Ever since we fell through the looking glass, things have just gotten weirder and weirder. It was a slow fall, really, gaining momentum over the last decade or two, beginning with “intelligent design” (read: creationism) appearing in public school curricula.
And by the time climate change became obvious to the scientific community, it was just too much, and the very idea of science itself came tumbling down. With America now under the control of a party for whom “alternate facts” bear the same level of validity as factual facts, the official stance of the U.S. government regarding the collapse of our environment is to do…nothing. For those whose believe in understanding and knowledge, it’s a nightmare that won’t stop. And now, some scientists are selflessly putting their personal interests aside to run for office, in the hopes to restore evidence-based reasoning — AKA, sanity — to public policy.At the center of this new political movement is 314 Action, a non-profit founded primarily by scientists. Why 314? Why, it’s pi.
Like Pi, science is all around us. Too often, legislators choose to ignore science in favor of convenient beliefs or intuition. We are committed to electing more leaders who will use their training as STEM professionals to influence policy-making. Evidence-based reasoning should be the foundation of legislation related to issues like climate change, and gun violence.
The organization is involved in promoting a pro-science agenda throughout state and local governments as well as in Washington, D.
C. Their action goals:- Elect more leaders to the U.S. Senate, House, State Executive and Legislative offices who come from STEM backgrounds
- Strengthen communication among the STEM community, the public and our elected officials
- Make science more accessible to the public
- Educate and advocate for and defend the integrity of science and its use
- Provide a voice for the STEM community on social issues
- Promote the responsible use of data driven fact based approaches in public policy
Though the anti-science forces have been building for some time as noted earlier, shocking moves by the Trump administration — including the muzzling of EPA scientists, the demotion of climate science at NASA, and the rejection of the Paris Climate Accord — have positively galvanized the scientific community. As 314 Action’s director of communicationsTed Bordelon put it to IFL Science!, “The future…
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