Obama names 4 top members of science team

[riverdeep]

Source: AP via yahoo news

President-elect Barack Obama's selection Saturday of a Harvard physicist and a marine biologist for science posts is a sign he plans a more aggressive response to global warming than did the Bush administration.

"It's time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and worked to restore America's place as the world leader in science and technology," Obama said in announcing the selections in his weekly radio address.

The president-elect said promoting science means more than just providing money, but also is about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology."

The four scientists will confront challenges in global warming after years of inaction by the Bush administration, which opposed mandatory cuts of greenhouse gas pollution. Last year, former Surgeon General Richard Carmona testified to Congress that top administration officials often dismissed global warming as a "liberal cause" and sought to play down public health reports out of political considerations.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081220/ap_on_el_pr/obama

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Thank Jeebus! Rationality is back! Maybe now we can actually get to work on a challenge that makes the economy seem like a tinker toy.

Here are some appointments that I wholeheartedly can get behind. Science is also what will lead America to long term economic prosperity. We can never produce manufacturing goods at cheaper rate than, say, China (nor would we want to, wages would nosedive more than they already have). What we can do, is lead the way in what we do best, innovation. People come from all around the world to go to University in America for a reason. Here, we really are number one.

[Cha]

1. This is grand to actually

see in print! Thanks, riverdeep.

[riverdeep]

3. Thanks. I thought it was a good antidote to all the negativity going on

about him over the Warren fiasco (I also wish he had picked someone else). An additional piece of perspective.

[FailureToCommunicate]

2. Obama's science pick John Holdren, and the people he brings in, is GREAT and

goes a long way towards 'restoring America's leadership in science and technology'
Real science folks in the White House. This just gets better and better.

[MetaTrope]

4. "A more aggressive response" than the BUSH administration?!

:rofl:

Bush was aggressive alright, but it's the sort of aggression he usually reserves for loose-lipped staffers flying private aircraft.

[riverdeep]

5. The extent of the Bush administration response to climate change

was to mention 'switchgrass' in one of State of the Union addresses. All the while enabling businesses to ravage what's left.

[Towlie]

6. Between this and the Rick Warren threads, who knows what to think?

Now that you've read this, read "Rick Warren believes that the Flinstones represents reality and man once ruled over dinosaurs."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4691930

[RCinBrooklyn]

7. Agreed. When are those that disagree with Global Warming going to be appointed to top posts?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. Striking a blow for thinking, knowledge, logic, science, and the public interest. About time. . . nt