites to an encouragement of the use of drugs, and his claim that safe-injection sites are “just going to make your drug problem much worse,” reveal a lack of awareness of the aim (and achievement) of safe-injection sites. Insite's main purpose is to reduce the spread of infectious disease among intravenous drug users and to offering counselling about rehabilitation – objectives that are consistent with the broken-windows theory.
Failure to take steps to reduce disease transmission will lead to greater social ills, much as one broken window left untended results in a building full of broken windows. With all due respect for Mr. Giuliani, who distinguished himself in the aftermath of the collapse of the World Trade Center towers, he and the American war-on-drugs model have no lessons to offer Canada on drug control.
Not only does Rudy not have anything to teach Canadians, neither does Sweatervest Steve - whose best idea today is to publish the names of young offenders.
How low can this man stoop in his effort to pander to the lowest 'common' denominator?
jimmy_laroux
3 years ago
realisticman, you are hilarious!
Hmmm... Your results sound rock solid to me. Are you going to publish your results in the Lancet, or the New England Journal of Medicine?
My suggestion to you is to break out the inane ideological rants only in threads which don't specifically address the stupidity of ideology trumping science in policy-making.
Or maybe you were just being sarcastic, in which case I salute you, sir!
Grumpy
3 years ago
Science? Science doesn't exist ............
........ anymore. What we have now is science of the majority not the basic truth. In the excited states right-wing Christian fundamentalists setting the scientific program with their hocus-pocus science. The result is a quagmire of conflicting results that has hamstrung the nation with faux science.
Credentials mean nothing as just about anyone who has the money can get a degree. Science, as we once knew it is no longer.
nominalis
3 years ago
regarding insite
You don't need science to see the benefits of Insite, you just need to put away the Big Bag O' Hate and use your eyes.
When a tobacco junky destroys his health we put them in the best hospitals, give them the best doctors and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on them at the taxpayers expense.
Then we let them continue smoking.
If a person gets caught with heroin or cocaine we throw them in jail and destroy their health and lives with the criminal justice system and refuse to allow them a place in society unless they meet insanely lofty standards of a drug-free body.
Insite is somewhere between those extremes and just because some people have phobias about non-taxed drugs or are full of hatred towards people who use different drugs doesn't mean they should be left to rot in alleys while the police and media use them to fuel more social hatred.
David Lewis
3 years ago
opinion and science
Obviously, the Conservative government, and a substantial portion of the Canadian electorate, don't accept the prevailing view of the best climatologists that action on the climate file should be swift and aimed at a solution.
But I think this idea that there is something called "science" and something else called "opinion" is wrong.
Because this grand experiment, i.e. dramatically increasing the amount of greenhouse gas in the Earth's atmosphere, has never been carried out before, science will never be able to prove what is about to happen before it happens. All positions in this debate are therefore, opinion.
All we are ever going to have as a guide for national and international action is well founded opinion based on the best science. Anyone wondering what this opinion should take a look at the Joint Science Academies statement given to all heads of state attending the recent 2008 G8 summit in Japan.
People are going to have to understand that powerful interests are involved in the Canadian government rejection of the scientific advice on climate.
The tar sands proven reserve is worth $17 trillion dollars if it were sold at $100 a barrel, and after its gone, there is 35 times as much waiting for technological development and/or a price rise so it can be sold as well. The people who control this deposit have stopped all meaningful action on the climate file in Canada so far, and now that their puppet Harper is in power they have shredded Canada's signature on the Kyoto agreement. They are the ones making sure Canada continues to act as if climate is not a problem.
I say its time to separate from Alberta. We can part relatively amicably, and let them pursue whatever policies they think are wise on their own. Canada could then be free of this fantastic temptation of wealth, and start to think about what future can still be salvaged for civilization and life on Earth. And, at some point when the rest of the world starts taking military action against tiny populations who insist on producing these planet killing deposits they happen to be sitting on top of, we can let Alberta take the heat.