Droegemeier, kevin
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</font><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/heres-what-could-happen-when-respected-scientist-joins-trump-white-house"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/heres-what-could-happen-when-respected-scientist-joins-trump-white-house</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Leaders of the scientific community – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/493007a" style="text-decoration-line: none;">most of whom</a> <a href="https://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2010/12/lab_politics.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">are also Democrats</a> – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aau9602" style="text-decoration-line: none;">are voicing</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/01/science/trump-droegemeier-science-adviser.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">relief</a> now that the Trump administration <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/three-nominations-sent-senate-today-4/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">has nominated</a> Kelvin Droegemeier to direct the White House Office of Science and Technology. <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">This office</a> has been <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2018/08/10/ostp-droegemeier-health-research/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">leaderless since Trump assumed office</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Droegemeier, a <a href="https://www.aip.org/fyi/2018/trump-picks-meteorologist-kelvin-droegemeier-lead-white-house-science-office" style="text-decoration-line: none;">well-respected meteorologist</a> specializing in severe weather such as thunderstorms, has also served <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/nsb/members/current_members/droegemeier.jsp" style="text-decoration-line: none;">on the advisory board of the U.S. National Science Foundation</a>. He would bring a <a href="https://vpr-norman.ou.edu/users/kelvin-droegemeier" style="text-decoration-line: none;">mainstream scientific voice</a> into an administration that is often portrayed as somewhere between apathetic and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.355.6331.1246" style="text-decoration-line: none;">hostile about matters relating to science</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But those who expect Droegemeier to provide any sort of counterweight to administration policies will likely be disappointed. The history of presidential science advising shows that the effectiveness of science advisers is determined not by how much they know, but by how closely they are in step with the political priorities of the administration they serve. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">S</font><b style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">cience advisers are on the team</b></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/book/american-science-policy-since-world-war-ii/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">role of presidential science adviser was formalized</a> in the shadow of the Sputnik launch, when President Eisenhower named MIT president James R. Killian to the newly created post of “special assistant to the president for science and technology” in November 1957. Killian, who in fact was not a scientist but had a mere bachelor’s degree in management, was expected not only to lend expertise to the White House but, according to a <a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/11/08/84916858.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;">New York Times article</a> at the time, to “allay public fears concerning scientific achievements by the Soviet Union.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Killian helped to oversee a rapid expansion of government investment in science, an agenda that satisfied both his scientific colleagues and the political aims of President Eisenhower. But such alignment of science advice and presidential politics is far from inevitable.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Several years later, President Kennedy’s science adviser, Jerome Wiesner, <a href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19940030132.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;">advised against</a> sending a man to the moon, counsel that was decisively rejected, with momentous historical consequences. A decade later, President Nixon got so fed up with advice he was getting on missile defense and supersonic transport that in 1973 he <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674666566" style="text-decoration-line: none;">eliminated the science adviser post</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With the support of Congress, Nixon’s successor, Gerald Ford, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/book/american-science-policy-since-world-war-ii/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">reestablished the position of science adviser</a> in 1976, as head of a newly created Office of Science and Technology Policy. But the age of innocence was over, and only the most naïve observers could continue to believe that presidential science advice could somehow be held separate from national politics.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Under President Reagan, science adviser George Keyworth II, a nuclear physicist, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3898-2_5" style="text-decoration-line: none;">aggressively advocated</a> for the president’s highly controversial “star wars” missile defense system and notably <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/23/nyregion/reagan-science-adviser-says-press-seeks-to-demolish-us.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">attacked the news media</a> as “a narrow fringe element on the far left of our society” because of alleged bias against administration policies.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
More recently, President Obama’s science adviser, John Holdren, also a physicist, was an <a href="https://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/science-adviser-lists-goals-on-climate-energy/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">outspoken advocate</a>for the president’s energy and environmental policies. In their times, <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Way-Out-There-In-the-Blue/Frances-FitzGerald/9780743200233" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Keyworth</a> <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2009/01/obamas-political-science-adviser-jonathan-h-adler/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">and</a> <a href="https://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/dr-holdrens-ice-age-tidal-wave/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Holdren</a> were both subjected to energetic critique from those in politics and the media who disagreed with the positions that each advanced.</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Most notable in this regard, however, was John Marburger, also a physicist, and science adviser to Republican President George W. Bush. Marburger in fact was a Democrat, a respected scientist and university administrator, and unlike Keyworth and Holdren was a low-profile player in White House politics. But <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/30/science/at-the-center-of-the-storm-over-bush-and-science.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">he was skewered</a> by Democrats in Congress and their allies in the scientific community for failing to oppose Bush policies on issues <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3898-2_8" style="text-decoration-line: none;">such as stem cell research and climate change</a> – even though he would surely have been fired had he done so.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Science advisers are not apolitical nerds, high-level versions of Bill Nye the Science Guy on tap to answer a president’s questions about why the sky is blue or how a bar-code scanner works. Science advisers are political players on a political team, and above all, Trump’s choice of Droegemeier must be understood in that vein.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A challenge ahead for nominee</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></font><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yet Droegemeier represents a somewhat bizarre choice. Trump could have chosen a science adviser with expertise relevant to administration policy priorities, such as <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/13/trump-signs-717-billion-defense-bill.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">defense buildup</a>, <a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/trumpometer/promise/1435/bring-back-manufacturing/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">restoring the manufacturing base</a> or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/05/climate/trump-environment-rules-reversed.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">undoing environmental regulations</a>. Given his skepticism about climate change, Trump could even have chosen a science adviser with similar views. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature.2017.21336" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Early rumors suggested</a> he would do just that.</font></p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{" tweetid="tweetId" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Instead, in Droegemeier he has selected an expert on weather and climate who seems – although his public statements on the matter are few – to agree with most other climate scientists that human activities are contributing to a changing climate. So Droegemeier comes into his job holding a view that sharply contradicts a conspicuous public position taken by the president. As we have seen, this is not a proven formula for success.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So perhaps Droegemeier’s selection is just a matter of smart political triangulation: A man who has the confidence of political leaders of a state where Trump won with <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2016/results/states/oklahoma" style="text-decoration-line: none;">more than 65 percent of the vote</a>, and also just happens to have unimpeachable scientific credentials, is a rare political commodity.Why Droegemeier, then? For one thing, within the Trump administration he likely has the support of NASA director and fellow Oklahoman Jim Bridenstine, at least in part because Droegemeier supported Bridenstine’s nomination for the NASA directorship by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aap8749" style="text-decoration-line: none;">providing public assurances</a> that Bridenstine was not a climate skeptic. For another, Droegemeier has the <a href="https://www.inhofe.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/inhofe-lankford-applaud-presidential-appointment-of-oklahoman" style="text-decoration-line: none;">endorsement</a> of Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, a powerful Trump ally <a href="https://wndbooks.wnd.com/the-greatest-hoax-2/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">who is a climate skeptic</a>.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101233/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0px !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0px !important; text-shadow: none !important;" /></font><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Assuming he’s confirmed by the Senate, whatever role Droegemeier ends up playing will be one of service to the political agenda of the Trump administration. Given that Democrats have over the past 15 years or more <a href="https://issues.org/25-4/sarewitz-2/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">sought to portray themselves</a> as the party of science, Droegemeier will find it difficult to maintain his stellar reputation as a scientist while also advocating policies that Democrats and their allies in the scientific community oppose. He should expect severe political weather for the next few years.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/daniel-sarewitz-392236" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Daniel Sarewitz</a>, Professor of Science and Society, Co-Director of the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/arizona-state-university-730" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Arizona State University</a></em></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><div class="headline-container" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 class="headline h1" style="margin: 10px; padding: 0px; position: relative; line-height: 31px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s Long-Delayed Pick for Science Adviser Believes in Climate Change</font></h1></div><span class="js-scroll-trigger" data-target="body" data-triggers="render-rebelbar" data-toggle-class="with-floating-shares" data-loaded="true" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman" /><div id="utm_campaign" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman" /></font></font></font><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url" data-elid="2591729668" data-authors="Olivia Rosane" data-headline="Trump’s Long-Delayed Pick for Science Adviser Believes in Climate Change" style="margin: 10px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman" /></font></font></font></font></font></font><div class="body-description"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font><p><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman">A record-breaking near 19 months into his first term, President <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Donald Trump</a> is finally set to name a science adviser in meteorologist Kelvin Droegemeier, <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/07/trump-s-pick-head-white-house-science-office-gets-good-reviews" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Science Magazine reported Tuesday</a>.</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><p>If the Senate confirms his nomination, fellow-scientists say Droegemeier could be a much-needed voice of reason on <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none;">climate change</a> and the importance of research funding in an administration hostile to both.</p><p>"He's a very good pick," Harvard environmental policy expert and science adviser to former President Barack Obama John Holdren told Science. "He has experience speaking science to power. I expect he'll be energetic in defending the R&D budget and climate change research in particular."</p><p>Droegemeier is an expert in <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/extreme-weather" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none;">extreme weather</a> events and has worked to develop the use of supercomputers in atmospheric models as part of his research career. He would be the first non-physicist to hold the position, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05862-y?utm_source=twt_nnc&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=naturenews&sf194640978=1" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Nature reported</a>.</p><p>Droegemeier has also worked in policy before, serving on the National Science Board, which oversees the National Science Foundation, under both Obama and former President George W. Bush. He has also served as the vice president for research at the University of Oklahoma in Norman since 2009.</p><p>If confirmed, he will officially be in charge of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), where he will inherit a much-reduced staff. During the Obama years, the OSTP swelled to around 135 staffers, and was a key part of budget and policy decisions, particularly around climate, according to Science. When Trump took office, the number of staffers fell to around 35, but has climbed up to around 60 since.</p><p>Droegemeier's career suggests he could be an important advocate for science.</p><p>In <a href="https://eu.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/iowa-view/2017/06/11/miracle-machine-u-s-innovation-danger/382432001/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">an opinion piece</a> co-written for the Des Moines Register and reported by Nature, he urged the White House and Congress to continue to fund scientific research in the 2018 budget.</p><p>"Though the benefits of short-term savings in the yearly federal budgets may be appealing, they result in insidious, long-term consequences. Due to underfunding, we risk losing an entire generation of researchers," he wrote.</p><p>Colleagues think he would also stand up for climate science specifically.</p><p><span style="text-align: center;">"He always has. I see no reason why he wouldn't now," Massachusetts Institute of Technology vice president for research Maria Zuber told Science.</span></p><p>Rosina Bierbaum, who is an environmental policy expert at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and worked with Droegemeier on climate change for the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, agreed.</p><p>"I'm certain he believes in mainstream climate science," she told Nature.</p><p>However, former OSTP assistant director Kei Koizumi cautioned that Droegemeier's success isn't entirely up to him.</p><p>"Kelvin will be a good science advisor, but so much of what makes an effective science advisor depends not on the person, but on the president and the White House," Koizumi told Nature.</p><p>Under Trump, the OSTP has focused on technological development, from enabling cities and states to work with manufacturers to test drones to gathering the leaders of 34 major U.S. tech companies to discuss policy that would lead to better robots and artificial intelligence, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/07/31/president-trump-intends-nominate-an-extreme-weather-expert-his-first-science-tech-director/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.953486320307" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">The Washington Post reported</a>.</p><p>As the OSTP's leader, Droegemeier might also be tasked with developing more effective cybersecurity measures, including ones designed to stop Russia from spreading false information on social media, experts told The Washington Post.</p></div></div></div><div style="">
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