John Lauerman John Lauerman – Tue Feb 10, 12:00 am ET

Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) — When David Letterman, the late-night TV host, needed a scientist to explain climate change on his show last April, he chose John Holdren, the Harvard University physicist who helped Al Gore earn an Academy Award.

Holdren’s dire predictions about, illustrated in riveting charts and graphs, helped ex-Vice President Gore win an Oscar for his 2006 documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.” Holdren also helped persuade. and Conoco Phillips Co. executives to accept that climate change caused by gas emissions threatened to raise sea levels and harm crops. His slide presentations pop up frequently in other people’s speeches.

At age 64, Holdren now is taking on his toughest assignment: getting the American public and Congress to curb fossil fuel use. Barack Obama has named Holdren as assistant to the president for science and technology as well as director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, a post for which he will face a Senate confirmation hearing on Feb 12.

Source – Bloomberg

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