Inconvenient truth?

Apparently Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth" has been banned in a school board in the Washington area - of course it's a catholic school, and the spokesperson says that global warming has been predicted in the bible for the last 3500 years. I never expected to see the "God versus science" debate attached to global warming!!!

"I believe in an open mind, but not so open that my brains fall out"

On that note, last weekend I was in Boston to attend the "Science & Society - Closing the Gap" conference. Al Gore was one of the keynote speakers on Friday evening. I wasn't sure what to expect of him, but I was fascinated! Here's a guy who was a horrible politician, who I dreaded listening to on TV during his time as Vice-President. But in Boston, he was fantastic! He was funny, engaging, down to earth, the kind of guy who you wanted to take out for a beer and talk to further. His message was simple:

1. In today's "information ecosystem", the general public is not actively engaged in a reasoning process, not engaged in two-way dialogues/conversations.

2. We must teach our up-and-coming scientists how to communicate.

3. The lack of support for science and science education is very detrimental. We can't retrofit new ideas and new innovations into an old system - the entire educational system must be revamped.

He quotes that the average USA citizen watches 4 hours and 39 minutes of TV each day. And this is not useful TV - it is only "fluff", even the news.

The remainder of the conference was equally as engaging and inspiring. The overall message of the conference was that, as scientists, we need to engage the public and help them to understand the TRUE nature of science, help them participate in effective dialogues and communications, and focus on the true nature of the conversation. In order to do this, we must work within the general public's belief, moral and value systems.

If we can help the general citizen to reason and think about the issues, they will be better suited in making decisions and having their own opinions.

"The purpose of education is not to validate ignorance, but to overcome it" (Lawrence Krauss)

It was a conference that was encouraging in that the continent is recognizing the need for further engagement and the death of the downstream, deficit model of communication between scientists and the general public. The bad thing is that no one quite knows how to go about solving the science literacy problem and how to get the public interested in talking with scientists. The UK is our best hope - they have solved many of the problems that we are focused on now.

Aside from the professional aspect of the conference, it was a chance to have a small Banffer reunion!! It was fantastic!! Friday night, a couple of us went searching for live music and wound up at a scuzzy little bar called Hennessey's, dancing til all hours of the morning. And trying to pick up guys! Trying and succeeding, but what's the challenge in slightly drunk, horny 19 year old frat boys?!!! It was fun though. A great time was had by all!! Boston is a great city - I'd like to go back in the summer months and look around some more. We got to see the New England Aquarium and that was about it. Penguins are SO cool. I could have sat and watched them for hours. They fascinate me.