Don’t let ScienceDebate 2008 be stood up

It’s been interesting to watch the ScienceDebate 2008 campaign snowball over the past couple of months, but things are about to get even more interesting: a time (April 18th) and a place (the Franklin Insitute in Philadelphia) have been decided upon, and invitations have been sent out to the four remaining principal contenders.
It’s a tribute to the hard work put in by the people behind this campaign (including our very own Chris and Sheril) that things have got to this juncture, but now comes the hard part – getting the candidates on board. This is effectively down to you, the (American) reader: we all know that every campaign move the presidential hopefuls make is calculated purely on its vote-winning potential, so they need to feel that agreeing to participate in a debate on science and technology issues is going to win them some favour. That will only happen if you let them know. Here’s what Sheril wants you to do:

1. Contact the campaigns, and tell them to attend ScienceDebate2008! A list of contact information for the campaigns can be found here (see right margin).


2. Write letters to the editor of your local newspapers, raising further awareness about this initiative. Some handy letter writing tips can be found here.


3. Tell a friend about ScienceDebate2008 (handy link here). We need to spread the word as much as possible at this critical time. We’re at 13,000 supporters right now; we want to get to 15,000 supporters by the end of the week and 20,000 supporters by the end of the month. We need your help to make that happen.

Remember, this debate is not intended to be a pop quiz on science. It’s more a chance to examine the different candidate’s approaches to scientific issues which concern us all – and check that they’re actually informed and rational. From a broader perspective, remember that the tools of science are largely employed to identify, and then remove, the errors and biases which distort our view of the world, something which is hardly irrelevent in a political environment as polarised as the modern day US. Science is just a technical form of critical thinking, which values pragmatism; a willingness to go with what works, rather than what you’d like to work; and above all, a readiness to revise your opinions in the face of contradictory data. You know, all those things that have been noticeably missing from American governance for the last 8 years – if not longer.
Believe me, the rest of the world will be watching this with interest.