Republican War on Science Breakout

Congrats to Chris Mooney, whose "Republican War on Science" was optioned Friday by moviemaker Morgan Spurlock ("Supersize Me") and will be reviewed on the front page of the New York Times book review on Sunday. I was especially pleased that Times reviewer John Horgan gave greater weight to the corporate influence side of the Republican war on science equation.

Much of the debate over science politicization has focused on the religious right's influence over the Bush administration on issues like Plan B, evolution, stem cell research and sex education (a typical example was a column in today's Post, which carried a small item about the Spurlock movie-in-the-making). Hopefully, Spurlock will focus on the corporate takeover of science, which has taken place not just in global warming, but in food, environment and energy policymaking as well as in the medical arena, an area not covered in Mooney's book but where I spend most of my time. It's in these arenas -- not whether teenagers can gain access to morning after pills or the latter day Scopes trial in Pennsylvania -- where corporate debasing of science truly threatens the long-term health and safety of the American people.