Story highlights The US has long respected and promoted science, Nye writes

Nye: Science is being undermined by ideological forces motivated to maintain the status quo

Bill Nye, known as Bill Nye the Science Guy, is an American science educator, television presenter, and mechanical engineer. He is the CEO of The Planetary Society, the world's largest non-profit space interest group. The opinions expressed are his own.

(CNN) I was proud to join thousands of concerned citizens, scientists and engineers in Saturday's March for Science. With more than 600 marches taking place around the world, we conveyed that science is political, not partisan, and science should shape our policies.

Although it is the means by which humankind discovers objective truths in nature, science is and has always been political. Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution refers to promoting "the progress of science and useful arts" to motivate innovators, stimulate the economy and establish just laws.

The US has become the most powerful nation on Earth and among the greatest in history, because it has long respected and promoted science. Countless policies, from military deployments to regulations that control the formula of a shampoo, are based on science.

Scientific research depends on government investment (approximately $65 billion in the US last year), which itself relies on a social compact: that basic research across all fields is beneficial to a nation.

Currently, science is being actively undermined by ideological forces motivated to maintain the status quo rather than advance the nation's long-term interest. This is especially true of the extractive fossil fuel industries. When facing tides of deliberate misinformation, scientists, engineers and researchers have taken it upon themselves to organize and raise awareness about their professions and the vital importance of the scientific enterprise.

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