An Inconvenient Truth

Kind of interesting today to read that some brain cells in humpback whales have previously been found only in humans, apes, and dolphins. Also kind of interesting to read lately that the effects of global warming are being felt in lakes in Africa as well as glaciers at the poles. So, I was also somewhat piqued to read that the United States National Science Teachers Foundation turned down an offer of free copies of Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” movie because (as they claimed) they were afraid that other groups would want to give them “propaganda” as well.

It turns out that what they may be afraid of is losing the monetary support of Exxon Mobil Corp, which supplies millions of dollars and lesson plans giving their side of the global warming debate to teachers. As an editorial writer in the Washington Post wrote on Sunday, “It’s bad enough when a company tries to sell junk science to a bunch of grown-ups. But, like a tobacco company using cartoons to peddle cigarettes, Exxon Mobil is going after our kids, too.”

Exxon isn’t the only corporate donor to get in on the bandwagon of directing science teacher attention away from some inconvenient truths. Shell Oil and the American Petroleum Institute have virtually unfettered access to teachers and students (our children), yet a movie that could give some badly needed balance to teachers as they try to explain the global warming issues to students is turned down. An inconvenient truth, indeed.

You know, the universe isn’t stupid. It runs by the numbers. Those numbers say that for every action there is a consequence. If you bring together a cloud of gas and dust and stir it up, all things being equal, in a few millions or billions of years there’ll be a star and maybe some planets form in the cloud. If conditions are right, chemicals may combine to form life on a planet. And, if things don’t go wrong, that life may evolve to understand its surroundings and maybe even explore the stars. It’s kind of elegant if you sit and think about it for a while.

During the lifespan of a star like the Sun, the existence of life on our planet is a mere blip of time. In the life of a galaxy, the birth and evolution of life on Earth isn’t even an eyeblink, not even a nanosecond of galactic time. Life is precious for that very rarity of its existence in time and space. There may be other planets with life, but like the time span of our existence, those life forms also exist in the blink of the cosmic eye.

Still, we live in the here and now, on a planet that we are changing by our very existence—a planet we still barely understand. We’re just now developing the tools of science to help us understand the changes we’re bringing to our world. Now we need to get rid of the very human trait of hubris and face what we’re doing with open eyes and minds. The universe doesn’t care if we live or die, but WE do. And for now, Earth is the only planet we’ve got and the diversity of life on its surface and under its ocean waves is precious.

Which brings me back to whales. We’ve been killing them for centuries. Turns out they’re more closely related to us than we thought. Maybe we’re killing our cousins. Now that we’re fouling our Earthly nest and pretending that global warming doesn’t exist, we may well be dooming humanity in a not so distant future to live on a planet that isn’t so pleasant to be on. Just as we’ve made the oceans a deathtrap for whales and overfishing the doom of fish species. I think that’s a darned sight more important to worry about than whether or not exposing ALL sides of a complex science issue to students will somehow harm an oil company that is now on record as trying to buy out science teachers in the United States.

Science is about looking at ALL evidence, studying all aspects of a physical situation, and making some decisions based on that evidence. It’s not about buying opinion or directing research and education to a pre-ordained end based on economic or political interests. Shame on the NSTA and shame on the sponsors who try to direct science education and open inquiry into directions that are, well, un-open, unscientific and verging on looking dishonest.

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