Sunday 8 November 2020

An Open Letter to Joe Biden

Dear Mr. Vice President:

In the last four years, federally funded science agencies were unmade and remade. They were given new marching orders. The mandate of providing the nation with unbiased scientific advice was replaced by a new mandate—that science is subordinate to the political goals and ego of President Trump.

The consequences of this new mandate are serious and far-reaching. The Environmental Protection Agency became the Environmental Pollution Agency, rolling back protections on clean air and clean water, and providing regulatory relief to President Trump’s campaign contributors from the fossil fuel industry. Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were censured for challenging President Trump’s incorrect forecast of the path of a major hurricane. Their sin? Failing to adhere to the prime directive that the president is never wrong. At multiple federal agencies, climate science became “the subject that must not be named”—and the subject that should not be studied. And most recently, federally funded scientists unwilling to support the president’s incorrect narrative of a country “rounding the corner” on COVID-19 were publicly ridiculed and dismissed as “idiots.”

Scientist community, found human fingerprints in the temperatures of the atmosphere, the land surface and the world’s oceans. detected signs of human influence on ocean heat content and salinity, snowpack depth, the timing of streamflow from snow-fed river basins, atmospheric moisture, drought behavior and clouds. learned that human fingerprints on climate are not an isolated phenomenon. They are ubiquitous, present in dozens of independently monitored climate records.

The Department of Energy supported climate fingerprint research for over 25 years. The research survived transitions between Democratic and Republican administrations. It withstood shifts in the composition of the Senate and Congress. But it did not survive a president who has falsely dismissed climate change as a hoax and a Chinese conspiracy. It did not survive a president who falsely asserts that science does not know the causes of climate change. It did not survive a very stable genius who considers his expertise superior to that of all scientific experts. Nor did climate fingerprinting survive the changing of the guard at a remade Department of Energy—new leadership that walked away from the same research the DOE had funded. 

This seismic shift in political climate led to apprehension and even fear among US scientific colleagues to avoid any research areas viewed with disfavor by the president of the United States?

Our climate fingerprint group did not self-censor. Throughout the tenure of the Trump administration, we continued to study the nature and causes of climate change—research that is in the best interests of the citizens of this nation and this planet. We continued to believe that U.S. National Laboratories are an appropriate place to perform such research. And we continued to report on our findings; to speak science to power. We did not hide.

 An additional important challenge is to restore public trust in science and scientists. You must rebuild public trust in the scientific impartiality of the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Energy, the Centers for Disease Control and many other federal agencies with scientific remits. You must convince the women and men working in these agencies that their new prime directive is not political loyalty to one person—the new directive is “get the science right.” You will have to inspire the disillusioned and disheartened, reverse the loss of critical expertise at key scientific agencies and make public service at these agencies an aspirational goal for the next generation of young scientists. In achieving this restoration of trust, you can count on the help of many thousands of U.S and World scientist colleagues.

Today, we live in similarly ominous times. Patestine and Israel Have to Quit Dispute and Start Work Together. Yemen and Houti Have to Quit Dispute and Start Work Together. Kurdish and Chites and Sounites in Irak Have to Quit Dispute and Start Work Together. Afganistan and Taliban Have to Quit Dispute and Start Work Together. Separatist of Polisario and their allies should admit Moroccan authorities in Western Sahara and start to work together for peace and prosperity. 

In This World View the Arab’s Economy is a big pile of money That simply needs to be distributed fairly to make it roaring by engaging partner governments on level playing fields starting to listen to your host country recipients — and reflecting seriously about your work and the meaning of partnership in places where real partnership was not only possible, but the best way to achieve lasting impact, adapting best practices from developed countries worked well and increasing and improving order picking productivity. Gov and USAID will owe their partner beneficiaries and the U.S. taxpayers that much to ensure lasting progress and for improved diplomatic relations.

In the next 10 years, key technologies will converge to completely disrupt the five foundational sectors—Information, Energy, Food, Transportation, and Materials—that underpin our global economy. We need to make sure the disruption benefits everyone.

Americans and the global community have to put Hand in Hand for a brighter Future: good governance, lasting green economic prosperity, a sustainable environment and — most importantly — thriving communities.

We wish for signs that the darkness of the last four years is lifting—for singing in the wilderness. Our “blessed hope” for a better future is invested in you.

   يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ وَأُنثَىٰ وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوا ۚ إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِير- 13 الحجرات

humanity! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you may know one another. Surely the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous among you. Allah is truly All-Knowing, All-Aware - Hujurat 13


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