Jane Lubchenco is a distinguished Oregon State Professor and former head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In a press release, Lubchenco details a “science restoration” for President-elect Joe Biden which was also published in an article for Scientific American.
Lubchenco said, “During the campaign, Joe Biden pledged to get science back into government and to allow science to guide government actions. As a longtime member of the scientific community and a former government official, I have some ideas for how to do that.”
While serving as the Director of NOAA during the Obama Administration, Lubchenco participated in one-on-on discussions with Biden while working together on the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. “When we flew aboard Air Force Two to the Gulf of Mexico during the Deepwater Horizon disaster and in the car after landing, Joe Biden peppered me with a wide range of questions that made it clear how much respect he has for science,” Lubchenco said, “and how able he is to lean on scientists’ help in understanding complicated issues. He also has tremendous capacity for integrating science into his messaging in ways that make science useful and relevant to people’s lives.”
The Plan
The recommendations in Lubchenco’s plan are broken down into four major parts:
- Make prominent science and scientists.
- Restore and strengthen conditions that will enable science to thrive and allow it to inform decisions.
- Modernize the use of science across governmental agencies.
- Depoliticize science.
Biden’s first step, according to Lubchenco, will be to make sure the country knows that his administration will respect and listen to science. “Nominating a ‘Science Team’ that includes the president’s science advisor immediately after cabinet nominations makes a clear statement that science is back and is a priority. Moreover, elevating the science advisor to cabinet level status would underscore the relevance of science across the executive branch,” Lubchenco said.
Lubchenco believes that every major team in the administration needs to have a visible lead scientist, and when decisions are made, there needs to be included in the announcement a summary of the science behind the decision. She served as an inaugural member of President Obama’s Science Team and also as the first U.S. Science Envoy for the Ocean and she calls Biden to issue scientific integrity guidelines forbidding the executive branch from “Cherry-picking, manipulating, suppressing or distorting scientific information.”
Not only should science be considered heavily in all decisions, but Lubchenco believes that holistic approaches like thinking across systems and bringing together social, scientific and economic dimensions are a must.
“Biden should avoid dealing with issues in silos,” she said, and instead seek holistic solutions across agencies and issues. “For example, he can listen to the scientific information that identifies powerful opportunities for healthy ocean ecosystems to help address climate change, biodiversity, economies, health, coastal resilience and equity. And he should empower a new National Ocean Council and policy to harness this power of a healthy ocean.”
Finally, she reminds Biden that science is not a partisan topic. “Americans understand and appreciate that science needs to be free from political interference to have maximum impact on their well-being. They get that things like hurricane forecasts need to be based on science and they want to know what the experts think, unencumbered by partisan pressure,” Lubchenco said.
“The more opportunities we can all provide for people to participate in science, the better. Those opportunities help to demystify science, make it accessible and drive home that it’s not political,” Lubchenco said. “The messages and actions that come from the top matter a lot, and I’m encouraging our new president to embrace and use science, even when it might not be convenient. The nation and world will be much better off if he does so.”
By Kyra Young
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