"When I graduated from college, I thought I’d be making a difference for the environment but I came to realize over time, that this was not the case."

Hi Jim,

This statement hits home, and I think sums up a huge problem we (Americans) face today. I'm not in academia, nor do have a degree in the biological sciences, but I do know enough to realize that science is not science anymore... especially when the government is controlling/funding the science. I've spent a lot of time over the last year looking into this "python ban" movement. It's been a real eye opener. I didn't know such hysteria could be created over something for which there is really no evidence or statistics backing it up. What many (most?) government "scientists" are doing is not even science at all, by definition. Just one blatant example is the USGS releasing/publishing its infamous Python range map report BEFORE any attempt to back up the far-fetched theory with real-life experimentation. Another blatant example is that the Burmese pythons are "devastating" the Everglades ecosystem. No
evidence to support that either. But it doesn't matter, I guess, if you control the media and repeat lies often enough, this all becomes truth. Joseph Goebbels would be proud.

I recently read an article in "Wired" magazine. It was quite interesting. It was about a scientist who studied scientists. His conclusion was that about 50% of the time, the results of experiments actually surprised the scientists performing them. In other words, scientists are wrong or at least not very accurate with their theories/hypotheses that spurred on the experimentation. But that's what science is all about, proving theories through realistic, reproducible experimentation. Our government scientists don't do that.

What's sadly ironic is that these "environmentalists", "scientists" and "researchers" might actually be HARMING what they are supposed to be protecting! How many people will now chop off the heads of the next snake they see in their yard after reading about how pythons will be invading 1/3 of the US or watching a "Python Wars" show where a PhD scientist is telling them there's concern for a hybrid "super snake" resulting from Burms and Rocks breeding in the Everglades?



Anyway, I thank you for posting all the information that you do!



Thanks,
Ed

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