"I can find in my undergraduate classes, bright students who do not know that the stars rise and set at night, or even that the Sun is a star.", he said, warning us decades ago about important matters which included the 'Greenhouse Effect'; the trivialisation of science; and the dangerous possibility of falling back into the "Dark Ages." Not enough people took notice of the words of this very wise man.
Despite the decades of data acquisition that now confirm the 'Greenhouse Effect is already underway, many people people still scoff. Yet Sagan was right. The science was right.
American politics is now primarily under the control of zealots who are busy neutralising science. The Space Shuttle reached the end of it's life with no Low Earth Orbit replacement. NASA's budget is constantly under threat. Projects that will aid us in the quest for knowledge and understanding of the Universe are being cancelled. The James Webb Infra-red Telescope is under threat; they have pulled out of the 'Square Kilometre Array'; and they canned the Wide Field Multi-Object Spectrograph. I am sure there are other examples.
America appears to have lost interest in important scientific projects and science is coming to be regarded as an enemy. The US budget is horrendously in debt and their economy has lost the power it once had. Their focus has shifted to building a giant "replica" of Noah's Ark; to erecting symbols of their Christianity such as giant crosses and stone monuments with the "Ten Commandments" carved into them; to so-called Creationist "museums"; to building churches in every street; to holding mass prayer vigils; and to marginalising any person who does not openly follow their narrow Christian political agenda.
America is displaying all the hallmarks of blossoming into a full blown theocracy. Religion is far too much of a driving force to so many US politicians; they are ignorant of science and scared of knowledge; and they want to blow the science candle out and drive us back to the Dark Ages when the world was governed by a crazed belief in demons, gods and clerical dictatorships.
Carl Sagan again, from his book, 'The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark:' "Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies, however vague, however unfulfilled, to support or prop up their beliefs. Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science?"