Barack Obama appoints two climate change experts to top scientific posts

Barack Obama has announced that physicist John Holdren and marine biologist Jane Lubchenco will take up two of the top scientific posts under his administration.

John Holdren will be Executive Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the president’s science adviser. Jane Lubchenco will be in charge at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which runs much of the government’s research into global warming.

This pair of appointments points to a major change in science policy from that under George W Bush, whose senior figures frequently dismissed advice from scientists, preferring to paint global warming as an imaginary leftie-plot.

UPDATE: There’s extensive coverage of this news today (Sunday) in front page stories in The Observer and Independent on Sunday, including the key earlier Energy Secretary appointment.