Scientists and Engineers for America has put together a side-by-side comparison on the Presidential candidates’ positions on science and technology issues. Summarizing:
Climate change is a wash – both believe that global warming is real, is caused by humans, and is in need of urgent attention.
Alternative fuels – Obama favors subsidizing and researching all sorts of clean and alternative fuels. He also favors more energy efficient CAFE standards. McCain favors subsidies for nuclear energy, but not wind and solar and particularly not corn-based ethanol.
Nuclear – McCain wants to build 45 new nuclear reactors by 2030. Obama suspects nuclear energy will be a necessary part of our energy solution but believes that key security and public awareness issues need to be addressed before expanding our nuclear capabilities.
Healthcare – McCain’s plans focus on tax credits to help pay for insurance. Obama wants a national health plan that allows people to buy into a plan similar to that enjoyed by members of Congress and wants insurance for children to be mandatory.
Embryonic stem cell research – both favor it.
Sex education – McCain favors abstinence-only sex education. Obama favors factually accurate sex education that actually reduces pregnancy and reduces STDs.
Evolution and intelligent design – McCain believes intelligent design should be taught in the class room. Obama doesn’t think intelligent design should be taught in science class because it doesn’t hold up to scientific inquiry.
There is some more, but I have a three year old girl who is anxiously awaiting the computer.
I have to go with McCain on supporting nukes and not supporting ethanol.
We have to get off of coal now, and right now, nukes are the only way.
Burning food to power our cars MIGHT make sense, but we shouldn’t give it an unnatural advantage by cutting taxes for it. It takes more ethanol to go the same distance as gas, and the more ethanol we make, the more everything except fruits and non-corn vegetables cost.
On the few things McCain is reasonable about, like belief in global warming, his veep choice’s stance differs from his.
Solar is getting cheaper all the time, and more productive. Nuclear may be a good bridge technology until solar and wind can do more. We worry about storing nuclear material, but coal has significant problems. “Clean” coal isn’t clean at all. Billions of gallons of toxic water are left standing behind in West Virginia and Kentucky so that it can be cleaner at the point of use. It seems to be that nuclear waste is much more toxic, but less volume, than coal waste.