Mike Gravel was very chatty. John Edwards’ rep provided thoughtful replies. Bill Richardson’s rep emailed three words: yes, yes, no.

Those were the only meaningful responses to LiveScience’s modest attempt to survey the presidential candidates’ opinions on three hot-button science policy topics of the day — federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, federal action on global warming and the teaching of creationism in public schools.

We’re not known for our political reporting, and we suspect the smash-up of the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary with the New Year has erased the ability of many campaign offices to answer some media requests. And there are the candidates’ Web sites:

Joe Biden has an entire page of information on national policy action he’d take on global warming.

Chris Dodd has an energy plan that acknowledges climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.

Duncan Hunter’s opposition to embryonic stem cell research is noted here and Mike Huckabee’s is here.

John McCain’s more nuanced position on stem cells can be read here and his approach to limiting carbon emissions is here.

Barack Obama sees climate change as one of the greatest moral challenges of our generation.

Fred Thompson talks about reducing carbon emissions here.

And while Hillary Clinton’s campaign never got back to us, she had put out a detailed science-friendly policy agenda a few months ago.

Still, the scarcity of direct replies to our survey was telling … of something. (For details on candidates’ positions on space exploration, see our Space.com story.)

Also, did Dennis Kucinich and Duncan Hunter go through a scrambler? The former’s slogan is “Strength Through Peace.” The latter’s is “Peace Through Strength.”

Anyhow, Edwards said he supports stem cell research and federal funding for it, and respects scientists and the scientific method, “so I believe that policy should be science driven and that science shouldn’t be politics driven.”

The American people should halt global warming and achieve energy independence, Edwards said. He supports carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emission caps starting in 2010 to reduce emissions by 20 percent by 2020 and by at least 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

As for creationism and evolution, Edwards thinks local school boards should decide what is taught in their schools, but said “I personally agree with the theory of evolution and believe it should be taught in our schools.”

Richardson said “yes” for stem cell funding, “yes” for federal action to slow down global warming and “no” to the teaching of creationism in public schools as part of the science curriculum.

Gravel supports federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. He also supports a carbon tax and would invite other nations to do the same so all nations could pool the resources to create a global institute to get the world off carbon fuels in a decade.

As for creationism in the schools, Gravel says: “Oh God, no. Oh, Jesus. We thought we had made a big advance with the Scopes monkey trial … My God, evolution is a fact, and if these people are disturbed by being the descendants of monkeys and fishes, they’ve got a mental problem. We can’t afford the psychiatric bill for them. That ends the story as far as I’m concerned.”

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