Whether it be the climatologist researching global warming, the ecologist fighting for habitat conservation, or the evolutionary biologist told that their science should subordinate to theological arguments, many scientists perceive a troubling streak of ambivalence and hostility running through the American public and government's attitude toward science and research. Any long-term reader of Envirowonk is likely to agree: our articles are rife with tales of near-total disregard for science, denial, and obfuscation of fact.

Those concerns were recently articulated by a panel of scientists at the opening day of the first World Science Festival. The meat of their argument: American science has been hobbled and undermined by unenthusiastic funding, politically-motivated meddling, and an atmosphere of intellectual relativism, whereby all opinions are given equal weight and importance regardless of their origin and validity, among both the public and our leadership.

"I think there's a loss of American power and prestige that came about as a result of our anti-science policies," said Nobel laureate immunologist. David Baltimore, chairman of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Recent controversy over the teaching of creationism in public schools "leads to a certain disdain for American intelligence. What we need is leadership that respects science."

American science "has really kind of died over a quarter of a century, even as the importance of science has grown," said Dr. Nina Fedoroff, a plant molecular biologist and adviser to Condoleeza Rice. Fedoroff also laid down a stark prediction: "They're (China and India) educating 10 times as many students as we are. The next generation of scientists in other countries might not speak English."

Nobel laureate cancer researcher Harold Varmus, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, questioned why scientific funding is such a non-issue in the American presidential campaign. "The campaign so far has given too little attention to what science means for our own economy and our status in the world."

What more can we say that these fine folks haven't already? Whether it be anti-global warming "conferences" in Alaska, refusals by the EPA Administrator to carry out his legally-mandated duty to lead his agency in regulating CO2 emissions, or the scandalous decline in American science funding, it's clear that science is being neglected at a time when we need it most.