Sardis Lake, a reservoir near Tuskahoma in southeastern Oklahoma, is one of the water supply centers that could be protected by the state’s new long-term voluntary water conservation goals.  Photo: Jim Wilson/The New York Times

…You see, California is the state crusading against human-caused global warming while Oklahoma’s senior senator, James Inhofe, has just written a new book excoriating that kind of focus. He recently told a local radio station, “The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous.” Other Oklahoman political leaders have not strayed far from these sentiments.

Nonetheless, the policy prescriptions approved by the Oklahoma state Legislature and signed by Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican, seem somewhat akin to those of Sacramento…

Click the image above to go to the story, but just with the quote here there is enough of a hint: science and empirical evidence meet a powerful politician who is also a man of faith, and who is elected democratically by a state full of people of faith.  And he is decidedly against science and empirical evidence.

It is not clear why, from this story, environmental science has prevailed for a change in the great state of Oklahoma.  But it is worthy of celebration as much for bridging the faith/science gap, which sometimes seems to be widening.  Darwin, himself a man of faith, would probably not be surprised that we feel the need to celebrate that particular dimension of this story.  If this resonates, and in case you have not yet taken an hour to do so, now would be a good time to hear what one of our superheroes has to say on this exact topic (it is hidden in plain sight as the main theme).