t is well known that the war economy provided unprecedented levels of research funding for American physics, particularly for the development of weapons systems,
This reminds me more broadly of the "benefits" that can result from war. I wonder how we can achieve them in other, less harmful ways.
focus on immediate answers to pressing problems at the expense of fundamental understanding
Both are important - how are they balanced?
If scientists seek to discover fundamental truths about the world, and if they do so in an objective manner using well-established methods, then how could it matter who foots the bill?
Major question/theme
Research and. change-maki ng, scientific or otherwise, are always caught up in the contradic- tions, injustices, and structures that already exist, that we have already identified as violent and in need of change.” This text is about maneuvering within this complex and compromised terrain.
A major challenge in writing/research.
First, pollution is not a manifesta- tion or side effect of colonialism but is rather an enactment of ongoing colonial relations to Land.”
What differentiates a manifestation from an enactment?
I mean the bad relations of a scientific theory that allows some amount of pollution to occur and its accompanying en- titlement to Land to assimilate that pollution.’
Intersection of science and morality.
“The future of plastics is in the trash can. .. . It [is] time for the plastics industry to stop thinking about ‘reuse’ packages and concentrate on single use. For the package that is used once and thrown away, like a tin can or a paper car- ton, represents not a one-shot market for a few thousand units, but an everyday recurring market measured by the billions of units.”!
How might things be different today had this mindset shift not occured?