Green Crude?

President Obama has nominated REI CEO Sally Jewell to lead the Interior Department.  Jewell is a UW Husky hailing from the Pacific Northwest and a lifelong fan of the outdoors, name-dropping local spots like Rattlesnake Ledge and Mailbox Peak.  She also spent years working as a Mobil Oil executive and petroleum engineer evaluating oil company collateral for the banking industry.

Few thoughts.  First, it’s great to see Obama nominating someone who grew up in Seattle and seems to have a genuine love of the outdoors.  Mrs. Jewell used to sail an 8-foot dinghy across the Puget Sound with her family and went camping a bunch when she was growing up.  She’s also a product of Renton High, giving the city a rare victory on the national (or, let’s be honest, anything above local) stage.

Second, does every person who ever achieves power have to fucking sell out!?  Why did this alleged lover of nature work for Exxon Mobil and then help big oil companies obtain millions in bank loans?  People that really love nature would never sacrifice these beliefs by working for outfits that clearly damage the environment.  Perhaps compromising one’s beliefs is a necessary condition for power, but I’ll take righteousness over rationalization any day.

Finally, Obama’s pick again illustrates the ascendancy of private-sector fetishization and the corporatization of government.  The New York Times notes that Mrs. Jewell’s selection represents a break from the tradition of nominating those with public service experience.  Even George W. Bush named former AG Gale Norton and former governor Dirk Kempthorne (who?) to head the Interior Ministry.  Although Mrs. Jewell has plenty of leadership experience, her sole focus has been earning private profit.  Does that really equip someone to handle the task of overseeing some of the greatest public environmental resources on the planet?

Where’s Our Space Monkey?

The theocratic government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has apparently launched a monkey into space and returned him. The Mullahs sent their spacemonkey 80 miles above earth before bringing him back home. The Iranians join five other nations that have ever launched animals into space.

If true, this event highlights the ever shrinking lead that America holds over it opponents in space. After sending their first man to space in 2003, the Chinese followed up by launching a lunar probe (2007), conducting their first spacewalk (2008) and launching the first of three space station components (2012). Meanwhile the Russians currently operate the only vehicle capable of delivering men and supplies to the International Space Station. Even “our common people only eat grass” North Korea launched a satellite into space this year.

A large reason for America’s faltering lead is the diminution of NASA’s budget as a percentage of both GDP and the Federal Budget. President Obama continued along the sight-lowering path taken by a string of American presidents when he cancelled the Constellation Program that would’ve returned astronauts to the moon by 2020.

Many space analysts mistakenly argue that 1) the private sector will pick up NASA’s slack or 2) manned spaceflight is inefficient and impractical. Riding the Richard Branson express to lower earth orbit for 5 minutes of weightlessness would indeed be awesome, but it’s not the same as going to Mars. Watching Curiosity and Opportunity cruise across the Red Planet has been thrilling, but a man could cover more ground in a day than Opportunity has in a decade.

Additionally, machines will never be able to replace the human glory of manned exploration. Where would we be today if Christopher Columbus had placed Mechanical Turks on the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria and just sent them westward over the Atlantic!? Or if Roald Amundsen had launched wind-up penguins to conquer the South Pole!?¹  It’s clearly in mankind’s destiny to continue exploring beyond earth. Why is America voluntarily relinquishing the banner of this most important of human endeavors?

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1. Okay neither of these examples make sense, BUT…