Do Not Fear Science, but Embrace It

Over the years Earth Day has become less a day of celebration and more one of advocacy. Example [bold added]:

We need to build a global citizenry fluent in the concepts of climate change and aware of its unprecedented threat to our planet. We need to empower everyone with the knowledge to inspire action in defense of environmental protection.

Your humble blogger instinctively reacts negatively to harangues, but today and for the rest of the month I will keep an open mind (after which it will snap shut, there I said it before anyone else did).

Specifically, to salute the first March for Science, also held today, I will honor the principles of the scientific method, that is, I will study facts, examine alternative hypotheses that explain the facts, and evaluate models based not on my biases about how things should be but on how well they predict outcomes.

The Gores in 1973 (photo from Inconvenient Truth)

I will re-read former Vice President Gore's Inconvenient Truth with what I hope will be fresh eyes 11 years after publication---I lazily scanned it when it first came out and read more about the book than the book itself.

Per science marcher Toledo Professor of Astronomy Adolf Witt

“I’m not going to say anything political,” Witt said. “But, obviously if our civilization is to continue, our policies have to be based on fact. On the truth. That’s what science is all about.”

On that I heartily agree.