依然在北卡罗来纳州掀起科学怪象

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本文发表于《大众科学》的前博客网络,反映了作者的观点,不一定反映《大众科学》的观点


所以你认为本周我们在北卡罗来纳州做的最疯狂的事情是任命了一位儿童发展和早期教育主任,这位主任反对……嗯,早期教育

你怎么了:你以前没听说过北卡罗来纳州吗?这是新的北卡罗来纳州,拥有新的州长和州议会两院的绝对多数席位:卡罗来纳州人称之为“错误统治时期”。这位反教育的教育官员很快辞职了(反教育立场似乎只是疯狂的开始;例如,她在推特上想知道2011年日本地震是否可能是由朝鲜或日本的超声波引起的),但请放心:我们的反科学科学家正在处理此事。

当然,我们的立法者最出名的事迹是试图强迫科学家不要模拟海平面上升,尽管他们上个月才重新成为焦点,任命了一位环境与自然资源部 (DENR)的负责人,他认为石油可能是一种可再生资源,并且关于全球变暖的科学尚未解决


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这使我们回到了全球变暖。作为领导反对测量海平面运动的团体的科学顾问,有一位名叫约翰·德罗斯的人,他拥有固态科学硕士学位,并反对诸如相信气候变化和风能之类的东西。

什么?你认为他没有多少权威?那么你肯定是“骗子团伙”的一员——这只是他在2月6日在卡罗来纳州立法者和其他人士面前进行的一小时演讲中用来形容科学界的众多称谓之一,这次演讲展示了很多幻灯片,以表明……总的来说,他断言环保主义者是“反科学议程的推动者”,环保主义是一种宗教,同行评审是一种骗局,以及……更多类似的东西。他从未真正说过“无知即力量”或“我们一直与欧亚国交战”,但你明白了其中的意思。

德罗斯的幻灯片演示文稿名为“科学遭受攻击”,你可以在scienceunderassault.info找到更长的版本。

至少标题是对的。萨姆·皮尔索尔,UNC-CH的生态学家、地理学和生态学兼职教授,驳斥了德罗斯的演讲,但仍然发现了一些值得赞赏的地方:“这是我见过的最引人注目的以反宣传形式进行的宣传范例,”他说。

苏·斯特吉斯南方研究所在线杂志《面向南方》的作者,出色地展示了德罗斯(大多未注明出处)的来源中的偏见

“德罗斯引用的支持其论点的出版物包括《告密者》,这是WorldNetDaily的月刊,该网站宣扬关于奥巴马总统公民身份等话题的阴谋论;《象限》,这是一本保守的澳大利亚杂志,曾卷入发布欺诈性科学的丑闻;以及创造研究所,这是一个德克萨斯州的机构,它拒绝进化论,宣扬圣经创造论和“宇宙中的万物都是上帝在创世周的六个字面意义上的日子里创造和制造的”这一概念。”

一个微小的希望迹象是,参加德罗斯演讲的立法者人数并不多(尽管斯特吉斯链接到了一封DENR负责人约翰·斯卡瓦拉办公室转发的来自德罗斯的电子邮件,建议人们参加)。

现在是结束笑话的时候了,但老实说,我完全没有心情。北卡罗来纳州目前的繁荣建立在科学和教育之上,而当前的政治领导层已经向两者宣战。今天,我真的找不到任何可笑之处。

 

Scott Huler was born in 1959 in Cleveland and raised in that city's eastern suburbs. He graduated from Washington University in 1981; he was made a member of Phi Beta Kappa because of the breadth of his studies, and that breadth has been a signature of his writing work. He has written on everything from the death penalty to bikini waxing, from NASCAR racing to the stealth bomber, for such newspapers as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Los Angeles Times and such magazines as ESPN, Backpacker, and Fortune. His award-winning radio work has been heard on "All Things Considered" and "Day to Day" on National Public Radio and on "Marketplace" and "Splendid Table" on American Public Media. He has been a staff writer for the Philadelphia Daily News and the Raleigh News & Observer and a staff reporter and producer for Nashville Public Radio. He was the founding and managing editor of the Nashville City Paper. He has taught at such colleges as Berry College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

His books include Defining the Wind, about the Beaufort Scale of wind force, and No-Man's Lands, about retracing the journey of Odysseus.

His most recent book, On the Grid, was his sixth. His work has been included in such compilations as Appalachian Adventure and in such anthologies as Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont, The Appalachian Trail Reader and Speed: Stories of Survival from Behind the Wheel.

For 2014-2015 Scott is a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, which is funding his work on the Lawson Trek, an effort to retrace the journey of explorer John Lawson through the Carolinas in 1700-1701.

He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife, the writer June Spence, and their two sons.

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