18 hours Ago
We all want to keep America as the leader of the world. To make American great again, we have to recall how we became great in the first place. It was through scientific innovation and technologic development, all made possible through the best publiceducation system in the world.
Sadly, our once great nation has been slipping in each of these areas, being overtaken by Europe and Asia, especially China. At least we still have the services of our top federal agencies that provide us, for example, with the most reliable weather forecasts for our agriculture, fishing, recreation and other planning. We still have top scientists in our federal agencies improving our understanding of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, droughts and other natural disasters that impact our health, our property and our very lives.
Until now.There are two types of federal science agencies — those with a specific mission, and those that promote advances in the best science possible across a broad range of topics. Mission-oriented agencies include the U.
S. Geologic Survey, the National Aeronautical and Space Administration, the Department of Energy, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the National institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institute for Standards and Technology. Each of these has a specific mission, including protecting Americans from pollution and environmental degradation, predicting the weather and space exploration.
Through these agencies, Americans have enjoyed benefits ranging from the mundane to the curious beyond what citizens of other countries have dreamed. Further, there is one agency that transcends disciplinary boundaries and enables American scientists of all types to lead the world in innovative approaches to “wicked problems” such as devastating volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, storms, development of artificial intelligence and climate change and its impacts. This is the National Science Foundation whose paltry budget, $9.
06 billion in fiscal year 2024, a drop of 5% from the previous year, kept America at the forefront for decades. The agency did so by supporting independent and innovative science conducted by top scholars throughout the nation — at universities, research institutes, and business-academic partnerships. At least it did this until its funding levels no longer kept up with inflation, and we now lag behind our competitors in Europe and Asia.
Doubling the tiny investment made to NSF would be trivial for our budget, while producing great benefits to our ability to lead the world again in science and technology.Yet, we have recently embarked on a very different path — one that is reducing our commitment to science and technological advancement by slashing our top federal science agencies in the name of “government efficiency.” These cuts give China and others a big advantage moving forward.
The paltry (and insufficient) support we have been providing to our top science agencies is very small compared to huge benefit of leading the world in science and technology. As such, we are now losing a lot and only saving a tiny little bit. This is bad business.
A very scary impact of the recent executive orders to hobble American science is that our top scientists are now out of jobs. The rest of the world is watching closely. France and others have already put out the welcome mat for our top scientists.
So, do we want the best scientists in the world working for America, or for other countries? We are facing a serious brain drain from America to our competitors. What happened to putting America first? This is not what we had in mind during the November 2024 elections.So it becomes obvious what we have to do to make America great again.
We need to restore and then increase our support of our national science agencies such as NSF, NOAA, DOE, NIH, EPA, NIST and USGS. This needs to be done quickly, before we lose the scientific talent that we paid to train to be the best in the world. We can ill afford a brain drain, now more than ever.
Now is the time to write and call your congressional representative and senators to insist we restore our federal science agencies so America, not Europe or China, remains the world leader in science and technology with the resulting economic base to maintain global leadership.This is a contributed opinion column. Dork Sahagian is a professor of earth and environmental sciences at Lehigh University.
The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication or the university. Do you have a perspective to share? Learn more about how we handle guest opinion submissions at themorningcall.com/opinions.
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