At SF event, Harrison Ford begs voters to 'stop electing leaders who don't believe in science'

[eppur_se_muova]

By Amy Graff, SFGATE Updated 10:00 am PDT, Friday, September 14, 2018

An impassioned Harrison Ford told a crowd in San Francisco Thursday to "stop giving power to people who don't believe in science, or worse than that, pretend they don't believe in science for their own self-interest."

With a graying beard, the Hollywood actor who starred in the Star Wars series as Han Solo, delivered a speech at Moscone Center for the Global Climate Action Summit sponsored by California Gov. Jerry Brown.

Ford didn't name President Donald Trump in his talk, but some of his comments obviously referred to the U.S. leader.

"For God's sake, stop electing leaders who don't believe in science," he said. "Or even worse, pretend they don't believe in science. Never forget who you're fighting for."
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Ford is vice-chair of Conservation International, an American nonprofit environmental organization with the goal "to protect nature." In November he ripped the Trump White House while accepting an environmental honor for his work, saying the "greatest threat" was "that we've got people in charge of important s--- who don't believe in science."
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more: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Global-Climate-Action-Summit-Harrison-Ford-Trump-13229732.php


I sit corrected. "SF" here does not stand for "Science Fiction", as is normal in the real world, but for some inexplicable reason only indicates "San Francisco".

[Moostache]

1. I commend him for the statement of fact...

BUT, if we are to have any chance at all of saving or extending the current environment - which has been so essential in our evolutionary march to the apex of life on Earth - then we need so many people believing and acting on this sentiment that the mere act of spouting off these anti-science/anti-intellectual memes would be an outrage and social suicide.

We simply MUST stop providing cover for people who espouse nonsense, and yes, this DOES include proselytizing religious lunatics too. The guy offering to pray away the hurricane comes to mind in the here and now, but the rest of them are no better.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. You should reconsider calling Climate Change "Science Fiction"

The event is "Global Climate Action Summit". If you think that the need for action is science fiction, carry on.

But if you, like most at DU, feel that anthropomorphic climate change is established fact and not fiction, then it would be foolish to not edit your comment where you label the event a San Francisco Science Fiction event ( "SF SF event" ).

What you could have chosen instead to say, and I meant to post, is that the use of "SF" in the article title is simply ambiguous, given Harrison's role as Han Solo.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. That was careless reading on my part -- I assumed (for no reason) ...

... that he was speaking to a convention of SF fans, which would not be at all unusual for him. The ambiguity of "SF" led me astray, as it turned out !