It's time to start trusting science again.
Let's start in the twentieth century. It was a time where bacterial and viral infections were simply devastating for whomever had the misfortune of contracting them. Outbreaks such as polio, measles, small pox and mumps resulted in many families having to lay to rest their loved ones. With all this happening scientists were hard at work researching ways to combat these diseases.
As history tells us two of the greatest scientific and medical breakthroughs came from this. Antibiotics and vaccines were discovered, doctors were finally able to treat and cure both bacterial and viral infections. Small pox was eradicated; polio, measles and mumps were suppressed. People put their trust into the treatments developed from science and it worked.
Something has changed over the last decade or so. We are seeing measles, mumps and other suppressed diseases remerging. Many individuals and children have been infected and died from these diseases. Treatments developed through science that both treat and prevent disease are now seen by many as optional and unnecessary. Many anti-vaccine movements are convincing people that these treatments are dangerous, disease causing and poisonous. At some point individuals began to lose trust in science and this proportion of the population is increasing.
Unfortunately the effects of the apparent loss of trust in science extend to an issue of far greater magnitude than vaccination. That issue is climate change. With the ice caps melting, sea levels rising, species falling into extinction, and ecosystem on the verge of collapse, there are still many deniers to climate change. Scientists have provided and acquired a vast amount of evidence in support that climate change is largely due to human activity, yet many still deny it is even occurring.
I believe many have forgotten that science is not a collection of facts, but a way of looking at the world and a way of thinking. The ultimate goal is not just to know more, but to work towards a greater good. With once suppressed diseases re-emerging, ice caps melting, species falling into extinction, forests shrinking and ecosystems collapsing there has never been a more critical time to trust the scientific community. For this generation and future generations, it is time to look at what is happening in the world around us, evaluate the evidence and trust science again.
Douglas Arnaud-Anderberg Lindley II
Prince George
