News & Views item - February 2011

 

Science and Governmental Policy. (February 25, 2011)

Below we reprint 1) a letter in this week's Science from Professor Andrew Leavitt, University of California, San Francisco and 2) the response by Professor Penny Sackett, Australian Chief Scientist who submitted her resignation effective March 4, 2011, to  a question at Senate Estimates from Senator Doug Cameron (Labor, NSW).

 

Note added February 28, 2011: The Office of the Chief Scientist released the full audio file of Professor Sackett's February 23, 2011 testimony to Senate estimates late Friday, February 25, 2011 because: "The Chief Scientist's statements at a Senate Estimates hearing on the 23rd February have been the subject of media interest and frequently misquoted. Listen to the entirety of Professor Sackett's remarks precisely as they were delivered."

 

http://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/2011/02/setting-the-record-straight/

 

To check on when the transcript of the hearing becomes available go to:  http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/commttee/s-news.htm reference number 13579.

 

 

 

Andrew Leavitt Penny Sackett

A Vote for Scientists as Politicians
I applaud and admire B. Alberts's long-time advocacy for science education and the engagement of scientists with their communities, but his Editorial “Policy-making needs science” (3 December 2010, p. 1287) leaves out one essential activity. Scientifically trained individuals need to enter political office. Thoughtful National Academy documents have no impact when ideology is the rule of the land. All of our advocacy and all of our reports will not affect the bottom line if those massive efforts can be thwarted by a single vote cast by a single official. Therefore, in addition to improved science education, our society needs people trained in the scientific process and scientific thinking to serve in the political arena, not just as advisers, but as the actual policy-makers at the local, state, and federal level. This can only happen if the scientific community supports such career ambitions. As Carl Sagan said, “Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge” (1). It is that way of thinking that we need in the minds of those casting votes critical for our future.
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1. C. Sagan, Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science (Random House, New York, 1979), p. 13.

Senator Cameron asked: what role can the scientific community play to educate the general public about global warming in the face of such confusion.

    Thank you for that question, which I believe is a very important question. And it is one that scientists are struggling with; I think it is fair to say, all over the world.
    It is an enormously important time in history, probably unlike any before, for a number of reasons. Science is not the complete answer, but science does provide a way to provide evidence on which decisions can be made…
    Science does not tell us which of these decisions to make, but it does tell us the possible consequences of some of those decisions. And because of that, and my view that [global warming] is an enormous issue, perhaps one of the most important issues facing the world, it is important that scientists engage.
    I believe scientists are attempting to do that and they face challenges in doing that. Therefore, they need to, I believe, be clear about when they are talking about science and when they are talking about policy. That line needs to be very clear so there is no confusion…
    So first and foremost I would like to see a clean, clear and continual reminder of the division between what is science and what is policy. And this is what I have attempted to do and continue to do even here today, because I think it is a disservice to both important areas of human endeavour not to do so.
    Scientists, . . . and when I say scientists, I would like to point out again, as I think has been mentioned in these chambers before, that we’re talking about all of science. We are talking about physics, we’re talking about chemistry, we’re talking about the science of the oceans. Every area of science is broadly telling us the same thing [about global warming]. That’s a very important message for people to hear.
    It is not a particular sort of scientist [providing evidence of climate change]. It is not a scientist that works in Government labs, but not those who do not. It is not the scientist of one country only, or a few countries only. It is scientists of all sorts, in all countries, in all sorts of laboratories that are telling us the same things.
    That is a message that I have great concern is not reaching the general population at a level that engages them and enables them to ask the questions that they have, in an environment where those discussions can take place without distractions of policy, without distractions of politics, if I may say. This is a great concern for me.