A couple of entries ago, I mentioned and recommended a book called The Republican War on Science, by Chris Mooney.

I bought it in spite of the title, which I thought was manipulative and an example of the sort of inflammatory rhetoric that has increasingly soured political discourse over the course of my life-time.  I know it seems to a lot of people as if this just started with “W”…but that’s not the case.  As far as I know, the breakdown in “civility” has been going on for quite some time.  And by “civility” I don’t mean politeness.  I mean the civil nature of speech.  As in; pertaining to and promoting the public good.  You can be a polite as you want, but if you are just mouthing spin to promote a self-interested agenda that is counter to public good in the service of some inventive ideology, then you are not engaging in “civil” speech.

Both sides do it.  Watch “Crossfire” and “Hardball” and you will see that.

Anyway, I read this book, and lo, it was good.  Despite the heavily partisan title, the book itself is quite even-handed.  It talks about how ALL administrations in the last couple of decades have misused, abused and distorted science.  But it unmistakably accuses the current administration of widespread, systematic abuses on a scale that has not been seen before.

The book describes how both the corporate and religious right have exploited the inherent “uncertainty” in science, distorted the importance of uncertainty when it serves their purposes, and further, how they distort controversy and use extremely fringe “experts” to create the appearance of controversy where there really is none.

The main controversies Mooney addresses are:

1)      The President’s assertion that there are 60 viable infant stem cell lines already in existence at the time he “capped” the creation of more lines to prevent further “fetal death” (there are actually only about a third that many lines that are viable for research) .

2)      Global Climate Change

3)      The public health consequences of climbing levels of mercury contamination in the waters.

4)      Using fuzzy science to support policy decisions in favor of business at the expense of endangered species (although Mooney does not say that these decisions should not have been made…only that they were justified by bogus science)

5)      The efforts to propel Creationism, Young Earthism, Intelligent Design, etc into the schools and public consciousness by using psudo and/or proto scientific conjectures to support theological beliefs.

In every case, Mooney illustrates how the co-techniques of :

1)          Magnifying the uncertainty of reliable science, and

2)           creating, distorting, or misappropriating controversy…

Have been used successfully.  He discusses how, in each of these cases, these techniques have undermined our democracy, public infrastructure, technological and scientific primacy in the world, health and education…not to mention the future habitability of our planet.

It’s a very good book, and quite well-written.  Complete, orderly, focused, logical, linear.  It’s easy to read and follow.  The title might not be very “civil”…but the content is exceptionally so.