Dick Sblog

From two recent postings on the eGov monitor :

On the media and climate change:

The Royal Society openly blames the media, “ It has become fashionable in some parts of the UK media to portray the scientific evidence that has been collected about climate change and the impact of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities as an exaggeration.” Even George Bush now accepts climate change yet the media do not…

The BBC ought to be more collectively ashamed of Top Gear still being on air than the trifling issue of a rigged Blue Peter phone-in. An open minded intelligent and ultimately responsible broadcaster would have ditched the program a long time ago and condemned Jeremy Clarkson to John McCririck style appearances on Big Brother to pay for his petrol habit.

Rupert George, eGov monitor 30.07.07

On science education (particularly for women):

Over the last two decades the number of young women adopting Sciences and Technology as fields of study has been dropping worldwide. Sciences and Technology education is the foundation for all applied engineering sciences (civil, electrical, computer, mechanical, telecoms, water, roads, power, etc.), and this type of education is a pre-requisite for further innovations and discoveries in these fields…

Anecdotes on stigmas such as these [scientists portrayed as nerds] abound. Very little is acknowledged , or advertised, on the amazing achievements engineering, sciences and technologies have helped us accomplish. At a time where a sleeping media forgot its role of objective reporter and is bombarding its audience with banalities, and a time when religious fanaticism and integrism seems to dominate the world wide scene, the image of sciences and technologies is taking a backseat which is reflected by absence from the teachings in primary schools, to graduate enrollments, to Research and Development investments…

Samia Melhem, Sr. Operations Officer, Policy Division (CITPO), The World Bank Group. eGov monitor 23.07.07

So, how do we redress this balance? How do we encourage a more positive view of science and technology? Maybe M.Rocard and his colleagues are onto something, maybe it’s something to do with the way that we currently squeeze out all the excitement and sense of exploration from the science curriculum.