President-elect Barack Obama will name two prominent advocates of strong action on climate change to top science posts in his administration, perhaps the clearest signal yet that he intends to reverse Bush administration policy on global warming. John Holdren, a Harvard University physicist and former
president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), will be named his science adviser; Jane Lubchenco, an Oregon State University marine biologist, will be named to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Both scientists have called for mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Holdren, who served on on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology under President Clinton, has been involved in issues surrounding the global environment, energy and nuclear proliferation. “I do think that there will be a sea change in the Obama administration with the respect shown for the findings of science as well as the process of science,” Nobel laureate David Baltimore told The Washington Post. Lubchenco, who is also a former president of AAAS, is an aggressive opponent of overfishing. She will become the first woman to head NOAA, a $4 billion agency that studies oceans, the weather, and global warming.
Jane Lubchenco