Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum of The Intersection have joined forces with Matthew Chapman have put together a call to have a 2008 Presidential debate devoted to science.
Here is their statement:
Given the many urgent scientific and technological challenges facing America and the rest of the world, the increasing need for accurate scientific information in political decision making, and the vital role scientific innovation plays in spurring economic growth and competitiveness, we call for a public debate in which the U.S. presidential candidates share their views on the issues of The Environment, Health and Medicine, and Science and Technology Policy.
Just click here to get involved. The only downside I can see is that the Republican candidate will express skepticism about evolution, global warming, and heliocentrism, and the world’s image of the U.S. will plummet even further.
Given that creationism is seeing a resurgence in Europe and some other parts of the world, maybe its image will just see a major rise?
Looking at fragments of documents that appeared on the Indian internets a few days ago, about US tax dollars going into funding terrorists from Saudi Arabia killing Indians in Kashmir, I wouldn’t worry too much about the image of the US.
I’d be more worried about educating the next generation of Americans that the emergence of Scientific research is what has made the US great. Which all of you are doing wonderfully, through this blog and in your classrooms, I might add.
I can see the TV news coverage already…. Some scientists claim that the Earth goes around the Sun. Other people disagree. Tonight, a look at both sides of a controversy, in our continuing coverage of “Heliocentrism: The Dark Side of the Sun?”
I can’t see how the image of the US could be lower than it is, at least for inteligent people. As if the US’s criminal foreign policy wasn’t enough to promote fear and hate among anyone that does not live in that country or in Europe, there has also been an explosion of christian fundamentalism in last years, more yet, the former severely influenced by the latter. I have to say that in my eyes at least, (but I think that many other people thinks as I do) the US is at the same moral level than the terrorists GWB claims to fight, if not worse.
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