Jenny Splitter opines that she sides with Senator Sanders 95% of the time. She also is a science advocate and wants to vote for a presidential candidate who both respects scientific expertise and wants to advance evidence-based policies. In our current death of expertise cultural milieu, she suggests that we desperately need leaders who value the rigor of credible scientific evidence and respect the consensus of experts in their field. But Sanders is not pro-science. While his position on the existence of climate change is certainly in line with most climate scientists, his agricultural and climate change policies, as well as his views on alternative medicine, are not really informed by science as much as they are by Sanders Vermont hippie vision for America.
When it comes down to it, Sanders is as erratic in his belief in science, as much everyone else and, yes, that includes progressives. Progressives love to cast themselves as the smarter, more forward-thinking, science-minded wing of the electorate, but they are as inconsistent in their regard for science as the so-called anti-science right wing. Sanders does embrace the consensus of climate change scientists who say that climate change is a real and serious threat that is likely caused by human activities. His climate change plan is incredibly aggressive, more aggressive than Clinton, with a plan that aims to reduce U.S. carbon emissions by 40%. The problem is that this very ambitious plan completely rejects nuclear energy, which pro-technology environmentalists like EcoModernist Co-Founder Michael Shellenberger say would actually result in a net increase in carbon emissions.
Sanders wants the country to shift away from nuclear energy to low-tech sources like solar and wind, but Shellenberger and others argue that strategy is neither feasible nor optimal. Fear of and opposition to nuclear energy is prevalent amongst many many environmentalists, but pro-technology ecomodernists see nuclear energy as needed.
Original URL: http://www.science20.com/jenny_splitter/bernie_sanders_isnt_proscience_and_neither_are_most_progressives-167253
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