This is what I mean by "scientism": when you define all exercises of power as needing to be "determined by science and data", those who wish to exercise power simply...change the science and the data.
The strange, infantile idea that somehow science is immune to the urges and appetites of the powerful, and can therefor be centered, creating "impartial" systems of control that can't be abused, needs to die in a fire.
๐๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐ญ๐จ๐จ ๐๐๐๐ฉ ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐จ ๐๐ฅ๐ฌ๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ซ'๐ฌ ๐๐จ๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ข๐ฅ ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ข๐๐ฌ: "๐ ๐ฐ๐๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐ก๐จ๐๐ค๐๐"
If you're into science or medicine, you may have heard of journals like Cell or The Lancet. You might also be familiar with their parent company Elsevier / RELX, and their predatory practices: sometimes charging more than 10,000 dollars for publications whose running costs don't reach a tenth of that amount.
What you might not know is that beyond pocketing public research money, Elsevier is also contributing to climate breakdown, pouring millions into tools and journals providing information about areas yet to be exploited for oil and gas extraction, as well as new technologies needed to dig up oil more efficiently in the Arctic and the Canadian tar sands. The motto of one of their online tools, Geofacets, used to be that, thanks to it, โexploration has never been more seamless.โ
But that's the tip of the iceberg. For years, RELX's political action committee REPAC has been providing support to climate denialist politicians in the US, preventing carbon mitigation bills from reaching a vote in Congress.
I document this and other complicities of big academic publishers in my new book Science in Resistance, where I interview Kip Lyall, a former employee of the journal Cell, who was fired after asking too many questions about the company's fossil fuel ties.
Excerpt below. ๐
#Science #OpenScience #Fossilfuels #Climate #Climate #Activism #Journal
