The following commentary by Alan Burdick was posted on the New Yorker website March 4, 2018:
Donald Trump’s disregard for science has never been much of a secret. Well before he became President, he tweeted that light bulbs can cause cancer, that wind farms are unhealthy, that fracking “poses ZERO health risks,” and that Ebola “is much easier to transmit” than the government lets on. As a candidate, he regularly called global warming a hoax, repeated the false notion that vaccines can cause autism, and stated confidently that spraying hair spray in one’s apartment does not harm the ozone layer (it does, a little). He avoids exercise, proudly fears germs, and, in Mike Pence, has chosen a Vice-President who, when pointedly asked, won’t say whether he believes in evolution. The day after Trump won the 2016 election, the editors of the journal Nature wrote that, as incoming President, he “should leave behind his damaging and unpopular attitudes and embrace reality, rationality and evidence.” Continue reading “Donald Trump’s Know-Nothing Science Budget”