Data gathered through the scientific method during fieldwork or in the laboratory can help provide valuable information to influence the development and implementation of policies which affect us. In 2018, we’re living in a time where scientific rigour is highly valued, and so it might be surprising to hear our politicians denying irrefutable things like climate change, and changing our policies to reflect their denial.The question has now become then, does science have a place in politics?
According to the Canadian government, evidence-based policy is “an approach that levers the best available objective evidence from research to identify and understand issues so that policies… will deliver desired outcomes effectively, with a minimal margin of error and reduced risk of unintended consequences”. The goals of this is to use the scientific method to yield the most accurate and reliable knowledge available and use it to improve the policy making process.This is the type of policy that is at the basis of valuable legislation which has been put in place to tackle one of the most important issues of our time; climate change.
For the last few decades, the consequences of climate change have taken center stage in many political debates. The Paris Agreement may be one of the most well-known initiatives put into place, which binds almost every country, including Canada, in an agreement to keep Earth’s temperature from rising more than 2°C this century. While so many countries have joined forces to combat climate change on the basis of rigorous scientific evidence regarding its consequences, it might be surprising that the United States, under the Trump administration, pulled out of the Paris Agreement last year.
Another prime example of an issue which evidence-based policy has the potential to positively impact is the development of pipelines. There have been many environmental disasters associated with pipelines and research conducted on their impact on the environment shows that the effects are long-lasting and wide-reaching. It’s important that our governments respond to the issues that we care about and that will impact future generations by using the evidence gathered by unbiased research organizations to implement their policies. Relying on politicians’ private interests can be dangerous, and allowing for science to have a larger role in politics can prevent situations like building new pipelines due to financial and political interests, despite the evidence that points to the detrimental environmental costs.
On April 14th, the March for Science, a movement which has focused on asking politicians to take accountability for their policy choices and advocating for the use of evidence in policy development, is holding a march in Toronto. The movement states that “science isn’t just for scientists – it impacts all of us, by protecting our health and our environment, and providing us with facts and evidence to hold our governments accountable”. Movements like these show our politicians that the people demand evidence-based policy, and they have the power to sway the policy development process towards relying on the scientific method for gathering evidence.
March for Science in Washington, DC 2017. Source: Flickr
Ultimately, not only is there a place for science in politics, but it should be of highest importance in the policy development process. In a time where our environment is in such a fragile state, we can’t stand by as policies that put it at greater risk are implemented. In addition to policy development in regards to the environment, other sectors also rely heavily on evidence-based policy. For example, health policies to deal with emergency outbreaks of viruses consider scientific research of the utmost importance in their development. And so, does science have a place in politics? Science should be the cornerstone of politics, and we should all fear a time where it isn’t considered in the development of policies which affect our health, environment and livelihoods.
Cover photo source: Flickr