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06/30/2008: "Bloomberg's Address On Real Science and Political Science"
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently gave an address to the World Science Festival on the unfortunate lag between "What We Know and What We Do," discussing the difference between real science and political science. It's a great read...For years, politicians have hailed corn ethanol as the answer to climate change. It was all so simple. Instead of requiring fuel efficiency, or funding mass transit, we could have our cake, or in this case corn, and drive cars with it too, and, in the process, divert millions of tax dollars a year to farm states. The only problem was this policy wasn't based on science. For years, research has questioned the environmental benefits of corn ethanol, and now widespread production of corn ethanol has turned out to be an environmental and economic calamity. It not only imperils the world's climate by encouraging the widespread destruction of climate-crucial forests and wetlands, but also drives up the cost of one the world's most important cereal crops.
Link to the text
You may also want to watch Bloomberg's address on immigration to the University of Pennsylvania
Eric Miller, on 06.30.08 @ 14:02PST