AIBS Executive Director's Weekly Blog

AIBS and many other scientific organizations are pleased to see momentum growing for the Science Debate 2008 initiative, the goal of which is to bring about a U.S. presidential debate this year on science, technology, and the economy. I myself have signed up as a supporter, and I know other scientists who have, too. Above all, the initiative shows the scientific community's moxie and ability to organize.

This week's announcement of the American Association for the Advancement of Science's endorsement of Science Debate 2008 gives even more of a boost. And social networking sites such as The Intersection blog, the Uncommon Ground blog (I could go on--it's a long list of related blogs) and Science Debate 2008's own Facebook group are bringing many more people into the efforts.

All this said, it's still easy to find doubt within yourself that this initiative will ever succeed, even as you applaud its goals. Dan Greenberg's posting on the Brainstorm blog, A Debate on Science? Ho-Hum provides a cold half-empty glass of water in the face assessment of the challenges that lie ahead, as do, to provide only one other example, some of the readers' comments at The Intersection. Not until nationwide business interests are also truly on-board with the effort, the cautions say, will a presidential debate on science have a chance of moving forward and being taken seriously.

This is all true enough and the challenges should not be taken lightly, but let's return to the aforementioned moxie and ability to organize being demonstrated by the scientific community. It's galling to see science's and scientists' success in improving the human condition being taken for granted by too many policy makers--those in office and those running for election alike. These attitudes are treating science as a public good that can always be counted on to be there, producing material and economic prosperity, regardless of how poorly treated and neglected it might be.

You can't win if you're not in the game. So, a presidential debate on science, technology, and the economy? Heck yeah.

Posted by Richard O'Grady at 9:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

When I arrived at AIBS in 1997, the Committee for the National Institute for the Environment (CNIE) was already in full swing, having been founded in 1990 to improve the scientific basis for environmental decisionmaking. By 2000, CNIE had transformed into the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE--an acronym, by the way, that is shared with another of AIBS's good friends, the National Center for Science Education.

AIBS has worked with CNIE / NCSE over the years, and this year it's a special pleasure to see that both organizations are making climate science a focus of their annual meetings in Washington DC. NCSE's annual meeting is next week, 16 - 18 January, on "Climate Change: Science and Solutions"; AIBS's annual meeting is 12 - 13 May , on "Climate, Environment, and Infectious Diseases."

Furthermore, NCSE is running a session at the AIBS meeting on "Climate Change and Human Health: Developing Collaborations with the Public Health Community." This will fit nicely with the rest of the AIBS meeting's program, whose speakers include Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the US House of Representatives and co-author with Terry L. Maple of the new book, "A Contract with the Earth" and James Hansen, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, speaking on climate change models and predictions.

Chaired by AIBS President Rita Colwell, the AIBS meeting this May will examine how the interrelationships of climate, environment, and human health are manifested in infectious disease patterns, notably seasonality. Vector borne diseases, such as malaria, dengue, Avian influenza, SARS, and related diseases are known to be closely linked to the environment and, more recently, to climate. Interactions between climate, climate change, and the environment have been studied extensively by investigators in the US and abroad. The AIBS annual meeting will address these issues, and it is a pleasure have NCSE joining us.

Posted by Richard O'Grady at 8:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)