History is the ultimate judge of leaders, isn't it?
Looking forward, we can say two things.
First, history will judge George W. Bush most harshly for his role in blocking science and action regarding climate shift - and especially our role, as humans, in it. History will forget every other thing he's done before they forget this - because the global climate will be the focus of our children's lives.
Second, Obama will be judged on how well he was able to start the enormous process of stabilizing the climate at 450 parts-per-million. The politics and economics are difficult - but this issue, above all others, will determine our destinies.
We're very glad to see Obama take the oath - but it can't distract from the work that must be done now, and must begin now.
This seems like a good time to let our congressmen and senators know our priorities. Its easy to email a short note and your opinions get put on a tally sheet somewhere. It seemed an exercise in futility before, but now I think it is important to let the government know what we want to happen. My top three priorities were 1) Get out of Iraq and quickly, neatly, and humanely as possible, 2) fund energy research and development at a much much higher level -- we may need to fund 100 projects to find one that helps but they all need to be funded never-the-less. and 3) Take politics and religion out of energy research and development -- let science be the guide.
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