Even when we want to “follow the science,” current popular and media discourse frames science as a set of hard facts to follow, that you either ‘believe’ or you don’t. But science is first and foremost a method of inquiry, a process of analyzing data and updating suppositions. When new facts emerge, we must have the intellectual fortitude to revise outdated hypotheses.
Sometimes, our scientific assumptions will be supported; at other times, new findings require an updating of our views, or even dramatic revisions. For example, how we weighed the potential dangers, costs and benefits of nuclear energy were a lot different in the wake of Chernobyl than today, when climate change threatens and the the safety precautions in place on nuclear power plants makes them a persuasive option as a carbon free source of energy.
How did we get to this point where science has become subservient to politics and advocacy and special interests? How do we get beyond the ‘ideology trap’?
In this issue of The Mallen Baker Discussion, commentator Baker and GLP Founder Jon Entine explore the EU’s misguided precautionary politics, the perils and promise of nuclear energy to help fight climate dislocations, the faux “insect apocalypse” narrative, and what really constitutes sustainable agriculture.
Jon Entine is the founding executive director of the Genetic Literacy Project, and winner of 19 major journalism awards. He has written extensively in the popular and academic press on sustainability and agriculture, including the books Let Them Eat Precaution: How Politics is Undermining the Genetic Revolution in Agriculture and Crop Chemophobia: Will Precaution Kill the Green Revolution, and multiple books on population genetics, including best-sellers, Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We’re Afraid to Talk About It, and Abraham’s Children: Race, Genetics, and the DNA of The Chosen People. You can follow him on Twitter @JonEntine
Mallen Baker is an English commentator on corporate social responsibility and a former politician. Based in Sheffield, UK, Baker worked as a freelance writer and became active in the Green Party of England and Wales. Mallen Baker can be found on Twitter @mallenbaker
