Journey Notes

As I advance through the years, and see and learn, I don’t often get enthusiastic about politicians any more. Disturbingly, witty cynicism is not open to me anymore either, as I’m already far enough along to see that all we’ll ever need of that is neatly packaged once and for all in Oscar Wilde’s work.

Still, Barack Obama has done it, and wowed me. How many men (or women, for that matter), having got this far, have enough good sense to know when they don’t know? How many politicians will seriously listen to scientists?

I have been following, with some interest, the progress of Obama’s Cabinet assembly.  I had thought, from various hearsay statements, that Obama didn’t understand the energy issues – and perhaps that is true, but he seems willing to acknowledge there may be more to it than what he knows. That sort of attitude is rare in politics, religion, and a lot of other endeavours where having a view is mistaken for having a clue.

And thus, the (over?)promising President-elect has tentatively appointed  a certain scientist (I read it here first – Achtung Deutsch!) decorated by peers with nothing less than a Nobel Prize in Physics, to head the Department of Energy. Meet Steven Chu:

The photos are from the 2005 Congress of the Australian Institute of Physics, where Professor Chu had a plenary talk in the morning and used the opportunity to tell us a few really important things. Nothing that I didn’t know, mind you, but it’s not like anyone’s ever going to listen to me.

I am not sure Obama is going to like what Chu is about to tell him (at least I’m confident he’ll grasp it), and I’m sure the creation of green industries and efforts towards higher energy efficiency will be met with fierce resistance from those who have made America what it is today.

But hey, voters have said “let’s do things differently here”/”screw the Neocons”/”better have a Democratic President if I end up on welfare”, elected a black man with a name of Middle Eastern appearance (congratulations! This is still possible only in America, even if a perfectly timed serial bank implosion probably helps) – and it looks like Obama is not about to let them down immediately. This first recession of many, as we adapt to fossil fuels running out, has shaken loose so many things that perhaps there is a chance to move a few mountains.

Good luck to Professor Chu. I have heard him speak – he is a very thoughtful and mild-mannered man, who sometimes gives his well-thought-out answers after 20 seconds of silence. You would think his failure in Washington is guaranteed – but see above about cynicism. I know that being a physicist isn’t enough, but perhaps America, of all places, can demonstrate that green is good, and for business too.