9 July 2014

Indefensible Ignorance

Posted by Dan Satterfield

I spotted this online today, and believe me it is being shared far and wide in science circles.

From Huffington Post

From Huffington Post

A statement like this from a 5th grader would be alarming, but from someone (State Senator Brandon Smith) who makes laws is downright frightening. What is more frightening is that the science literacy of his constituency is so low, he’ll likely be easily re elected. In case there are any doubts I looked up the weather on Mars today. We can do that thanks to a set of meteorological instruments aboard NASA’s Curiosity Rover.

Weather on Mars. Not exactly as warm as Earth.

Weather on Mars. Not exactly as warm as Earth.

The fact that he owns a coal mine might have something to do with this. As Sebastian Unger Upton Sinclair (author of the Jungle) said, “It’s nearly impossible to convince some of anything, if their paycheck depends on it being otherwise”. Your grade school should cancel your diploma Senator. Your voters should fire you.