Science

I read in the Albuquerque Journal today that Science Fair participants are becoming fewer in our public schools because the bureaucratic malaise caused by bush's "No Child Left Behind" policy.

Then I read that San Juan County, up in the Farmington area, is the sixth largest emitter of CO2 of all counties in the United States. That is right up there with Houston and L.A. And some idiots want to build another coal fired power plant there!

So, what we are doing here is inspiring less kids getting into science at a time when we need to depend on it more than ever to solve our energy and climate change crises.

I remember that my good friend Lee Otteni and I entered the St. Pius X High School Science Fair in 1961 and came in second. We went to the regional and got clobbered. (No one had a prayer of winning with all those national lab parents from Sandia and LANL tutoring their kids.) Lee went on to become a wildlife research and scientist. I went into politics. I won't demean science by saying I am a political scientist.

After watching a weekend of Nova, National Geographic and other documentaries on the state of the earth, I am actually wondering if we can handle the collapse of ecosystems. Things are happening much faster that even the biggest pessimists had predicted. They only thing that might save us is a lot of smart kids being nurtured in the sciences and being put to work ASAP to solve our problems. The next President and our Congress will be our last hope.