Defend Science ad in New York Times "Giving" section, Nov. 11, 2008
Message to Friends and Potential Donors

Your political and financial support is vitally needed now.  Please consider joining in the movement to defend science, and we hope you will consider a generous donation.  Please explore our website:
  ° the Defend Science statement - the key tool used to mobilize the scientific community & the broad public to defend science during the Bush administration.   read the statement
  ° the list of over 2700 signatories including 15 Nobel laureates and over 100 members of the National Academy of Sciences  view list of signatories
  °comments from many of those who have joined this effort  read signatories' comments
  °how to donate  click here
  °regardless of the victory of Obama
       --the tremendous damage to science and scientific thinking continues     and is not undone
       --the right-wing forces behind the assaults on science remain very strong  and unrelenting
       --Obama has not stood firmly against these forces in defense of science, and has instead sought to concede and conciliate with them
  °most importantly - We need to hear from you, to hear your thoughts and to share our perspectives with you.  Please write to us at mail@defendscience.com with your thoughts, questions, concerns.  We are convinced that the work of Defend Science will continue to be needed in this coming period.  Your help will make a difference in what kind of world we live in.
Read the new Defend Science commentary: Obama's Victory and the Continuing Need to Defend Science click here ...

The Defend Science Statement aims to rally broad opposition and resistance to the mounting attacks on science and scientific thinking which are unfolding in the United States. Our basic aim now is to run the Defend Science Statement, signed by scientists, as an ad in major newspapers, reaching millions. (At this point the Statement is signed by over 2700 scientists and members of the scientific community.)  sign the statement...
view a selected list of signatories...
join the Defend Science supporters email list...
The Statement begins:
IN THE UNITED STATES TODAY SCIENCE, AS SCIENCE, IS UNDER ATTACK AS NEVER BEFORE.

“The signs of this are everywhere. The attacks are coming at an accelerating pace, and include frequent interventions by powerful forces, in and out of the Bush Administration, who seem all too willing to deny scientific truths, disrupt scientific investigations, block scientific progress, undermine scientific education, and sacrifice the very integrity of the scientific process itself -- all in the pursuit of implementing their particular political agenda. And today this dominant political agenda is profoundly allied and intertwined with an extremist (and extremely anti-science) ideological agenda put forward by powerful fundamentalist religious forces commonly known as the Religious Right. These fundamentalists now have extensive influence and representatives in major institutions of the U.S. government, including Congress and the White House. This itself goes a long way towards explaining why science itself is under such unprecedented attack.”

This excerpt is from the Defend Science Statement. To read the full Statement, click here.

The welcome verdict in the Dover lawsuit over teaching intelligent design clearly does not mean an end to the attacks on evolution, let alone scientific thinking.  In Kansas, the State Board of Education changed the very definition of science to open the door to supernatural causes. What is centrally and crucially involved in Kansas and in relation to the overall attacks on science is a battle over the whole question of the scientific method and whether that is going to be upheld and applied, or whether--even in the realm of science itself--that method is going to replaced by something else, which is antagonistically opposed to the scientific method.  The need to mount powerful and determined defense of science is greater than ever.
Your signature and support for this Statement will make a great difference at this dangerous time in our history.  There are many ways that people can help in addition to signing the Statement, which are outlined here on the website, and we encourage you to send your suggestions and thoughts on this by emailing us at mail@defendscience.com
Search Defend Science!

Defend Science Statement (excerpts) appears as 1/4 page ad in New York Times (Tues. Sept. 9, 2008 - Section A)
To see how the ad appears click here...
To see how the full NY Times page with ad appears click here...
Join in the battle to defend science!
Funds Urgently Needed!  Our immediate goal is to print in major news media.  Help spread the word to others about the Statement and the need for funds.
make a donation...

2008 Elections: Implications for Science and Critical Thinking (Sept., 2008)
For all those hoping against hope that the attacks on science, critical thinking, and rational thought were going to end with Bush, the Republican party made it clear enough where it stands on that question when it
brought forward the nomination of Sarah Palin.  Palin called in the past for teaching creationism in science classes in public schools (though more recently has been cautious in stating what she thinks.)  She is an abortion opponent,  an advocate of the view that life begins at conception, and an opponent of most birth control.  As small town mayor in Alaska, she raised whether it would be possible to ban books from the town library, and tried to fire the town librarian who refused to go along.

And it isn’t just the Republican Party...
read more...

Attacks On Science 2008 - A Very Partial List (Sept., 2008)
The attacks on science continue in 2008.  The following list outlines specific items making the news (some in a very limited fashion).  But perhaps the biggest items are those that do not make headlines.  The current administration has taken no action on stem cell research since the November 2007 veto of legislation allowing embryonic stem cell research to continue, and none of the current major party presidential candidates, have raised the issue substantively in their campaigns.  Although the Bush Administration no longer openly denies the science behind global warming, not a single regulation addressing the pressing issues of greenhouse gases or other related topics has been raised.   Issues related to public health and the environment have also been denied with further evidence of the muzzling of government scientists in agencies such as NASA, the EPA, and others coming to light.  Equally chilling are the increasing efforts to roll back women’s reproductive rights and to force religion into science classrooms. Creationist bills are “brewing” in state legislatures across the country - and have been passed and signed into law in Louisiana (see below). And it is alarming in this context that issues relating to science and scientific thinking are nearly absent from substantive discussion in the presidential campaign - with the “exception” of Vice Presidential nominee Palin’s creationism and Biblical literalism.
read more...

Christine Comer (dir. of science for Texas Education Agency) attacked by creationists and forced to resign (Dec., 2007)
The week of Nov. 20, 2007, Christine Comer who served for 27 years as a science teacher and 9 years as director of science for the Texas Education Agency was attacked and forced to resign.  Why?  Because she forwarded an email about a lecture by Dr. Barbara Forrest.  Dr. Forrest is co-author of “Inside Creationism's Trojan Horse” and was an expert witness in the Dover, PA trial that ruled against the teaching of “intelligent design” in science classrooms.  Dr. Forrest is also a signatory of the Defend Science statement.  In the dismissal letter received by Comer, it referred to the issue of evolution and creationism as “a subject on which the agency must remain neutral”.  Remember this is talking about the state agency in charge of science education.
read more...

The Stem Cell Breakthrough and the Attack on Science (Dec., 2007)
The week of Nov. 20, two teams of researchers -- one led by Kyoto University's Shinya Yamanaka, the other by the University of Wisconsin's Junying Yu reported that they had turned human skin cells into pluripotent stem cells – cells which appear to behave in tests so far the same as embryonic stem cells.
But the coverage of this story is being spun in ways that represent a serious attack on science.
read more ...

Bush appointed ex-Surgeon General exposes governmental suppression of science (July, 2007)
Former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona - a Bush administration appointee - went public during Congressional testimory on July 10 with scathing exposure of how science, science policy and scientific thinking is being attacked and muzzled across the board from the hightest levels of government.
read more...

What happens when Defend Science! reaches the broad public (May, 2007)
When the Minneapolis Star Tribune ran an editorial about Defend Science, hundreds of people responded, signing the Defend science Statement, many making thoughtful and inspiring comments about the attacks on science and what to do about this.  Triggered by one editorial ... in Minnesota. Imagine the impact of the Statement running in USA Today, reaching millions, and then running in other papers...
read this...

Defend Science Spreading in the Media
New Republic Magazine
The Defend Science ad appears in the May 21, 2007 issue of New Republic magazine.  Spread the word!  Here is a link to a .pdf of how the ad appears:
New Republic Ad

Minneapolis StarTribune Editorial
The editors of this paper have taken a strong stand in defence of science and in support of the Defend Science initiative.  More newspapers should do the same. Thanks to the Minneapolis StarTribune and welcome to the many new signatories of Defend Science that have poured in.
Minneapolis StarTribune Editorial (May 19, 2007)
You can sign the Statement on this website. Just click here to add your name to the growing list.

Scientists and Members of the Scientific Community:

• Sign and Circulate This Statement.
• Help Raise Funds to Have it Printed in Newspapers Across the Country, and Internationally.
• Get This Statement Adopted by Scientific, Educational and Other Associations and Institutions.

Members of the General Public:

• Join the Defend Science supporters' mailing list.  Just click here to add your name to the mailing list.
• Reprint and Circulate This Statement, Help Spread the Word, Contribute Your Ideas About How to Wage This Crucial Battle & Join With People in the Scientific Community and Others to Wage This Battle.
• Help raise funds to print the Statement in as many newspapers and journals as possible, in the U.S. and internationally.



One small sample from hundreds of the depth of concern to Defend Science and the broad & growing support for this initiative:
"I am a retired science teacher in Kansas. For several years we put stickers in the front of science textbooks and then took them out the next year. Teaching science we could only say," It happened a long time ago." Teaching the "Big Bang" theory one had to accept that "God created the earth" and as answer to test questions. I had several parents come talk to me about this issue. Basically the teachers still taught the same content and only the parents got upset not the kids. Kansas students were the ones to suffer as they graduated from high school with limited knowledge of science."
--Marion McElroy, retired public school science teacher, Kansas
view more signatory comments...
  

The Statement • Signatories • Sign the Statement • Donate • About us • Links
© Defend Science Project 2005. All rights reserved.