By Jim Heffernan
Michael E. Mann, a distinguished climate scientist professor, and Peter J Hotez, a noted scientist and pediatrician, got together to produce a very good book about anti-science, which threatens our well-being, maybe our survival.
Anti-science is a movement that arises whenever science threatens the economic or political well-being of a segment of our society. My opposition to anti-science is something I feel very deeply about because “Mr. Wizard” was my childhood TV hero. He made me love science.
I enjoyed the way the authors identified the 5 forces that promote anti-science with “P’s” — the Plutocrats, the Petrostates, the Pros, the Propagandists, and the Press.
The book has 263 pages of main text, followed by 100+ pages of acknowledgement and notes. Links in the notes seem to work.
It is divided into 7 chapters. The first chapter “THE 1-2-3 PUNCH” considers pandemics and climate change as the prime dangers facing us as the 1-2 punch. The third punch is anti-science that inhibits our response to the dangers of punch 1 and 2.
The next five chapters deal with each of the 5 “P’s” that promote anti-science.
They finish off the book with a chapter on “The Path Forward” which offers suggestions on diminishing the role of anti-science in our society.
The book impressed me by exposing a motive for climate change denial. The oil industry and petrostates stand to lose more than $1 trillion dollars in “stranded assets” if we are able minimize our use of fossil fuels and convert to renewable sources of energy.
Book is available at Cloud and Leaf Bookstore, Manzanita and Tillamook County Library
Here are a couple of excerpts I liked.
“Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.” —Sir Charles Chaplin, The Great Dictator, August 1940
“Science is humanity’s best insurance against threats from nature, but it is a fragile enterprise that must be nourished and protected. What is now happening to virology is a stark demonstration of what is happening to all of science. It will come to affect every aspect of science in a negative and possibly a dangerous way, as has already happened with climate science. It is the responsibility of scientists, research institutions, and scientific organizations to push back against the anti-virology attacks, because what we are seeing now may be the tip of the proverbial iceberg.”
As always, discussion welcome at codger817@gmail.com