Democrats poised to take Senate
Committees likely to focus more on climate change.
After storming the US House of Representatives in the 7 November elections, the Democrats look likely to also take power in the Senate. They currently hold a 50-49 lead over the Republicans, with a tight race in Virginia the key.
Read the story here.
Comments
The ascent of the Democrats to the helm of affairs in the Capitol Hill is indeed a welcome news, atleast, for the scientific community engaged in the stewardship of the earth. More efforts and finances need to be invested in developing a broad and comprehensive framework of scientific knowledge of the earth-atmosphere system. This will, as is evident, go a long way in addressing the burning issues of the day - global warming, cleaner fuel technology, sustainable development- to name a few. Although it is not unscientific to focus on extra-planetary missions, but not at the cost of earth monitoring missions. We must not forget that the earth is a unigue home we have in the solar system, and perhaps, in the whole galaxy or even the whole universe. And so every effort must be made to understand the earth better and I hope that the Democrats will play an instrumental role in this direction.
Arindam.
Posted by: Arindam Samanta | November 13, 2006 06:46 PM