Something momentous happened today. It hasn't yet received the media attention it deserves but it is a game changer. At a press conference introducing his new energy and environmental team, Barack Obama said that his administration . . . "will value science. We will make decisions based on the facts, and we understand that facts demand bold action."
This is a stunning and extremely welcome change from current policy. For the last eight years the Bush administration has had more or less the same relationship to science as the Catholic church in the 17th Century had to Galileo.
So far, the enormity of this change has failed to capture the attention of the media, which today devoted hours of coverage to airborne shoes. But today's statement by the President-elect, along with his cabinet choices for directing energy and environmental policy, has more potential to reshape our world than anything else that has happened since election night. And this hasn't exactly been a slow news month.
I'll be disappointed if tomorrow's headline in the New York Times isn't World Revolves Around Sun, After All.
