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If scientific facts are uncomfortable to us, well don’t worry. – they can be changed

Some recent studies of adolescent heath find that depression and anxiety are becoming more common in teenagers. It’s attributed to personal factors like suffering loneliness and bullying. And I certainly don’t doubt the importance of those factors. But could it also be that the state of the world, little background situations like global heating, or imminent nuclear war, are causing some to worry about their future?

There are many teenagers now who turn out to be having very different, unusual, thinking patterns. This reality is now recognised, and health experts work to ease the load on neurodiverse children. Sometimes I wonder if these differently thinking people are in fact more reasonable than the rest of us. They know that things are crook. And whom to believe , in the barrage of information in today’s world?

Well, we used to believe the scientists, those highly trained people who studied the world’s environment, and public health issues, and technical safety issues. But they’ve been telling us some very worrying stuff, especially relating to the heating planet, rising sea levels, shortage of fresh water, disappearance of many natural species. And there’s more – the prevalence of plastics and toxic chemicals in our environment, even in us. And the risks of more pandemics – it’s all too much. Too much factual information.

And indeed, in our 21st Century media environment, we are swamped with too much information, and so much of it in very brief formats, from innumerable sources. Not just for teenagers, but for everybody – whom to believe?

Well, if the scientific facts are gloomy, what to do about this, so that we can all feel better?

Donald Trump, in his inimitable way of simplifying, shortening and making clear the issue, always comes up with answers. And his administration is steadily putting these comforting messages into practise. it doesn’t really matter what the facts are. KellyAnn Conway explained that there are alternative facts. She’s gone from the White House, but quite likely to be back, if Trump manages to get another term as President. For the Trump government, alternative facts really are the way to get done whatever Trump and his greedy backers want to get done.

All 22 members of the advisory board that oversees the US National Science Foundation (NSF), a leading funder of fundamental science, were fired on 24 April without explanation. Every member of the NSF’s National Science Board (NSB) received an e-mail on Friday afternoon saying that “on behalf of President Donald J. Trump”, their positions were “terminated, effective immediately”.

 The National Science Foundation board establishes NSF policies and approves major NSF awards, alongside advising Congress and the president. Congress’s National Science Foundation Act of 1950 established the NSF as an “independent agency” and created the board.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science commented on the sackings – “the latest in a string of erratic decisions that are destabilizing not only the National Science Foundation, but all of American science” 

The reason given (much later) for the sudden removal of all board members was that they were appointed by the president, but not confirmed by the Senate.

At this stage, nobody seems to know who will replace the 22 removed board members. The likely new Director will be Jim O’Neill. If confirmed, Jim O’Neill would be the first non-scientist or non-engineer to lead the agency. He is a biotechnology investor, and has been  working in powerful positions in the Trump administration, implementing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s program against childhood vaccinations.

It’s not as if this anti-science move is a new thing for the Trump government. It’s really just the culmination of a series of actions to weaken, discredit and defund science.

I guess that we shouldn’t be so surprised if non-scientists will now be taking over the funding and program decisions for science in the USA. After all, Trump’s record is one of making appointments of dubious relevance to the task required – e.g. a real estate developer, Steve Witkoff for the job of international peace envoy. And Trump himself, elected as a great business-deal man, despite the string of Trump business bankruptcies

I really wish that I knew an answer to this disturbing trend – as people lose faith in science and scientific expertise. It seems to me that comedians are our best hope at the moment, in pricking and bursting the bubbles of absurdity that come from cowardly media and political leaders, apparently scared to offend the USA leadership. We need the Lewis Carrolls and Groucho Marx es of today. And so, especially do today’s young people need those voices of truth in a world of alternative facts.

May 4, 2026 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized