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Science advocacy group calls for US candidate debate

By DPA

Washington : With illegal immigration and the economy dominating US political debate, a group of scientists has called for presidential candidates to turn more attention to the “vital” areas of environmental and other scientific issues.

The first round of party selection of November 2008 candidates is set for Jan 3 in Iowa, and the eight top candidates in each party – the Democrats and Republicans – have been debating monthly and sometimes weekly since May.

But little attention has been paid to the “vital role scientific innovation plays in spurring economic growth and competitiveness,” said the ScienceDebate2008 group, whose call for a debate was posted Tuesday on its website.

The scientists in the group include Nobel laureates like Peter Agre, David Baltimore, Steve Chu and Val Fitch.

Editors of top US science journals, including Nature, and university leaders have also signed on.

Chief organiser, Lawerence Krauss, a physicist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, told the New York Times Tuesday that he started getting the group together after hearing some of the Republican candidates’ remarks on evolution.

Mike Huckabee, a Republican candidate and Baptist minister who has surged to the lead in Iowa opinion polls, has defended Biblical creationism against evolution. Another Republican candidate, George Romney, a devout Mormon, has said he believes that creationism and evolution are not mutually exclusive.

The ScienceDebate2008 group noted the pressing nature of the top scientific issues, including climate change, species loss, fresh water and renewable energy research.

“We have noticed that science and technology lie at the center of a very large number of the policy issues facing our nation and the world – issues that profoundly affect our national and economic security as science and technology continue to transform our lives,” the group said.

“No matter one’s political stripe, these issues pose important pragmatic policy challenges.”