Sponsored Links:
Reuters
A top scientific academy called on June's Rio Summit to tackle population growth and voracious consumption that are placing Earth's resources under intolerable strain.
Vancouver - A stark theme emerged from an annual scientific get-together in Vancouver: the world must be helped to believe in science again or it could be too late to save our planet.
Science is “under siege,” top academics and educators were warned repeatedly at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting as they were urged to better communicate their work to the public.
Scientific solutions are needed to solve global crises - from food and water shortages to environmental destruction - “but the public now does not understand science,” leading US climate change expert and Nasa scientist James Hansen told the meeting.
“We have a planetary emergency, and very few people recognise that.”
The theme of the five-day meeting, attended by about 8,000 scientists from 50 countries, was “Flattening the world: Building a global knowledge society.”
“It's about persuading people to believe in science, at a time when disturbing numbers don't,” said meeting co-chair Andrew Petter, president of Simon Fraser University in this western Canadian city.
Experts wrangled with thorny issues such as censorship, opposition from religious groups in the United States to teaching evolution and climate change, and generally poor education standards.
“We have to plan for a future, considering the risk of climate change, with nine to 10 billion people,” said Hans Rosling, a Swedish public health expert famous for combating scientific ignorance with catchy YouTube videos.
Rosling, pointing to charts showing how human populations changed with technology and how without science the majority of a family's children die, said it is naive to think that humanity can easily go backward in history.
“I get angry when I hear people say: 'In the rainforest people live in ecological balance.' They don't. They die in ecological balance,” he said.
Outgoing AAAS president Nina Fedoroff, a renowned expert on life sciences and biotechnology, said a growing anti-science attitude “probably lies in our own psyche.”
“Belief systems, especially when tinged with fear, are not easily dispersed with facts,” she said, noting that in the United States “fewer people 'believe' in climate change each year.”
Her remarks held particular resonance for the scientific community, coming as US President Barack Obama faces a fierce attack from a potential Republican challenger for the allegedly “phony theology” behind his environmental policy.
“I refer to global warming as not climate science, but political science,” Christian conservative Rick Santorum, who is soaring ahead in the Republican race to take on Obama in November, said at a campaign stop Monday in Ohio.
Skepticism and denial of climate change still run strong in the United States, with polls showing a nation divided on the threat posed by global warming.
During the AAAS meeting, there was a new development abroad in the controversy over whether research by American and Dutch scientists on a mutant form of the bird flu virus - which is potentially capable of spreading in humans - should be made public.
Bird flu experts at the World Health Organisation meeting in Geneva last week agreed that the controversial research should be made public at some time in the future after more risk analysis is done.
In the meantime, a moratorium on further studies has been extended.
Last year, American authorities asked scientists not to publish details of their research for fear the information could fall into the wrong hands and unleash a lethal flu pandemic.
“I would not be in favour of stopping the science,” Fedoroff said in Vancouver. “The more we know about something, the better prepared we are to deal with unexpected outcomes.” - Sapa-AFP
Hungry for more scitech news? Sign up for our daily newsletter
|
|
Aquila, wrote
The Bible and science are compatible. Evolution theory is not science but a collection of "just-so" stories, or fables. Check out www.answersingenesis.org
AK, wrote
@ Mike, "the rest of us prefer to base our beliefs on science rather than myth" So Mike creation is a myth right. If we had to list the lies in the text books that are placed there to solidify the fairy tale of evolution in the minds of childeren, you would still do the ostrich thing right. I thought that science was supposed to be demonstrable and replicable. Yet it has taken many top scientists many many years with unlimited budgets to fail at trying to recreate life from nothing. Yeah sounds like science to me.
Bobster, wrote
Science was once confined to a narrow band of exploration over many centuries mostly relating to astronomy, medicine, agriculture, engineering and mathematics. These disciplines were shrouded in myth and mystic accompanied by the lack of education and resulting general ignorance of the populace. The outcome was the persecution of science by people gripped by fear, superstition and the belief in religion and its peculiar doctrines. Things haven’t changed much and today the world of science is still being intimidated by the very same. The current day strides in science are unequivocal in history and compared with their beginnings we are now experiencing a mass of specialized knowledge by highly specialized scientists and have to cope with the enormous amounts of information being made available through massive advances in technology. Unfortunately we cannot digest all of it and neither can the rest of the 7billion people on the planet. The lack of education today with the tools available is perplexing. Hence in ignorance the ordinary cling to what they can or want to understand and believe, spurred on by an equally ignorant and ordinary leadership. I am of the opinion that science that deals with empirical truths is no match for cunning and deviousness that deals in deception and lies. The problem is not the practice of science but the manipulation of the morality of science.
Roger, wrote
You can always spot a fairy tale....it begins with "millions of years ago...." Here is how science works....billions of years ago there was nothing. It was spinning faster and faster until it exploded in a big bang, and became everything. Then it rained and rained on the planet, and then non-life exploded into life, and evolved into many life-forms. This is scientific fact, children, so you better believe it!
Mike, wrote
Please dont equate rabid Repulican Party conservative Christians with the rest of the world.... the rest of us prefer to base our beliefs on science rather than myth
AK, wrote
It would be easier to believe in science if there were less lies. Eg. Evolution. I love science, but would really appreciate the removal of the lies from school books.
Roger, wrote
1Timothy 6:20 O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:
Anonymous, wrote
@Anonymous 03:38pm - The world has taken care of itself for billions of years, during which humans lived longer than they do now. What we call advancement has led to our own deterioration. Extinction is no new occurrence and if the world decides to refresh there's is nothing we can do, even with the best technologies we possess. Every decade comes with a couple devastating natural catastrophies, this has been forever (you can do your research), the difference is that now we have the media to inform us of these events which take place around the world and so the elite (the same people who fund the media) have found more ways to generating more wealth for themselves, blaming humans for not taking care of the earth, and then they say cigarettes will kill you and yet the production still goes on... YOu do the maths!
Dr. Eugene, wrote
I love science, but it falls very short on the issues that really matter. You can't even use science to prove that the scientific method is the true. In order to do that you have to *gasp* use things that you cannot prove or test, like the laws of logic. Last time science tried to tell us what to do we had the Eugenics movement, which resulted in thousands being sterilized against their will. Wait a sec that wasn't even that long ago either. If it wasn't for the horrors of the 2nd WW, we would still have it in the text book and enforced by the courts. Politics and science don't mix, consider for a second, how can a scientist call someone who doesn't agree with his method, data or interpretation a denier.
Random Angler, wrote
problem with science, so called 'scientists', environmental lobbyist is that they distort the truth to promote whatever their agenda is thinking the man in the street is too lazy to investigate for himself. the good news is we have investigated for ourselves and most of what you say is absolute trash, myths and outright lies. you only need to look as far as SA environmental types and the lies they perpetuate (they might believe them) about everything vaguely connected to the environment - ridiculous EIA's for property development (hell you cant even build a shack on your own farm) to lies about 4x4 access to beaches to eradicating trout from the few streams they inhabit....and so they lies continue. HEY, the world is actually cooling!!!
Get Real, wrote
First one has to define science and what it is, which is rarely done today, because if it were than much of what passes for science would be seen for the imposter it is. Climate cons like James Hansen are more interested in Eco-activism than science. Hansen has been proved to be a fraud and a liar modulating surface temperature data to prove his carbon-cult lie. Under the Freedom of Information Act he has failed to share his raw data with those from the outside who want to check it--this is not science but dogmatism fronting pseudo-science to promote an agenda. Hansen relies on computer generated climate models rather true field studies. Several climatologists left Hansen's employ because of his politics interring with science--men like Roy Spencer at www.drroyspencer.com . Science is not infallible, it is not inerrant, and it is never final, nor is it determined by a consensus. The reason many doubt science today is precisely because in the name of science we have been lied to, bullied, and told if we don't subscribe to some prevailing theory, like global warming, then we are "anti-science" and "stupid". True science is already unraveling the global warming scam, and true scientists will acknowledge this as many are, but zealots like Hansen just dig their heels in. In 30 years history will record what a laughing stock people like James Hansen are.
Anonymous, wrote
@Anonymous 10:54am - Please point me in the direction of the "proof of sabotage and lies from climatologists in order to force spending and a global tax". I'm really curious.
Anonymous, wrote
This article is just another opportunity for religious skeptics and self righteous atheists to jump on the intellectual straw man that religion is the reason why people are ignorant. B*tch Please!
james, wrote
Sure, I am going to believe James Hansen - how about those emails between NASA and University of East Anglia where he is part of the conspiracy to "alter" the data because it does not show any warming. Want me to believe in Science again, then ostracize the frauds. It will not happen though, Warming is big money in the form of taxes.
Anonymous, wrote
In the words of Bob Marley "Brothers you should & not beleive"! SEEK information!!! Have an enquiring mind!
Roger, wrote
Science - too difficult to understand. Besides it gets in the way of reading the bible and writing songs about the little baby Jesus.
Lennon, wrote
It depends on what is meant by "understanding science". I would agree that a basic knowledge of science is something that every person should possess. However, there are certain scientific disciplines which require serious study before one can even begin to grasp the fundamentals. There are also two problems which contribute to general ignorance: 1) Information is not necessarily accessible 2) When it is, it is not explained in terms which can be understood by the layman 3) When it is in layman's terms, the explanations are often incorrect or distorted 4) Many people, even with the information available, are simply too lazy to learn because it has no direct application to their often materialistic lives. Samuel Johnson summed this up best: “Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labour; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.”
Anonymous, wrote
@ Anonymous 11:53am - Its not an argument between science and religion. Its climatologists trying to force the world into believing if we pay more tax the planet will last longer. They are not disputing religion, the fact is they dont need to.
Anonymous, wrote
500 years of science has brought progress in terms of quality of life for the human body but does not have all the answers to nourish the soul. Everywhere people are trying to apply science to their life and relationships and are finding science does not make them happy. People now know that the glue to feeling whole and being happy is to trust and have faith in each other and stop trying to find explanations to account for all the mysteries of life. If science is losing favour it may a good thing since people may turn back to the spiritualself-realisation. Then they will start to realise that the value of a forest is not its economic value or some other valuie but its value is that it is a house for numerous beings that have a right to be there. They would start to understand why pollution that harms life is wrong instead of thinking scientifically what benefit the industiral processess are to them...
Anonymous, wrote
Would help if the "scientists" stopped lying about global warming. There is way too much proof of sabotage and lies from climatologists in order to force spending and a global tax. There is just way too much info out there to simply believe them becasue they say so. People cannot and should not just believe these people becasue they say so, there is way to much money to be made by forcing through nonsense to scare us into paying another tax while they countries who are behind fixing the planet are the same who pollute the most and collect the carbon taxes. A convenient mistruth
Showing items 1 - 20 of 20
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Buying a car has never been easy. Motoring.co.za contains a large database of car listings with a user friendly search.
Start searching today »
We like to make your life easier
Mobile
Browse IOL on your phone at m.iol.co.za.
Newsletters
Subscribe to our newsletters. News delivered to your inbox!
Comment Guidelines