The Republican War on Science

by Chris Mooney

published

2006 by Basic Books

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binding

Paperback, 357 pages

isbn

0465046762 (isbn13: 9780465046768)

description

The New York Times bestseller that exposes the conservative agenda to put politics ahead of scientific truth.

Science has never been more ...more

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Rick rated it:

08/05/08

The material in The Republican War on Science might have been better served had the book been written by two authors; one focusing on politics and the other on science. Mooney's forte appears to be political journalism, which leaves the book's science somewhat lacking in depth, and renders the work as a whole a bit disjointed. (Also, I often found his sentence structure, particularly when quoting from interviews, to be rather awkward. Instead of writing "Dr. John Smith, a professor o...more The material in The Republican War on Science might have been better served had the book been written by two authors; one focusing on politics and the other on science. Mooney's forte appears to be political journalism, which leaves the book's science somewhat lacking in depth, and renders the work as a whole a bit disjointed. (Also, I often found his sentence structure, particularly when quoting from interviews, to be rather awkward. Instead of writing "Dr. John Smith, a professor of physics at UCLA, says 'this and that," he would write 'this and that,' says UCLA physics professor, Nobel Laureate and former chairperson of the Acronym Committee, Dr. John Smith." The backwards construction and the modifier overload are tiresome.) Nevertheless, this is a worthwhile overview of the crimes against reason that the Republican party has been committing over the past few decades, particularly under the Reagan and W. Bush administrations. (Mooney admits that the Democrats haven't been blameless, citing their groundless objections to genetically modified foods, but he maintains that the Republicans have been incomparably worse.)

Mooney observes that science needn't be the final word in deciding political questions, but that politicians should be ethically bound to use the information that their science advisors give them in an honest way. He illustrates this form of integrity with Kennedy's position on the reason for the Moon program: Kennedy's science advisors had told him that there was (at the time) no way to justify the expense of a manned lunar landing from the point of view of science. As a result, Kennedy never tried to sell the Apollo program on the grounds of scientific advancement; he promoted it instead on a platform of national pride. By contrast, when Reagan's Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop, reported that there was no scientific link between abortion and breast cancer (which an advisor of Reagan's had hoped could be used as an argument against abortion), Reagan's response was to suppress the report. (Reagan also suppressed Dr. Koop's effort to raise public awareness of the nascent AIDS pandemic, and he ignored the criticisms leveled by his science advisors against his missile defense program, as its supporters continue to do to this day.)

Mooney writes that alteration and suppression of disagreeable findings have become commonplace weapons for the Republican party. He also cites many cases of individual scientists being impugned and discredited in response to their having written reports or articles at odds with Republican positions, and he points out that it's become routine for conservative pundits to label any scientific findings with which they disagree as "junk science," and to bequeath the meaningless title of "sound science" on any finding that jibes with their political goals (or religious beliefs). Mooney also points to many instances of Republicans either disbanding advisory committees whose recommendations ran counter to their politics or stacking committees with sympathetic ideologues. The Office of Technology Assessment for example, was a respected and effective advisor to Congress that was shut down by a Republican Congress in 1995. Among other tactics employed by Republicans are attacks on the scientific method itself, exemplified by the foolish Creationist claim that Evolution is "just a theory." (In the jargon of science, "theory" refers to a framework of ideas that explain observations and make falsifiable predictions; it does not refer, as Creationists repeatedly insinuate, to a tentative guess.)

Yet another Republican tactic is the exaggeration (and even outright manufacture) of uncertainty in, for example, the question of whether or not global warming is anthropogenic, the addictiveness of tobacco or the severity of ozone depletion. In science nothing is ever absolutely certain; there are only degrees of confidence. It's therefore rare for scientists to agree unanimously on current issues; a consensus is the most that can usually be achieved. The perpetual demand for "more proof" and "further studies," and the concordant reliance on outliers -- that is, the small minority of scientists who oppose the consensus on some issue -- is in itself an abuse of the scientific process, and a distortion of information. Outliers are vitally important within the scientific community, where they have the opportunity to challenge the mainstream by making arguments and reporting research in peer-reviewed journals. Outside of the scientific community however, lay people (especially politicians) need to trust the consensus, not cherry-pick the views of the dissenters simply because they like what those outliers have to say. (This isn't elitism; it's an understanding that historically, the consensus has almost always been correct and the outliers incorrect. On the rare occasions that the evidence turns out to support the unorthodox position, the community acknowledges its error and heaps praise on the maverick. The scientific consensus isn't the arbitrary whim of an anointed few; it's simply the most reliable information available at any given time, on any particular scientific question.)

Mooney also discusses many specific instances of Republicans distorting scientific information. Perhaps the most well known example of this in recent years was W. Bush's claim that there were "more than sixty" embryonic stem cell lines in existence, thus justifying his ban on federal funding for stem cell research. In fact it turned out that there were only about twenty stem cell lines, many of which weren't even viable for research. Of the remaining lines, a lack of genetic diversity severely limited their usefulness. What's more, restricting biologists to studying stem cell lines created before some particular date means that they'll never be able to avail themselves of any techniques for creating them that might be developed in the future....less

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Kyle rated it:

06/17/07

Read in June, 2007

recommends it for: people who like science and politics

I really enjoyed this book. It definitely made me think a lot. I could probably write a paper about it. The basic idea of the book is how conservative politicians will manipulate science or lie about science or create false science to fit in their political goals.

For me the most fascinating parts of it were the reasons why conservatives/republicans would make up fake science. For a lot of the issues, it was "big industry" that would fight a claim. Examples include issues lik...more I really enjoyed this book. It definitely made me think a lot. I could probably write a paper about it. The basic idea of the book is how conservative politicians will manipulate science or lie about science or create false science to fit in their political goals.

For me the most fascinating parts of it were the reasons why conservatives/republicans would make up fake science. For a lot of the issues, it was "big industry" that would fight a claim. Examples include issues like Climate Change and the Ozone Hole. So, these big companies have a lot to lose if it turns out their product has these negative impacts -- so they invest money in fake science to fight it. Interesting, sure. But to me, the more interesting issues are those where there is no "big industry" perpetuating the false science. So these issues include things like abortion, birth control, intelligent design, condom effectiveness, the morning after pill, etc. The people/politicians making up fake science to fight or create these issues are doing so just because of their personal moral beliefs. So I wonder where the money comes from. I also, in my head, was trying to figure out which is worse: lying about something for the sake of money or for the sake of your personal belief system? As Dylan pointed out to me, it's still lying regardless of your purpose. So yeah, this book just made me think a lot about society and how morality can affect it. I'm just left wondering what the purpose is of those who fight to have Intelligent Design taught in schools or those who fight abortion by making up some study about its detrimental effects. Probably as soon as you saw the issues listed, you knew it was a conservative Christian issue. So, what's in it for them?

In conclusion (although I could say more), I do see the reason why you need more than just scientific evidence in order to make decisions. You need to consider things like "just because we can, should we?" I think that both science and personal religious beliefs can exist inside a person's own mind. But the line should be drawn somewhere before you start making up science to match your religious/conservative/moral beliefs. And end....less

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

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