Sep 7, 2022 06:16 PM
(This post was last modified: Sep 8, 2022 12:36 AM by C C.)
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02850-1
INTRO: The votes are in — and many scientists are disappointed. On 4 September, Chileans voted to reject a proposed new constitution for their nation. The draft charter, developed over a year by a citizen-led assembly, framed science as a tool that could improve society. It also emphasized actions against climate change and support for research across all of Chile, rather than only at institutions in the capital city.
“I feel very lost,” says Andrea Vera Gajardo, a mathematician at the University of Valparaíso who volunteered as an electoral observer. “I don’t understand the choice Chile made.”
Polling before the vote indicated that Chileans would reject the document and all of its 388 articles. In late August, more than 1,200 scientists — including principal investigators, postdocs, students and research assistants — signed a letter encouraging people to approve the draft. But about 62% of voters did the opposite during Sunday’s mandatory plebiscite.
“My gut tells me that fear won,” says Bárbara Rojas-Ayala, an astronomer at the University of Tarapacá in Arica, who endorsed the letter.
In addition to bolstering science, the proposed charter suggested drastic changes to Chile’s economic and political systems that people weren’t ready for, she says. For instance, to protect nature and transition towards a sustainable society, it called for stepping away from an economic model based on extracting natural resources from the earth. Many people — and some of the country’s biggest industries — disapproved... (MORE - details)
RELATED THREAD (scivillage): Chile overwhelmingly rejects progressive new constitution
OTHERS (scivillage): Nature: Manuscripts that are ideologically impure and “harmful” will be rejected ..... Another STEM field, particle physics, gets woke
INTRO: The votes are in — and many scientists are disappointed. On 4 September, Chileans voted to reject a proposed new constitution for their nation. The draft charter, developed over a year by a citizen-led assembly, framed science as a tool that could improve society. It also emphasized actions against climate change and support for research across all of Chile, rather than only at institutions in the capital city.
“I feel very lost,” says Andrea Vera Gajardo, a mathematician at the University of Valparaíso who volunteered as an electoral observer. “I don’t understand the choice Chile made.”
Polling before the vote indicated that Chileans would reject the document and all of its 388 articles. In late August, more than 1,200 scientists — including principal investigators, postdocs, students and research assistants — signed a letter encouraging people to approve the draft. But about 62% of voters did the opposite during Sunday’s mandatory plebiscite.
“My gut tells me that fear won,” says Bárbara Rojas-Ayala, an astronomer at the University of Tarapacá in Arica, who endorsed the letter.
In addition to bolstering science, the proposed charter suggested drastic changes to Chile’s economic and political systems that people weren’t ready for, she says. For instance, to protect nature and transition towards a sustainable society, it called for stepping away from an economic model based on extracting natural resources from the earth. Many people — and some of the country’s biggest industries — disapproved... (MORE - details)
RELATED THREAD (scivillage): Chile overwhelmingly rejects progressive new constitution
OTHERS (scivillage): Nature: Manuscripts that are ideologically impure and “harmful” will be rejected ..... Another STEM field, particle physics, gets woke