Rick Perry was governor of Texas for fourteen years and ran for US President in 2012 and 2016. I wrote about him when I wrote about how Donald Trump could never be President of the United States! One of his main policies in 2012 was that he was going to close down the three branches of government that he considered a waste of money. They were Commerce, Education and Energy. Famously, in a TV debate, he couldn’t remember the third of them. It became known as his ‘Oops’ moment.
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Well we all forget things under pressure. It is a forgivable mistake I suppose. The US Department for Energy is responsible for monitoring nuclear weapons and nuclear power stations, looking at energy conservation and planning the overall energy strategy for the country. It is a large and powerful department which is currently run by Ernest Moniz, a nuclear scientist with a PhD in Theoretical Physics from Stanford University. As you may know, Rick Perry is the man that Donald Trump has appointed to replace Dr Moniz.
Rick Perry does not believe that man-made climate change is happening. In his 2010 book he said that we were experiencing a period of global cooling. During his 2012 presidential campaign he accused climate scientists of making the data up in a bid to become rich.
“There are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects”
Like many of Donald Trump’s appointees, Rick Perry is a science denier. Others examples might be Tom Price and Mike Pence who oppose embryonic stem cell research. Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s pick for the Office of Management and Budget, wonders whether the US needs government-funded scientific research at all. Mr Trump’s senior counselor, Steve Bannon, ran Breitbart News which regularly publishes pseudo-scientific articles.
Of Myron Ebell’s appointment to the Environmental Protection Agency, one noted environmentalist said…
“I got a sick feeling in my gut. . . . I can’t believe we got to the point when someone who is as unqualified and intellectually dishonest as Myron Ebell has been put in a position of trust for the future of the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the climate we are going to leave our kids.”
The nominee for Secretary of State for Education, Betsy DeVos is a fundamentalist Christian who does not believe in evolution. She and her husband have argued that ‘other theories of human origins’ should be taught in the classroom alongside the Theory of Evolution. This is known as teaching the controversy. It sounds reasonable except that there is no scientific controversy. Science is not a political tool to be pushed around to suit ones personal beliefs. It is one of humanity’s greatest achievements. It is going to be down to the next generation to ensure that the progress we have made over the last several hundred years is not undermined by closed minded and ignorant politicians.
From the New Yorker…
“Science is the one domain in human life where bias and prejudice are systematically eliminated; now those very forces are set to undermine the practice of science in America. It is not only scientists who should actively fight against this dangerous trend. It is everyone who is concerned about our freedom, health, welfare, and security as a nation—and everyone who is concerned about the planetary legacy we leave for our children.”
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