Scientists are ignored despite threats to the planet, says physicist Krauss

New York Times : Under the headline “Deafness at doomsday,” theoretical physicist and science popularizer Lawrence M. Krauss argues in an op-ed that until “science and data become central to informing our public policies, our civilization will be hamstrung in confronting the gravest threats to its survival.” He sees “great peril” in a diminishment of scientists’ influence, which he suspects stems from the loss of the post–World War II direct responsibility of scientists for nuclear weaponry. In any case, he asserts, scientists’ voices are unheard concerning climate, nuclear proliferation, and “the potential creation of new and deadly pathogens.” Citing Iran, India, and Pakistan, he calls proliferation “as alarming as ever.” He observes that the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty is not ratified by the US despite advice from the National Academy of Sciences, and that another academy study, “on flaws in America’s costly ballistic missile defense program, has had little impact.” In Washington, Krauss writes, “ideological biases have become so ingrained . . .  that scientific realities are subordinated to political intransigence.”