OP-ED: Fly Me to the Moon

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: December 5, 2004 10:22:30 AM EST
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] OP-ED: Fly Me to the Moon
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com

 OP-ED COLUMNIST
 Fly Me to the Moon
 By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/05/opinion/05friedman.html? 
oref=login&hp>

 Of all the irresponsible aspects of the 2005 budget bill that
 the Republican-led Congress just passed, nothing could be more
 irresponsible than the fact that funding for the National
 Science Foundation was cut by nearly 2 percent, or $105
 million.

 Think about this. We are facing a mounting crisis in science
 and engineering education. The generation of scientists,
 engineers and mathematicians who were spurred to get advanced
 degrees by the 1957 Soviet launch of Sputnik and the challenge
 by President John Kennedy to put a man on the moon is slowly
 retiring.

 But because of the steady erosion of science, math and
 engineering education in U.S. high schools, our cold war
 generation of American scientists is not being fully
 replenished. We traditionally filled the gap with Indian,
 Chinese and other immigrant brainpower. But post-9/11, many of
 these foreign engineers are not coming here anymore, and,
 because the world is now flat and wired, many others can stay
 home and innovate without having to emigrate.

 If we don't do something soon and dramatic to reverse this
 "erosion," Shirley Ann Jackson, the president of Rensselaer
 Polytechnic and president of the American Association for the
 Advancement of Science, told me, we are not going to have the
 scientific foundation to sustain our high standard of living
 in 15 or 20 years.

 Instead of doubling the N.S.F. budget - to support more
 science education and research at every level - this Congress
 decided to cut it! Could anything be more idiotic?

 If President Bush is looking for a legacy, I have just the one
 for him - a national science project that would be our
 generation's moon shot: a crash science initiative for
 alternative energy and conservation to make America
 energy-independent in 10 years. Imagine if every American kid,
 in every school, were galvanized around such a vision. Ah, you
 say, nice idea, Friedman, but what does it have to do with
 your subject - foreign policy?

 Everything! You give me an America that is energy-independent
 and I will give you sharply reduced oil revenues for the worst
 governments in the world. I will give you political reform
 from Moscow to Riyadh to Tehran. Yes, deprive these regimes of
 the huge oil windfalls on which they depend and you will force
 them to reform by having to tap their people instead of oil
 wells. These regimes won't change when we tell them they
 should. They will change only when they tell themselves they
 must.

 When did the Soviet Union collapse? When did reform take off
 in Iran? When did the Oslo peace process begin? When did
 economic reform become a hot topic in the Arab world? In the
 late 1980's and early 1990's. And what was also happening
 then? Oil prices were collapsing.

 In November 1985, oil was $30 a barrel, recalled the noted oil
 economist Philip Verleger. By July of 1986, oil had fallen to
 $10 a barrel, and it did not climb back to $20 until April
 1989. "Everyone thinks Ronald Reagan brought down the
 Soviets," said Mr. Verleger. "That is wrong. It was the
 collapse of their oil rents." It's no accident that the 1990's
 was the decade of falling oil prices and falling walls.

 If President Bush made energy independence his moon shot, he
 would dry up revenue for terrorism; force Iran, Russia,
 Venezuela and Saudi Arabia to take the path of reform - which
 they will never do with $45-a-barrel oil - strengthen the
 dollar; and improve his own standing in Europe, by doing
 something huge to reduce global warming. He would also create
 a magnet to inspire young people to contribute to the war on
 terrorism and America's future by becoming scientists,
 engineers and mathematicians. "This is not just a win-win,"
 said the Johns Hopkins foreign policy expert Michael
 Mandelbaum. "This is a win-win-win-win-win."

 Or, Mr. Bush can ignore this challenge and spend the next four
 years in an utterly futile effort to persuade Russia to be
 restrained, Saudi Arabia to be moderate, Iran to be cautious
 and Europe to be nice.

[snip]


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