The following is a rebuttal to an earlier article by Roger Pielke, Jr. entitled "Science Academies as
Political Advocates" that appeared in "bridges" vol. 6.
Science Academies and Climate Change
In his op-ed published in bridges, Roger Pielke, Jr., cited the June 2005 statement on climate change
issued by eleven national science academies as an example of
these institutions unwisely engaging in political advocacy and
politics. In our view, the eleven academies’ statement was consistent
with and supported by careful objective studies done by the US National
Academy of Sciences (NAS) over the past 15 years, which is the reason
that the then NAS President Bruce Alberts signed the statement.
While I write this column, the European Commission’s services are still
on holidays, with the exception of some civil servants dealing with
catastrophes such as forest fires in Portugal or the flooding in
Austria, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic. Let me therefore
concentrate on some topics which have already started and will be taken
up by the European Council of Ministers (Member States) in the autumn.
Since 2003, Hubert Gorbach
has been the Austrian Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister for Transport,
Innovation and Technology. On the occasion of the annual Alpbacher
Technologiegespräche (Austrian Technology Forum) that took place this
August, bridges
asked for an interview with
Hubert Gorbach. Although Mr. Gorbach could not attend Alpbach this year
due to his duties in connection with the heavy floodings
that hit Western Austria, bridges was able to interview him about the Lisbon Goals, Austria's upcoming EU Presidency
in 2006 and his point of view regarding "excellence" at Austrian
universities.
In January 2005 Dr. Alice Abreu was reconfirmed in her management
position at the Organization of American States (OAS) by Director
General José Miguel Insulza. As Director of the Office of Education,
Science, and Technology (OEST), Dr. Abreu not only watches over
developments in science and technology, as she did when she started in
2003, but also oversees two additional major areas: education and
culture, and social development and labor.
Judging by the recent surge of
interest in the mathematician Rudolf Taschner and his ouevre, one might
conclude that mathematics is hip and in – at least in Austria.
Apparently, there is no dearth of people drawn to Taschner’s
irresistible promise that the Gordian knot, as mathematics appears to
all too many people, can be cut. While Taschner doesn’t make that
promise literally – nor does he actually talk of a Gordian knot – he
certainly refuses to admit defeat in the face of all the bad press
mathematics has had over the years. Instead, he declares mathematics to
be utterly beautiful, simply irresistible, and tremendously relevant.
In his 
Judging by the recent surge of
interest in the mathematician Rudolf Taschner and his ouevre, one might
conclude that mathematics is hip and in – at least in Austria.
Apparently, there is no dearth of people drawn to Taschner’s
irresistible promise that the Gordian knot, as mathematics appears to
all too many people, can be cut. While Taschner doesn’t make that
promise literally – nor does he actually talk of a Gordian knot – he
certainly refuses to admit defeat in the face of all the bad press
mathematics has had over the years. Instead, he declares mathematics to
be utterly beautiful, simply irresistible, and tremendously relevant.
