Yesterday, the Senate unanimously confirmed John Holdren for science adviser and Jane Lubchenco as NOAA head. These are world-class experts on climate science:
- For NOAA head, Obama appoints yet another scientist who gets climate
- Obama’s strongest message on climate yet: John Holdren to be named Science Adviser
And for all the angst about the delay in their appointment, it should be noted that President Bush’s science adviser wasn’t even named until June 25, 2001 and not confirmed until four months later, October 23, 2001 — and his NOAA head wasn’t even selected until September and confirmed until December.
Kudos to President Obama for making these key administration science positions a top priority.
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
I hope Holdren and Lubchenco make communication with the public a top priority. We have been discussing here the disconnect between what the scientists are saying, and I just read on Mongabay their take of the recent Yale-George Mason poll. They point out that the poll indicates that 82% of respondents trust scientists for accurate information on climate change (followed by 77% trusting family and friends) – however, only 47% trust the MSM for accurate climate change info and 41% think the MSM is exaggerating the threat. This would seem to indicate that (a) the MSM has done a poor job of covering the issue, (b) that the real views of scientists have not gotten through the MSM to the public, and (c) that a much better way needs to be found to communicate the real conclusions of the scientific community regarding global warming directly to the public. Better information may not resolve the problems in the policy debate, but continuing to have a grossly misinformed public is pretty much guaranteed to delay or prevent actually adopting an appropriate response.
Holdren and Lubchenco need to begin by holding no nonsense press conferences as a way to introduce key scientists to speak out on the current state of climate science. Let the face of climate science in the Obama adminsitration be the scientists who compile the actual peer reviewed research and present it to the public in a comprehensible manner. I was watching Rep. Rohrabacher on C-Span the other night drone on about the “hoax.” People who don’t hear the truth might actually believe Rohrabacher’s lies.