Science Cheerleader

Another timely report from Dr. John Ohab.

Hooray! October is Energy Awareness Month, a national effort to empower citizens to reshape the energy economy and be part of the solution to climate change. This year’s theme, “A Sustainable Energy Future; Putting All the Pieces Together”, encourages everyone to see themselves as a piece of the much larger puzzle that includes efforts from the Federal Government, private industry, and the general public.

While scientists and engineers are working to solve many of our energy challenges, there are steps that each of us can take now to lower our emissions while reducing energy and waste disposal costs. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Personal Emissions Calculator can help you measure your own carbon footprint and then take action. The Department of Energy provides an array of low- or no-cost methods specifically geared towards homeowners who want to save energy without compromising their comfort. Google’s Energy Saver Gadget optimizes your computer’s power management settings. The Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Effiency offers a map of utility programs that provide incentives for those who invest in energy efficiency. You can also help by simply spreading the word and making your friends and family aware of their energy consumption.

If protecting the environment, conserving natural resources, saving taxpayer dollars, and creating a better world for our children is not enough incentive, how about a chance to meet The President of the United States? Oh yes!

Last week, President Obama announced the SAVE (Securing Americans Value and Efficiency) Award, which challenges Federal employees to submit practical, environmental-friendly ways of improving government efficiency and savings. Do you have a innovative idea for preserving light bulbs at government facilities? Or how about a brilliant method for reducing the cost of air conditioning?  You have until October 14, 2009, to submit your ideas for consideration in the fiscal year 2011 Budget. In November, the winner will have the opportunity to present his or her idea to President Obama himself. Stay tuned for news on whether you will also be drinking beers with him.

I’ll return with more Energy Awareness Month reports throughout the next few weeks, including some behind-the-scenes video interviews with speakers, sponsors, and others attending the four-part energy event, The Road to the New Energy Economy. I’m energized — are you?

This is cool. Dr. Ohab just reported on Data.gov, a new site designed to “increase public access to high value, machine readable data sets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.”

Several third party applications have been created to allow regular folks like us to “mash-up” the data  in various forms.

Here’s one example of such an application: ThisWeKnow.org. Simply key in a location or zip code and up pops government stats such as current populations, # of pollutants released into the air, recently earmarked funds and a list of who requested them (hint: Chaka Fattah’s been busy), and more.
Turns out, in Philadelphia, we have 349,651 home owners and 240,420 renters. (All of this assumes the data is accurate, a topic for a future post.)

I had the pleasure of meeting the late Senator Ted Kennedy in 1998 when I directed the Discover Technology Awards program. Senator Kennedy invited some of the award winners to meet with him and discuss their emerging technological innovations. As you can tell by this picture, a good time was had by all. (Incidentally, the man on the right is Wolfgang Ketterle from MIT who went on to win a Nobel Prize in 2001.)

Recently, the Federation of American Scientists, which has done a bang up job of pushing to restore the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (the OTA was defunded back in the 1990s), posted a tribute to Kennedy who was instrumental in defining and launching the OTA back in the 1970s. In the tribute, the FAS included parts of Kennedy’s March 2, 1972 testimony in support of the legislation that created OTA.

Here’s an important part of his remarks, left out of the FAS post. It deals with one of the most important visions Kennedy had for the OTA, but one which was never fully executed: citizen input. We don’t need the “old” OTA. What we need is what Kennedy envisioned: a participatory technology assessment agency. One that gives a voice to the public so critical social consequences and risk assessment can become important considerations in the formation of policy. Let’s take it one step further and decentralize the agency to better capture the collective input and talents of scientists, engineers, and “average” Americans who want, and deserve, a place at this table.

Senator Ted Kennedy said: “Finally, I think it is desirable that the bill be further amended to permit appropriate public participation in the assessment process. Environment and conservation groups, public service law firms, non-profit research organizations and other citizens groups should be allowed and encouraged to submit information and ideas to the Office before it completes its assessments.”

If you would like to join the effort to push for the opening of a participatory technology assessment agency, consider joining our Facebook page. I’ll continue to keep you posted on developments.

From Shawn Otto, CEO of ScienceDebate.org (an initiative near and dear to my heart):

Barack Obama pledged to Science Debate that he would “restore the science integrity of government and restore transparency of decision-making…”

He has referred to this pledge several times since, most recently in his speech to the National Academies of Science.  On March 9, the president formally asked the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to make recommendations on how the executive branch can meet this pledge.

The OSTP has opened a public comment period regarding this directive, giving you the opportunity to share your thoughts on what the next steps should be.  Comments are due by Wednesday, May 13.

The OSTP is looking for recommendations on the six issues President Obama identified in his memo:

1. hiring and keeping qualified scientists
2. defining new policies to ensure integrity
3. using “well-established scientific processes” like peer review
4. disclosing scientific findings
5. ensuring that principles of scientific integrity are being adhered to
6. adopting additional policies like whistleblower protections

The OSTP is accepting comments via email and through their blog, here.

Many organizations in Washington will be giving their opinions of what the OSTP plan should entail.  We believe it is important for scientists and other science supporters to be included in that process, and for you to indicate to the White House how science and scientific integrity affect your work, your families, and your communities.

If you’re interested in more background information, visit the scientific integrity site of our friends at the Union of Concerned Scientists here.

If you like our work, please contribute - we are all volunteer, and individually funded.

Thanks — and we hope to see you this weekend in New York!

-The team at ScienceDebate.Org

(Me again: Does anyone else wonder if/when Congress will thaw to the idea of public participation?)

Flag-waving Republican, Newt Gingrich, dismantled the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (science policy advisers to Congress) as a symbol of his believe in the Contract with America back in the 90s. Bad move. And a little silly to slash a lean office with a modest budget that produced hundreds of still-valued reports on hot science policy topics. Plus Newt loves science. He really does. He thought Congress didn’t need the OTA because they could just pick up the phone and call scientists and engineers for advice. Really?

It’s been 15 years, give or take, and we witnessed the ugly side of science when it’s been politically manipulated. Congress needed the OTA  then and they surely need it now. Obama and the majority of the Executive Branch understand the value of sound science policy advice, particularly when it takes into account public input for determining things like Risk Assessment. The Legislative Branch, however, is about six steps behind.
The good news is that momentum is building on the streets to reopen the OTA and add a mechanism for public participation. Even Republicans are embracing this movement. I’ve counted three so far but it wasn’t long ago the sum would have been zero:

Me, Bart and the founder of Scientific Blogging, Hank Campbell. Read why they support the call to reopen the OTA.

It’s a start.

Cheers!

PS: Bart recently posted this example of why he supports the reopening of the OTA.

Looks like our push to restore the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (w/public participation) has attracted the attention of the editors at one of my favorite sites, the Personal Democracy Forum’s TechPresident.

Found this article on their site today. OTA 2.0: Reviving the Expert Agency with a New Public Participation Component.

See additional, recent news coverage from Phil Plait, Chris Mooney and Science Progress.

From one of my favorite sites, TechPresident.com– a blog covers everything from how President Obama is using the web, to how campaigns at all levels are going online, to how voters are responding and creating their own user-generated content.

Executive Branchers Draw White House a Road Map to Participatory Government

Nancy Scola | April 9, 2009 – 10:47am 

So much of the focus in open government circles of late has been on political transparency, but staffers from 23 different federal agencies (EPA, CDC, DOE, FEMA, NIH, FERC, Park Service, and more) recently gathered in Washington DC to brainstorm on that lower-profile aspect of open government: tackling the challenge of engaging the American people in their democracy. The conference convened by AmericaSpeaks, Demos, Harvard’s Ash Institute, and others produced a 51-page report that lists seven solid suggestions from how to get from where we are today to a more participatory future:

1. Develop a high-level, inter-agency governance structure for implementing the Open Government Directive.
2. Establish systems that will support government-wide adoption of participation and collaboration practices.
3. Demonstrate the value of participation through highly visible Presidential initiatives.
4. Respond to the barrier that public and stakeholder participation are not valued inside agencies.
5. Ensure that participation and collaboration activities are adequately funded.
6. Address institutional barriers that reward the status quo.
7. Address existing rules and regulations that impede participation and collaboration.

The founder of Scientific Blogging, Hank Campbell, posted this cheeky endorsement of the Science Cheerleader’s push to reopen the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment with a mechanism for public participation in major science policy discussions.

Hoorah! Support from a science savvy Republican!

Just launched a new group on Facebook to jumpstart dialogue and create a plan of action so we can ALL (”experts” and us) work together to shape the reopening of the Congressional Office of Science and Technology Assessment. Folks from Obama’s transition team listen in on the conversation from time to time. 

Take a couple of minutes to read this bit (below) I originally posted a few months ago. It’ll bring you up to speed on 30 years worth of history but more importantly, it should give you a better understanding of how a newer, faster, more inclusive reencarnation of this Congressional Office will have a direct impact on all of us.

And, feel free to join the Facebook group. We’d love to hear from you. (more…)

Yesterday, like thousands of other people, I returned home from Washington, D.C. wrapped in the comfort of an Amtrak train.

Somewhere close to Baltimore, MD, the conductor announced, “Due to the excessive heat, we will be 15 minutes delayed at every stop.”  

I couldn’t help notice the confused, annoyed expressions on the faces of my fellow commuters. “What the [beep] does the heat have to do with the train?” I overhead one ask. I had to refrain from quipping, “I heard the trains unionized recently.  Now they’re authorized to take a 15-minute nap for every hour of working in excessive heat.”  I had the good sense to realize that comment would flop (as it just did).

I also realized this: Had the conductor elaborated on the reasons for the heat-related delays, the passengers would have learned a bit about science, politics and the benefits of being an informed citizen. May I elaborate? Dream a bit? (more…)