Obama has chosen John P. Holdren as one of his four science advisers. Holdren is a colleague of fellow neo-Malthusian Paul Ehrlich. Those two, along with John Harte, famously made a wager with Julian Simon on the scarcity of resources that would result from the detonation of The Population Bomb. It turned out that that bomb was a dud: they lost. However, Holdren is still one of the most strident opponents of anyone who disagrees with his claim that there is an impending environmental apocalypse. While he considers himself a Cassandra, Holdren is squarely in the mainstream. So why does he need to viciously attack those who oppose him? This Cassandra doth protest too much, methinks.
Here's the NYT's John Tierney on Obama's pick.
UPDATE: Tierney elaborates on why Ehrlich and Holdren's loss of the bet is important to the failure of their central thesis.
