Science and its contributions to humankind's advance toward improved quality of life have always encountered naysayers whose obstructionism is born of fear of the future, mythology, religious mysticism or common old self-interest.
Even today, believers that the world is flat and that NASA faked the moon landings can be found clinging stubbornly to their certitude, despite irrefutable evidence to the contrary.
Nowhere has hostility and contempt for science been more prevalent and heavy-handed in recent years than among political appointees of President Bush, who've rejected stem cell research on religious grounds, global warming as a myth, protection of woodlands as effete tree-hugging, and industrial air cleanup as too expensive.
Another example of science trashing is in the news, this time by a senior Bush appointee whose title, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, apparently has intoxicated her with self-important judgment.
Julie McDonald's mocking rejection of advice from agency scientists has led Interior's inspector general to launch an investigation of her decisions.
McDonald acted like a mole inside Interior, carrying out the wishes of industry and landowners, some of which were leaked Interior staff memos for their advice before she rejected scientific advice.
This has occurred six times in the past three years, according to Interior documents obtained by environmental groups through the Freedom of Information Act. She refused, for example, to list the white-tailed prairie dog and Gunnison sage grouse as at risk of extinction.
McDonald sneered at scientists. When experts suggested a proposed road would degrade grouse habitat, McDonald insultingly fired back, "Has nothing to do with sage grouse. This belongs in a treatise on 'Why roads are bad'?" Some scientific advice she called "a joke."
It hasn't been all a free ride for McDonald. Judge William Alsup, in the U.S. District Court of Northern California, overturned her decision to delist the Santa Barbara and Sonoma salamanders.
As the contempt for wildlife and environment pervades policy, a new World Wildlife Fund study reports darkly that human demand on natural resources is 25 percent greater than the Earth's ability to provide everything from food to energy.
Americans need to do more than hope that the rubble and death being created in Iraq is not a microcosm of the bleak legacy that Bush's stewards of the environment and wildlife will bequeath to Americans. They need to elect people who will represent the interests of ordinary people and their families, people who believe in protecting the country for generations yet to come.
