Mixing Science and Politics

It rarely works - and here's a good example.

This article is unexceptional except that it demonstrates my point. Let's start with the title, "
British crayfish get a 'safe haven' from American invaders and a fungus that eats them from the inside out". Simple enough, but we've already set up the good guys (British Crayfish) and the bad guys (American invaders). Sounds like American Imperialism even reaches down to the lowest of life forms. I'd really like to meet the guy at the CIA who was in charge of the crayfish invasion program.

Anyway, on to the meat of the story. Here are the first two paragraphs.

Looking for crayfish in Britain? Look hard. Almost 95 percent of British crayfish have been wiped out in the last 20 years. Now some of the few remaining crustaceans are going into hiding in a desperate, last-gasp chance to save their species from extinction.

Like so many problems around the world, this one can be placed squarely on the heads of Americans—although in this case, we're talking about American signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus). First introduced to Britain two decades ago as food for trout farms, American crayfish have made their way into the wild. They not only outcompete the local white-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) for food, but they also carry crayfish plague (Aphanomyces astaci), a water mold that is deadly to the British crayfish.

I am left scratching my head why a writer in Scientific American, which you would think would be about, I don't know, science and maybe America is making such grandiose political statements. Look at the bold highlight I added. Is this really necessary for the story? What's worse is that the data does not support the conclusion. In the following sentence we learn that the British introduced the American species of crayfish. They did it to themselves!

I'm sorry, but as a proud American stories like this rub me the wrong way. All he had to do was objectively lay out the facts, and instead he has to ruin the story for many readers by maligning our country. Of course, I imagine there were plenty of readers who read right through that agreeing with every sentiment. But as far as I'm concerned you are better off keeping your science separated from your politics. There is no need to do it, and it will make a good story more enjoyable for everyone.