Who was it who said Obama couldn't or wouldn't change anything? Look here

[mabanana]

announces plans to end bans on federal funding for stem cell research and to ban oil drilling in wilderness areas And he's not even president yet!

Yep, nuclear is the future, certainly in the short term. I am very suspicious of denialists in general (though not you Athene) because the research always seems to be funded by oil companies. Thank goodness Obama isn't an oil man.

A nuclear power plant takes about 10 years to build, so "Let's go the nuclear way" is hardly a short term strategy.

5 years I think. And I also think 10 years is short term by most measures.

its not the time that nuclear power stations take to build thats the problem - its there limited lifespan and what to do with them afterwards.

I used to be a power sector analyst. It takes 10 years to build a nuclear power plant and bring it to operational status.

Not that any of it matters to the subject of this thread, which is...

The abomination that was W Bush's time as US President is over and his successor will thankfully be reversing W's outrageous policies.

Hopefully, denial of global warming will be one of those policies on the way out. But imho, just as important if not more are:

Sanctioning torture
Locking up people for good without due legal process
Guantanamo
Invasion of a sovereign country based on lies

interestingly to the stem cell factor - there was a recent expose of people here in Aus who had travelled to other countries in the world and had stem cell therapy believing it would cure all or at least reverse somewhat their condition. Sadly after huge amounts of money - no change whatsoever.

There are conditions that are successfully treated with stem cells. Leukemia, for example.

What was the condition those people were suffering from?

cote - I can't remember - program was a long time ago.

A 'recent' expose that was 'a long time ago'? Sorry for nitpicking

I Googled out of curiosity, and it seems others were more lucky:

Australian quadriplegic can breathe on his own after stem cell therapy in India

Sorry Cote - didn't mean to question your vastly better knowlege on this.

Stem cell research will help MS sufferers too (in theory).

sorry cote - recent as in some time this year - long time ago as I have so much in my life that unless it is something that is pertinent to me I may not remember the nitty gritty details iyswim

I'm ok on the drilling thing - good for the environment, hope it will be matched with commitments to other fuel sources and solutions, and I think it likely will be. If he stops the Guantanamo bay thing I'll think he truly will earn his stripes.

Sad about the stem-cell thing and the abortion funding, but there we go, that's where I'm always going to disagree with Obama.

eid - It's a personality defect, I have to correct things

Stem cell research has vast potential and it is sad to see otherwise reasonable people arguing to limit it because they feel a microscopic cluster of cells is somehow untouchable.

Ah well, reasonable or not, I have to try and be consistent. I'm not remotely pragmatic about this one. And in all honesty, my views don't make the slightest bit of difference to the issue anyway, especially now I'm contradicted on it by the most powerful man in the world, so I'm quite content to be unreasonable on it in my little mad woman's corner.