Where do they stand on science? — week of 20 July 2008

Barack Obama toured Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Europe meeting with US troops, prime ministers and an heads of state during the last weeks of July. On Thursday the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee gave a speech in Berlin to 200,000 spectators, which echoed back to similar speeches by presidents John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. In the address, which was filled mostly with generalities, Obama noted that “this is the moment when we must renew the goal of a world without nuclear weapons.” He talked of the need to “secure all loose nuclear materials” and “not stand idly by and watch the further spread of the deadly atom.”

From the early days of the Clinton administration and funded through the Nunn-Lugar bill, the US has worked with Russia to secure or destroy most of the nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union. However, tensions between the two countries over the past eight years and funding cuts from Congress have stalled progress on completing the goal of securing the remaining nuclear material. Obama’s speech implies that his administration would aim to improve relations with Russia in securing the material and work more closely with the International Atomic Energy Agency in limiting proliferation.

John McCain’s campaign was overshadowed by Obama’s international tour. The presumptive Republican nominee grumbled that he’d also like to give a speech in Germany, but as president, not as a candidate . McCain did not give any speeches associated with issues related to science this week.

National Public Radio ran a good piece by veteran reporter David Kestenbaum on how nuclear power is a thorny issue for the candidates. Of the two, he said McCain is the most comfortable with the topic and more vocal in suggesting that new reactors should be built. Many scientists consider nuclear power, despite its unpopularity as a campaign issue to some segments of the public, to be a critical part of the solution to the energy crisis.

On the changing views front, the Environmental News Network reported that while Obama voted for a bill condemning the Kyoto global warming treaty when he was in the Illinois legislature in 1998, he now calls climate change “one of the greatest moral challenges of our generation.”

Space exploration is another issue the candidates seemed to struggle with. According to an article in NewsOXY , Obama has called for debate on NASA goals, which include going back to the Moon, then on to Mars. McCain is all for the manned Mars mission, but he has called for a total freeze on federal spending for NASA.

And former vice president Al Gore, who gave a speech calling for a strong program to mitigate global warming and move away from a carbon-based energy economy . “I have had many conversations . . . with Senator Obama and with Senator McCain,” Gore said. “And one of my objectives in approaching this climate crisis is to try to lift this as much as possible out of the partisan framework that sometimes is a serious impediment to solving serious problems in our country.”

Jim Dawson