Yesterday I wrote about the depressing lack of engineers and scientists in government. Part of my point was that more than ever we are facing problems caused by and solvable with science and engineering. A sampling of stories from yesterday / this morning is the perfect illustration.
The New York Times provided an interesting juxtaposition. One front page story was about the De Blasio administration looking at Sweden as a model for reducing traffic accidents in New York City. The other was about scientists warning that ocean levels are likely to rise much faster than anticipated due to a more rapid melting of the West Antarctica ice sheet. It is the perfect example of how we are caught up in dealing with immediate tangible problems while continuing to punt a massive problem that is threatening not just New York but entire regions down the road.
As if to further illustrate how ridiculous the discrepancy between the threat and our political ability to address it has become there were two more related stories in the New York Times. In the science section, there is a piece on the increasing rains that are affecting many parts of the world as the atmosphere warms up and carries more humidity. In the meantime Washington can’t even pass the seemingly uncontroversial Energy Efficiency bill, that until recently had decent bipartisan support.
When I sit down with our kids to talk about the future I keep coming back to two issues of central importance: keeping the Internet open and tackling climate change. Both are longterm plays. The former will help move us forward as a species, the latter has the potential to throw us far back.
