Ira Flatow is the host of Science Friday, a program you can hear every Friday afternoon hear on WXXI.
He was the guest speaker Saturday night for the Genesee Land Trust, which is celebrating 30 years of helping to conserve open space.
He says that there have always been controversies among scientists about certain theories, but in recent years he’s seen a troubling trend that involves a partisan way of looking at science.
“But we have never heard the politicians really come down on the truth of science, and why science is important, or trying to distort what science does, or what we know about the Earth. We’ve never really heard it as much as we hear it now, and that is really different,” Flatow told WXXI News.
Flatow says one focus of Science Friday in recent months is to increase the amount of attention the program pays to climate change. Flatow says one positive sign at least, is that more people including politicians are now talking about that issue.
The crowd at Harro East on Saturday was enthusiastic, and Flatow says that kind of energy is common when Science Friday broadcasts from various locations around the country.
“When we take the show on the road, we go to auditoriums of 2,000 people and we fill ‘em up and people want to talk about science and hear it; and one amazing thing about that also is there are the youngsters, they really do muscle out the older people (getting up to the microphone to ask questions); 9-year-olds, 5th graders are up there first talking about science,” Flatow said.
