What could possibly go wrong?

Wonderfully photoshopped… or WAS it?

You’ve got Rick Perry, who’s a generally clueless animal husbandry expert and someone allergic to the phrase “climate change”, in charge of the Department of Energy. Then you’ve got Scott Pruitt, a man who spent much of his career trying to take down the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in charge of the EPA. Of course, you’ve also got Donald “I Know Words” Trump as the President, so there’s that.

Enter, Mike Pence. This man is America’s Vice President, and he’s certainly a curious human being. Being a proponent of creationism and someone who until recently didn’t think smoking kills people, he’s not exactly a fan of science – which is why it’s so surprising he’s been tasked with heading the National Space Council (NSC).
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Pence also, predictably, is a climate change denier. He thinks intelligent design should be taught in science classes. He, like almost every single politician in the US, supports space exploration, but a look at his Twitter feed shows that he’s only starting talking about “space” in that sense since the end of October last year.

It’s not encouraging. You might as well put an aardvark in charge of the NSC – it would be just as effective, and at least people like aardvarks.

Worse, it’s insulting: America has some of the most talented astrophysicists, planetary geologists, cosmologists, engineers, and astronauts in the world. This appointment is a complete waste of their potential.