By: Robin Andrews/IFLScience You know when you’re on the opposing side of Han Solo, Rick Deckard, or Indiana Jones, you’ve made a terrible mistake. In this case, it appears this longtime scoundrel is standing quite firmly on the other side of the federal government, particularly when it comes to science.
A few days back, Harrison Ford was handed an award at the 30th anniversary gala for Conservation International (CI), an environmental awareness non-profit organization. Ford, the vice-chair of CI, has long been an advocate for ecological and environmental protection.
Upon receiving the Founders’ Award at the ceremony in Culver City, Ford decided to direct his ire at the Trump administration, without mentioning it directly.
“We face an unprecedented moment in this country,” he began. “Today’s greatest threat is not climate change, not pollution, not flood or fire. It’s that we’ve got people in charge of important shit who don’t believe in science.”
It’s hard to disagree with his blunt assessment. The mass reversal of environmental and climate policies designed to draw down both pollution and greenhouse gases is bad enough, but this administration is doing something truly unprecedented: attacking the scientists and the fundamentals of science themselves.
It’s not quite true to say that the administration doesn’t “believe” in science though. Privately, many accept the facts, but it’s amazing what a small set of voters and a large sum of money from industry can do to change your mind in public.
In any case, it’s rather comforting that Ford is on the side of the very real rebel alliance of lawmakers and academics doing all they can to protect the environment, push back against climate change, and save American science.
“I’m here tonight for one reason: I care deeply for the natural world,” Ford said during the same speech. “It’s not about me, it’s not about me at all, it’s about this other world we’re going to leave behind.”
He added: “if we don’t stop the destruction of nature, nothing else will matter. Jobs won’t matter, our economies won’t matter, our freedoms and ethics won’t matter, our children’s education and potential won’t matter, peace, prosperity.
“If we end the ability of a healthy natural world to sustain humanity nothing else will matter, simply said.”
