Obama breaks mould, selects intelligent cabinet
December 16th, 2008 Posted in Climate Change, PoliticsObama has named Steven Chu as his new energy secretary.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7784802.stm
Chu, a Nobel Prize winner for his work on lasers in particle physics, is
an expert on energy research. His appointment really highlights the
difference between the 8 years of glorified ignorance of the Bush
administration – a time when the President pretty much ignored the post
of science adviser, and certainly ignored the science that should have
been vital to his presidency – to a new administration which seems to
understand that the right way to combat the world’s problems is to hire
people who understand them.
The question still remains, though: how did it get to this stage? How
did we ever get to the stage where an incoming president can make a
dozen changes that are so obviously the right thing to do, but which the
outgoing president never bothered to implement? How did we get in a
position where the most powerful man on Earth didn’t think he needed a
science adviser? And how can we make sure that we never elect anyone
that stupid ever again?
Science is just the process of learning about the world in a rigorous
and transparent way. When you have politicians, and the general public,
who don’t think that’s an important thing to do, then you’ve got a huge
problem.
