Greater Activism in 2017

Welcome to 2017!  I hope you had a fun and happy time this holiday season.  For those of us who care about the environmental future of this planet, the latter part of 2016 was a tough pill to swallow.  The President-elect has publicly stated climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese and the United States House of Representatives has openly attacked scientists studying climate change.  In late 2016 the U.S. House Science and Technology committee has tweeted anti-climate change propaganda that is a promotion of outright lies.

The US House Science and Technology committee for crying out loud!  Unbelievable.  This, despite a year, 2016, that was the second hottest on record.  The hottest?  2015. (Update:  made a mistake here.  2016 officially finished as the hottest year on record.  2015 comes in as second hottest.) I suppose the climate change deniers claim this is evidence of global cooling.  Sigh.  It is extremely frustrating when our elected representatives blatantly ignore the science staring them right in the face.  It's even worse than that.  Not only do they ignore it, they call science a lie and actively promote anti-science!!!

So what do we do?  We become active.  I made a vow after the 2016 election to become much more active in politics.  I will sign petitions (arguments on effectiveness here, but that's another post) and make phone calls to politicians on topics that are important to me.  In addition I'm now attending my local school board meetings.  I went to my first last month.  This isn't directly related to science, but its part of my vow to become more politically active across the board.  In the coming days I'm going to contact the local democratic party headquarters to ask how I can help.  I'd love to do the same for the local republican party, but that will never happen as long as the party chooses to deny science.  At the moment I don't know what form that help will take.  It could be phone banking, helping put up yard signs at the right time.  I don't know.  But I'm not going to sit and remain silent.  I can't save the planet by myself, but I can do my little part.  To not do my part is to play a roll in the destruction of this planet.  I owe myself and my family more than that.  As I become aware of what form this help will be I'll post here, particularly if that help is directly related to science.