Celebrate science on Earth Day.
On Earth Day, this Saturday, scientists from all over Central Florida will meet at Lake Eola to March for Science. Although I am not a scientist by profession, I will march with them because what is at stake is too precious not to.
Our community is fortunate to be home to a number of projects that are scientific in nature. From the booming “Innovation Triangle,” composed of the modeling, simulation and technology industry, Osceola’s Facility for Advanced Manufacturing and Technology, and Lake Nona’s Medical City to the ambitious partnership between SpaceX, United Launch Alliance and the Air Force that has risen from the ashes of NASA’s defunct shuttle program, Central Florida counts itself as a leader among scientific communities. These pursuits are vital to maintaining both our local culture and economy.
In an age when top officials in our administration deny climate change, ignore the realities of the changing landscape of energy sustainability, and demonize scientific knowledge as exclusionary elitism, we must take notice. The proposed budget from Washington would defund many strongholds of scientific research, ranging from the National Institutes of Health to the Environmental Protection Agency. Beyond that, threats of funneling public-education dollars into charter schools, cuts to educational programs such as PBS, and the exclusion of some of the world’s best and brightest by building walls and implementing travel bans leave looming questions about the future of science.
We, as Central Floridians, should be alarmed. In the bestcase scenario, we could be left with a contracting job market and a City NotSo Beautiful, while in the most precarious case, we may wake to find Disney underwater, Zika running rampant, and no great scientific minds to help solve the problems. We owe it to both our local scientific community and to Central Florida’s progeny to ensure that scientific progress is atop our list of priorities.
But there is another facet to all this that expands far beyond locality. In the “post-truth” age of fake news and information overload, science stands as the only institution that will help us keep our sanity. Even as politicians from across the spectrum claim to have the solutions to our problems, science retains its humility. Science does not exist for one man to proclaim to have all the answers; it exists for all people to continue to ask better questions. The Scientific Method begins in pursuit of truths about the world around us and necessitates the formation of cogent, fact-based conclusions reached only through tested observation. Inherently, the scientific method is democratic in that it does not make assumptions or exclusions; in fact, it is the very opposite of elitism.
George Washington once called our country “The Great American Experiment,” an indication of just how tenuous and uncertain the results might be. Now, we are called on once again to put that experiment to the test, and we must employ our best critical-thinking skills to keep it alive and well.
We are all scientists, if not by profession, then by nationality. We must not forget that identity, and we will march on Saturday to keep it intact.