{"id":9672,"date":"2012-12-06T12:30:58","date_gmt":"2012-12-06T17:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/collideascape\/?p=9672"},"modified":"2012-12-06T12:30:58","modified_gmt":"2012-12-06T17:30:58","slug":"how-to-offer-scientific-advice-on-controversial-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.keithkloor.com\/?p=9672","title":{"rendered":"When Scientists Advise on Politically Charged Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tramadol Online Purchase Paul Nurse<\/a>, a geneticist and the President of the UK’s Royal Society, gave an address<\/a> last month titled, “Advising Society on Science.” \u00a0He discusses the most controversial issues that characterize public debate on climate change and genetically modified foods. Much of what he says strikes me as thoughtful and reasonable, though I see his comments on climate science has elicited mostly disapproval<\/a> from the host of a twitchy climate skeptic blog and\u00a0frothy denunciations from his choir<\/a>.\u00a0Shocking!<\/p>\n

Buy Amoxicillin Online Without Prescription Anyway, below is an excerpt of Nurse’s comments on climate change and following that, his entire discussion on GMOs.<\/p>\n

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Buy Xanax Without Rx A feature of this [climate change] controversy is that those who deny that there is a problem\u00a0often seem to have political or ideological views that lead them to be unhappy\u00a0with the actions that would be necessary if global warming is due to human\u00a0activity. These actions are likely to include measures such as greater concerted\u00a0world action, curtailing the freedoms of individuals, companies and nations,\u00a0and curbing some kinds of industrial activity, potentially risking economic\u00a0growth. What appears to be happening is that the concerns of those worried\u00a0about those types of action, have led them to attack the scientific analysis\u00a0of the majority of climate scientists with scientific arguments that are rather\u00a0weak and unconvincing, often involving the cherry picking of data.<\/p>\n

Purchase Valium Online What can be learnt from the climate science and global warming\u00a0controversy about giving scientific advice to society? Firstly it reinforces\u00a0the points already made about the importance of relying on the consensus\u00a0view of expert scientists and the need to avoid the cherry picking of data\u00a0and argument. But it also emphasises the need to keep the science as far\u00a0as is possible from political, ideological and religious influence. I know that\u00a0can be difficult, as after all, scientists are only human, but that is what good\u00a0scientific analysis needs.<\/p>\n

Several other features have complicated the situation. One has been a failure of some climate scientists to be as open as they should in making all their data available, for example in predicting the extent of future rises in temperature. This has led some who deny there is a problem to claim\u00a0that the climate scientists data is wrong or has been manipulated. Another\u00a0feature is the complexity of climate science which leads to uncertainties. In a\u00a0world where people often want simple answers, uncertainty does not appeal.\u00a0This allows space for poorly evidenced but confidently stated opinions, which\u00a0are sometimes mixed with personal attacks and misrepresentations to attract\u00a0public and political attention.<\/p>\n

https://worklivelaos.com/mahosot/ A second controversial area has been the discussions around genetically\u00a0modified (GM) foods, that is the introduction of genes by genetic engineering\u00a0into crop plants. The consensus view of the majority of expert plant and\u00a0other scientists is that in principle this is a safe approach and can lead to\u00a0considerable benefits, not only commercial ones such as reducing food\u00a0spoilage during transport for example, but also to help tackle global problems\u00a0such as world hunger by increasing crop yields and the use of marginal\u00a0habitats for crop growing. These scientists would also usually argue that\u00a0precautionary checks need to be in place but in general these should be\u00a0similar to those used for conventionally produced crop plants that is using a\u00a0case by case specific plant basis to determine safety and effectiveness. This\u00a0consensus scientific view has been accepted by the public in some countries\u00a0but in others it has not. Again why is this the case?<\/p>\n

https://theroyalstagproperties.com/availability/ In my view the key features of this controversy that need to be considered\u00a0are peoples’ sensitivities about what they eat, concerns about scientists\u00a0playing at God, and worries about the influence of over bearing commercial\u00a0interests. These have converged to generate deep suspicion amongst some\u00a0of the public about GM foods.\u00a0Human beings have a tendency to be conservative, even fearful, about\u00a0what their food contains. One anxiety I noticed was frequently expressed\u00a0during public consultation exercises over GM crops was a concern at “\u02dceating\u00a0food containing genes’. This was an issue a scientist was unlikely to have\u00a0considered but was a perfectly reasonable one for a member of the public to\u00a0express. This concern was exacerbated by newspaper headlines calling GM\u00a0crops Frankenstein Foods, conjuring up images of white coated scientists\u00a0playing God and tampering with the purity of food. Another feature is\u00a0often those who object to GM have political or ideological opinions which\u00a0dislike the power yielded by powerful commercial corporations behind\u00a0the manufacture of certain GM crops. These anti GM opinions have been\u00a0adopted by some environmental NGOs who campaign against the use of \u00a0GM crops, even when their use is aimed at serving the public good such as reducing vitamin deficiency in children for example.<\/p>\n

What can be learnt from the public debate concerning the use of GM crops?\u00a0First, it is clear that there has been a failing to properly engage the public and\u00a0pay attention to what they say. Scientists have to listen to the public to be\u00a0completely aware of their concerns and of the questions they want answered\u00a0by the scientific advice. Scientists and single interest pressure groups are not\u00a0always the best individuals to frame these questions. Second, is the need\u00a0for high quality debate in the mass media. Scientists need to be part of this\u00a0debate from the very beginning to ensure that it is based on evidence and\u00a0rational argument rather than ideology or politics. Third, scientific advice is\u00a0best delivered by scientists who are impartial, rather than those who may\u00a0have other motives. This can be the case for a company trying to promote use\u00a0of GM, or NGOs attacking GM crops who rely on the support of individuals\u00a0ideologically opposed to such technologies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul Nurse, a geneticist and the President of the UK’s Royal Society, gave an address last month titled, “Advising Society on Science.” \u00a0He discusses the most controversial issues that characterize public debate on climate change and genetically modified foods. Much of what he says strikes me as thoughtful and reasonable, though I see his comments… https://rgprincipal.com/peru/ Continue Reading…<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2553,2724,2961],"tags":[835,1126,1581],"class_list":["post-9672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-change","category-gmos","category-science","tag-climate-change","tag-gmos","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithkloor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithkloor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithkloor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithkloor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithkloor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithkloor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithkloor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithkloor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithkloor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}