John McCain, the U.S. republican presidential nominee, thinks so. One of his primary agendas if he were to (astonishingly) take office is he would reduce ‘superfluous’ spending by the government. One example he repeatedly highlights is $3 million USD spent by the U.S. Geological Survey to survey grizzly bear populations in the Rockies. The scientists are using DNA collected from hair samples to get accurate counts.
Here’s the opening paragraph of a recent Washington Post article on the subject”
If you’ve heard Sen. John McCain’s stump speech, you’ve surely heard him talk about grizzly bears. The federal government, he declares with horror and astonishment, has spent $3 million to study grizzly bear DNA. “I don’t know if it was a paternity issue or criminal,” he jokes, “but it was a waste of money.”
I think he watches a bit too much CSI. Imagine if he knew how much money the government spends daily to clean up remnants of their nuclear weapons facilities during WWII (hint: it’s more than the entire bear project costs) or how much the yearly NSF budget is, which doesn’t get funded enough as it is. I can only imagine what will happen to science funding if McCain takes office.
So why does the U.S. Geological Survey survey grizzly bear populations in the Rockies? Is it just to count how many there are? Perhaps someone (or a grizzly) needs to explain it to McCain.
Though yes, I’m not sure I’d want him in office, either.
Yes, McCain might have a severe misunderstanding of the study (and yes, someone should be doing a better job communicating to him why the study is necessary, especially now considering all the bashing he is doing). But one would think as the top presidential nominee for a party, you would make sure your advisors and/or aides would tell you what is/is not appropriate. In this case, I think McCain isn’t necessarily ignorant of supposed merit of grizzly counts as he is actually fundamentally against it.
Wow, I haven’t heard this news before. I think this will be the topic of my next lab discussion.