RISK? Scientists’ March on Washington: Do researchers risk becoming just another leftwing interest group?

Although as somebody said on Twitter, I haven’t seen a marcher yet who looked capable of handling a quadratic equation.

Plus:

The mission statement also declares, “The application of science to policy is not a partisan issue. Anti-science agendas and policies have been advanced by politicians on both sides of the aisle, and they harm everyone—without exception.”

I thoroughly endorse that sentiment. But why didn’t the scientific community march when the Obama administration blocked over-the-counter access to emergency contraception to women under age 17? Or dawdled for years over the approval of genetically enhanced salmon? Or tried to kill off the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage facility? Or halted the development of direct-to-consumer genetic testing?

One problem is that many of the marchers apparently believe that scientific evidence necessarily implies the adoption of certain policies. This ignores the always salient issue of trade-offs. For example, acknowledging that man-made global warming could become a significant problem does not mean that the only “scientific” policy response must be the immediate deployment of the current versions of solar and wind power.

The mission statement proclaims that the marchers “unite as a diverse, nonpartisan group to call for science that upholds the common good and for political leaders and policy makers to enact evidence based policies in the public interest.” Setting aside the fact that the march was conceived in the immediate wake of the decidedly partisan and specifically anti-Trump Women’s March on Washington, how credible are these claims to non-partisanship?

As it happens, I received an email on Thursday from the publicist for Shaughnessy Naughton, who is a chemist, a cancer researcher, and the founder of the activist group 314 Action. Naughton’s group is one of the March’s 170 partner organizations. 314 Action’s political action committee is recruiting scientists, engineers, and other technologists to run for political office, and it plans to provide them with the “resources they need to become viable, credible, Democratic candidates.”

This march makes me feel better, not worse, about budget cuts. . . .