Challenges

I received a letter this week from an organization that wants me to join. Read the opening paragraph and see if you can guess which group sent it.

Dear Avery Gilbert, 

As global citizens, the challenges we face have never seemed greater than they do today. Climate change, chronic and emerging diseases, rising food costs, population pressures, environmental degradation, and continued reliance on fossil fuels are just some of the issues we all face in one form or another.

So where do think it come from? Here are your choices:

Sierra Club
American Psychological Association
Environmental Defense Fund
American Association for the Advancement of Science

I’ll post the answer later.

UPDATE November 10, 2013

Here is the answer:



What is the difference between an organization that promotes scientific research and one that advocates specific positions on public policy?

If you can’t distinguish one from the other based on their own communications, then whose fault is it that science is losing credibility as an honest, skeptical and disinterested endeavor?