Sazid Al Kabir, ID: 2017-2-10-037

Business Communication, BUS231 (Section: 3)

FE Report #01, 30 September 2018

“Trump unknowingly bringing scientists into politics”

The current US administration ranks the lowest when it is judged upon the number of officials who
have a pure science background. Nobody in Trump’s administration has worn a laboratory coat.
It’s not only Trump’s administration that lack scientific expertise; the tally of former radio hosts
now in Congress is higher than tally of people with a pure science background, which is two.
Both the Republicans and the Congressmen have appeared ambivalent about the merits of science.

Last year’s draft budget tried to slash scientific research and the administration has seemed to
dismiss the challenges of climate change by pulling out of the Paris climate change accord and
undermining the Environmental Protection Agency. These actions indicates that the decisions
made by Trump administration hardly thinks about the scientific outcomes. The officials take it
lightly and ignore the importance of scientific progress and sustainability. But as it is known that
the American politics is a place where every reaction speaks a counter-reaction, Trump may have
unknowingly help spark some change. A couple of years ago, in the wake of the 2016 election, a
political campaign called 314 Action was established to bring more scientist into politics. The
campaign was named some what geekily after the first 3 digits of Pi and it provoked a movement
that has brought scientists on to the grounds of politics. The scientist are now being more
concerned about the US political situation than ever. Scientist are worried that the government
may not be a proper institution to run the government if they fail to give science the proper plat
from to progress. This is why many scientist want to become a part of the US administration. Also
they want their government to make its decisions while acknowledging the scientific outcomes
and so they want to take part in the decision making. The 314 team initially expected to field about
1000 inquiries but they were actually astonished with 7500. This shows how egger the scientists
are to be a part of US administration.
Scientists thought that science is above politics and so they should not be involved. But the trump
administration has been a catalyst and scientist have realized that there is a war on science and that
they have to step up and get involved. So far, 1400 scientist have been trained to run for office and
100 more were endorsed to candidate for upcoming local and state elections. The 314 team also
endorsed and funded 13 candidates for Congress, including Joe Cunningham in South Carolina (a
former ocean engineer), Josep Kopser in Texas (an aerospace engineer) and Elaine Luria in
Virginia (a former nuclear engineer).
The potential of the 314 act is very promising but there are a lot of challenges to. Even if all of the
13 candidates win, it is still a small fraction of 535. Also since the organization is entirely founded
by small donors, its projecting a budget of only $5.0m. This financial problem limits the
organization’s reach within a small radios.
The directors of 314 action are still hopeful and plan to continue their campaign. Their opinion
polls show two-thirds of Americans are concerned about Trump’s attack on science. They also
exemplify Angel Markel, the Garman chancellor as prove of their organization’s possibilities.

Source: The Financial Express, 23 September 2018