November/December 2016
Volume 33, Issue 3
The
Meadows Mirror Math & Science Edition
Math and Science Issues up for Debate by Malcolm Gordon, Upper School Forensic Teacher
The policy debate season is in full swing. The topic this year asks whether or not the United States should diplomatically or economically engage with the People’s Republic of China. Given the breadth of the topic, policy issues involving math and science are playing a prominent role in our debates. One of the largest areas of debate is climate change. Climate change is recognized as the most important global policy question of our time. The United States and China are the two largest emitters of carbon dioxide. Both countries have also agreed to ratify the Paris agreement on reducing carbon emissions. The next step for both countries is deciding how to meet their carbon reduction obligations. Many debate teams are advocating that the US and China need to cooperate on developing a global renewable energy infrastructure. These debates involve many complex technical questions: how much of a decrease in carbon emissions do we need? How long will it take? Do renewable energies and/or nuclear power actually reduce carbon levels? All of these questions could be addressed in any debate round. Debate also requires students to read qualified, peer-reviewed evidence to support their ideas. As the season goes on, debaters will acquire a wide breadth of knowledge on these policy questions. Policy debate also challenges students to understand science at a level beyond technically-oriented studies about climate and sustainability. Debaters also tackle questions about the relationship between science and society. We are often taught that science is a neutral investigation of facts, when that science is implemented as policy, it brings socio-political concepts into the fold. Science is not implemented in a vacuum, and students are debating issues like environmental racism, the relationship between technology and classism, and the role of the public in determining the course of scientific policy. For example, the development
of wind and solar power requires the use of rare earth minerals. Acquiring these minerals involves intense mining operations that often lead to public health consequences and environmental hazards that are displaced on local populations. Who decides which community is more valuable? How do we decide? Policy debate offers students a unique opportunity to engage in questions of science from multiple perspectives: the scientist, the policy maker, the sociologist, and the philosopher. These perspectives are addressed at every debate tournament as Meadows students engage in policy discussions with peers from high schools across the country.
1