Is Obama politicizing science? Yep.
December 30th, 2008 -- Posted in American Politics by Gordon | 5 Comments »The President-Elect of the United States has named lefty ideologue John Holdren as his chief science advisor. Holdren, of course, is a big supporter of the global warming religion, and of giving the government massive power to wreck the economy in support of his beliefs. It is very dangerous to have an ideologue in charge of science policy when nearly all research is now funded, at least in part, by the government.
This is reminiscent of our last Democrat president, Bill Clinton. He managed to offend nearly every one of the lefty interest groups at one time or another, but he was fond of giving the environmental leftists nearly everything they wanted. Toward the end of his term, he made a huge chunk of Utah off limits to mineral exploration by presidential fiat; he didn’t even have the courage to announce it in Utah, but did it across the state border in Arizona.
New York Times science writer John Tierney points out Holdren’s history of being utterly wrong on many matters, and his association with failed doomsayer Paul Erlich.
Professor Frank Tipton, a mathematical physicist, writes:
AGW supporters are also bringing back the Inquisition, where the power of the state is used to silence one’s scientific opponents. The case of Bjorn Lomborg is illustrative. Lomborg is a tenured professor of mathematics in Denmark. Shortly after his book, “The Skeptical Environmentalist,” was published by Cambridge University Press, Lomborg was charged and convicted (later reversed) of scientific fraud for being critical of the “consensus” view on AGW and other environmental questions. Had the conviction been upheld, Lomborg would have been fired.
I find it very disturbing that part of the Danish Inquisition’s case against Lomborg was written by John Holdren, Obama’s new science advisor. Holdren has recently written that people like Lomborg are “dangerous.” I think it is people like Holdren who are dangerous, because they are willing to use state power to silence their scientific opponents.
Science policy is going to be damned important in the next decade. We need more electricity, and wind and solar just ain’t gonna do it, even if they worked, which they don’t, much. Nuclear power is clean, and safer than ever, but ain’t no Democratic congress or president gonna go there. It’s nearly impossible to build a coal-fired plant anymore due to bureaucratic roadblocks. And the thing is, even if the problems with wind and solar are conquered, we still need conventional capacity to back them up.
All the more reason to have a sober, sensible science advisor, and not someone with an axe to grind–especially when he has a history of being wrong, wrong, and wrong.
Hat tip: Powerline.








