Spirituality and Ecological Hope

Fostering Ecological Hope

Today from Margaret Swedish:

A group of scientists, frustrated at the anti-science climate in the Bush administration and large segments of US society, has banded together to form a ’527′ organization, which under tax law means a group that can be active in electoral politics.

I found this info in the NY Times the other day.   The group includes some pretty powerful figures in the science world, including Nobel laureates.  They are particularly concerned about administration positions that contradict science and harm society as a result — such as resistance to stem cell research and the lack of any real policy on global warming/climate change.

Here’s the link to their new web site.  The organization was launched on Sept. 27 and you can read their mission statement here.

From the site:

The principal role of the science and technology community is to advance human understanding.  But there are times when this is not enough.  Scientists and engineers have a right, indeed an obligation, to enter the political debate when the nation’s leaders systematically ignore scientific evidence and analysis, put ideological interests ahead of scientific truths, suppress valid scientific evidence and harass and threaten scientists for speaking honestly about their research.

Hopefully they will have a big voice in these next election cycles.  It is hard to believe we have come to a time in our society where such an organization becomes necessary.  We will hot be able to tackle the major ecological challenges of our time — from global warming/climate change, to natural resource depletion, to over-population, to the spread of disease, and more — without the irreplaceable help of good science.