{"id":12638,"date":"2017-02-24t14:09:34","date_gmt":"2017-02-24t14:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dpetrov.2create.studio\/planet\/wordpress\/naomi-oreskes-urges-scientists-to-take-a-stand-against-attempts-to-silence-facts\/"},"modified":"2023-03-07t19:39:42","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07t19:39:42","slug":"naomi-oreskes-urges-scientists-to-take-a-stand-against-attempts-to-silence-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/naomi-oreskes-urges-scientists-to-take-a-stand-against-attempts-to-silence-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"naomi oreskes urges scientists to take a stand against attempts to &#8216;silence facts&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>by janice cantieri<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>harvard historian naomi oreskes urged hundreds of scientists to step beyond the objectivity of their data and embrace the riskier role as \u201csentinels\u201d for scientific facts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cwe do need to speak for the facts because the facts don\u2019t speak for themselves,\u201d oreskes said to an overflowing auditorium at the boston conference of the american association for the advancement of science. \u201cwe live in a world where many people are trying to silence facts,\u201d said the author of \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/merchantsofdoubt.org\/\">merchants of doubt<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>the book and documentary based on it show how the tobacco and sugar industries and climate change deniers cast doubt on scientific facts without ever needing to refute them.<\/p>\n<p>among scientists today there is often a \u201cfear of losing credibility\u201d if a scientist speaks out in defense of science that has become politicized such as [science supporting] climate change, evolution, or vaccination, she said. but history doesn\u2019t justify that fear and she offered ample examples of scientists taking important political and social positions, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201ci know of no evidence that the theory of relativity or the photoelectric effect or any of einstein\u2019s work lost scientific credibility because he was an advocate of nuclear arms control,\u201d she said. \u201cthe fear of losing credibility is exactly that: a fear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>oreskes said scientists like to \u201clet the facts speak for themselves\u201d instead of getting involved. but a responsible scientist should find a \u201cmiddle-ground\u201d between activism and disengagement by speaking up for scientific truth, she said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" height=\"400\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/aaasjanice_photosbyabigail_1.jpg\" \/><figcaption>naomi oreskes, center, with aaas attendees. (abigail&nbsp;foerstner\/medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cu.s. scientists are known for being very timid. they\u2019re not people who are boat rockers,\u201d said speech attendee tom macginnis. in that way, scientists \u201chave become part of the establishment, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>oreskes gave historical examples of scientists who stood up for truth when moral issues were at stake. climate scientists roger revelle, david keeling, wallace broecker, and harmon craig spoke out publicly on the dangerous warming effects of carbon dioxide in starting in the early 1960s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cthese leading scientists of a previous generation were acting as sentinels. they were calling attention to an issue that was not yet publicly recognized,\u201d she said. \u201cand as far as we can tell from the archival record, most of the political leaders to whom they reached out were at least receptive to being made aware of the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>broecker, of columbia university, remains an active and leading climate researcher who continues to speak out.<\/p>\n<p>with scientific issues such as climate change that require some form of government intervention for solutions to be adopted, the denial of facts is not an issue of scientific illiteracy, she said. it stems from political and ideological loyalties.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cactually among republicans, higher levels of education correlates with higher levels of rejection of climate science,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>this rejection stems from a deeply-rooted belief in free market policies or fear that regulation might lead to a \u201crestriction on freedoms,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cthis explains why climate change denial is so much more prevalent in the united states than anywhere else in the world,\u201d she said. \u201cwe have in the united states a deeply rooted belief that the government who governs best governs least.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cour opponents are motivated by values, and that\u2019s not necessarily wrong. and their arguments do work in part because they do resonate with the values of so many americans, i mean who doesn\u2019t believe in freedom?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>so oreskes urged scientists to speak to values that all of us share: \u201cthe value of fairness, which includes protecting innocent people from getting hurt; the value of accountability, that those who made a problem have an obligation to address it; and the value of realism, accepting the reality that markets can fail and sometimes there are problems that we have to address when the market doesn\u2019t work efficiently, or doesn\u2019t work at all; and the values of creativity and technological leadership&nbsp; and hard work, of rolling up our sleeves and getting the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>harvard historian naomi oreskes urged hundreds of scientists to step beyond the objectivity of their data and embrace the riskier role as \u201csentinels\u201d for scientific facts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9417,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4916],"tags":[3681,360,144,1267,3682,3683,195],"storyfest_categories":[],"class_list":["post-12638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate","tag-aaas","tag-climate","tag-climate-change","tag-environmental-policy","tag-merchants-of-doubt","tag-naomi-oreskes","tag-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- this site is optimized with the yoast seo plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>naomi oreskes urges scientists to take a stand against attempts to &#039;silence facts&#039; 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