Global Warming

Were living in anti-science times. Donald Trump has denied climate change, spread unfounded
claims about the links between vaccines and autism, and vociferously defended his false beliefs
about voter fraud, among other affronts against facts revealed by the scientific method. Whatever
your politics, this approach to science will have far-reaching, potentially long-lasting effects.
Heres how and why it has become increasingly important to stand up for science.

The current US government is not alone in questioning the findings of science. In the past
five years, the people and government of Germany have turned against nuclear power; Thabo
Mbeki, while president of South Africa, denied that human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
causes AIDS; and the Harper administration of Canada forbade its scientists to speak freely
about climate change (this went on for nearly a decade), among other examples. Here in the US,
a number of prominent politicians deny scientists findings that the first years of the 21st
century have been the planets hottest on record, and that 2014, 2015, and 2016 have each
succeeded the previous as the hottest year on record. Of course, denial is a far easier stance for
governments to take: Denying global warming means theres no reason to do anything about it.