Evidence in the fake news era
Independent scientific advice is about to collide with partisan politics
The US government has a long history of using scientific evidence to guide its policymaking. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the order to create the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), instructing it to ‘investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art’ on behalf of the government. Since then, it has become an invaluable source of independent advice on science and technology.
Whether policymakers heed that advice is another matter entirely. The current incumbent of the White House, for example, doubts that humans have any influence on the world’s changing climate, despite the towering ziggurats of evidence to the contrary.