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John Holdren. (Credit: Harvard Univ. / Copyright Martha Stewart)[UPDATED, 10:50 p.m.: John P. Holdren, a Harvard physicist best known as a strong proponent of cutting greenhouse gas emissions and a specialist on energy technology policy and nuclear nonproliferation, has been chosen to be Mr. Obama’s science adviser, according to two people close to Dr. Holdren and one person involved in the decision. Those people spoke only on condition of anonymity because Mr. Obama had not formally announced the nomination. That announcement, they said, is scheduled to come in Mr. Obama's Saturday radio address. The Obama transition team declined to confirm the nomination.
Dr. Holdren advised the Obama campaign on climate and energy earlier this year and at one point was designated as a surrogate spokesman on those issues for the candidate. The nomination was first described Thursday on the ScienceInsider blog of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Holdren was president of the association from 2006 to 2007.
Also, Jane Lubchenco, a marine biologist at Oregon State University and longtime contact of mine on marine conservation issues and climate, will be nominated by Mr. Obama to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That planned appointment was first reported Thursday afternoon by Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post. Dr. Lubchenco is also a past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Both she and Dr. Holdren were also recipients of MacArthur Foundation "genius" grants.]
Dr. Holdren has long been pressing for prompt action to curb greenhouse gas emissions and advance research on non-polluting energy sources. He has told me in the past that he consciously eschewed getting involved with the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to maintain an independent view of the science.
This is how Dr. Holdren described his stance to me in 2007: “I am one of those who believes that any reasonably comprehensive and up-to-date look at the evidence makes clear that civilization has already generated dangerous anthropogenic interference in the climate system…. What keeps me going is my belief that there is still a chance of avoiding catastrophe.”
He has never shied away from policy prescriptions and speaking forcefully, telling me that a quieter voice on the climate-energy challenge “could be interpreted as satisfaction with the status quo.”
The Harvard physicist, a specialist in energy and technology policy and nuclear proliferation, also runs the Woods Hole Research Center, a prominent hub of inquiry on forest and climate policy. He had been an adviser to the Obama campaign and was a member of the presidential science and technology advisory committee during the Clinton administration.
Dr. Holdren delivered one of the acceptance speeches when the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, of which he was a member, shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 with Joseph Rotblat, one of the founders of the group.
Earlier this year, in a less august forum, Dr. Holdren discussed global warming with David Letterman on the Late Show on CBS.
By Andrew C. Revkin
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