A letter to Rep. Lamar Alexander

A letter to Rep. Lamar Alexander:

Dear Representative Smith,

As a scientist and researcher, I’m disappointed that, as chair of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, you’ve decided to politicize the question of whether or not governmentally-funded organizations can collect and analyze data to the best of their scientific ability. Peer review of research, while an imperfect system, is far superior to legislating science. In fact, as a proponent of smaller government and less regulation, that you’ve taken a position that doesn’t allow the ‘scientific marketplace’ to best determine what counts as high quality science. In addition, there is not “a lot” of disagreement about the basic idea that the climate is warming and humans are the cause. The scientists who disagree fully are generally not within the mainstream and those who disagree on any particular metric are working toward better understandings of the science, but not disagreeing with the basic idea behind climate change.

I’m also a parent. And I’m scared about the world we’re going to leave our children. One of pollution, extinction, scarce and polluted water, few green spaces, disappearing coastal cities… Taxing carbon, moving to a renewable energy economy, and eliminating subsidies for coal and oil are essential to the nation’s economic and societal well-being.

Thank you for your service to our nation and I hope you’re willing to push against the political winds and chart a path to move our nation in a direction that ensure prosperity in the future.

Sincerely, Dr. David

Note: Nope, not about literacy or anything, but research matters and I’ll stand up for climate scientists in the hopes that they’ll stand up for me. Rep. Smith is actually my representative, so there’s a better chance someone in his staff will actually read what I wrote. And I know there are lots of mixed metaphors in that last paragraph, but it’s politi-speak, right?

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