Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumTrump to scrap Nasa climate research in crackdown on 'politicized science'
Trump to scrap Nasa climate research in crackdown on politicized scienceNasas Earth science division is set to be stripped of funding as the president-elect seeks to shift focus away from home in favor of deep space exploration
Oliver Milman in New York Wednesday 23 November 2016 00.00 EST
Donald Trump is poised to eliminate all climate change research conducted by Nasa as part of a crackdown on politicized science, his senior adviser on issues relating to the space agency has said.
Nasas Earth science division is set to be stripped of funding in favor of exploration of deep space, with the president-elect having set a goal during the campaign to explore the entire solar system by the end of the century.
This would mean the elimination of Nasas world-renowned research into temperature, ice, clouds and other climate phenomena. Nasas network of satellites provide a wealth of information on climate change, with the Earth science divisions budget set to grow to $2bn next year. By comparison, space exploration has been scaled back somewhat, with a proposed budget of $2.8bn in 2017.
Bob Walker, a senior Trump campaign adviser, said there was no need for Nasa to do what he has previously described as politically correct environmental monitoring.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/22/nasa-earth-donald-trump-eliminate-climate-change-research
SHRED
(28,136 posts)workinclasszero
(28,270 posts)Be afraid.
The_Casual_Observer
(27,742 posts)That research has nothing to do with politics. This is textbook republican "the world exists to make me profits" thinking.
What a mess.
lapfog_1
(29,219 posts)even if we do nothing with it.
Perhaps Elon Musk and others could offer to collect and store the remote data and fund some replacement measurement studies (science teams that measure the thickness of the ice, etc).
The remote sensing satellites are still up there, we just need to collect the data and store it and make it available to scientists around the world (China, EU).
I have some experience with this... I would volunteer my time to guide the effort.
hunter
(38,325 posts)If a doctor doesn't see it, it can't be cancerous, right?
And maybe we could stop hurricanes and other storms if we simply got rid of weather satellites.
To the willfully ignorant, it's all "Acts of God" or some kind of mumble-mumble highs-and-burger quantum observation effect.
Unfortunately I can see the Republican grifters transferring all this technology to some dark agency, hoping to give fascist U.S.A. an edge against their enemies.
tinrobot
(10,914 posts)...it is suicidal.
workinclasszero
(28,270 posts)OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)The Republicans in Congress have been making noise about this for some time now.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/05/republicans-nasa-wastes-money-on-climate-change-research/452505/
[font size=4]Lawmakers want to cut Earth-monitoring program in favor of space travel.[/font]
May 7, 2015
[font size=3]NASA controls more than a dozen satellites and spacecraft, monitoring everything from melting ice to water storage to rain and snow. To the agency's scientists and supporters, these programs are essential to understanding the planet and the changing climate, and part of its core mission.
But to congressional Republicans, they are just another example of an administration wasting money on climate-change research, zapping funds away from what NASA should be doing: blasting into and exploring space.
House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, last week moved a two-year NASA bill through his committee that would shift money away from the Earth Science program to spend on planetary exploration. "There are 13 other agencies involved in climate-change research, but only one that is responsible for space exploration," Smith said at a recent hearing.
Sen. Ted Cruz, another Texan, who oversees the Commerce subcommittee in charge of NASA, has likewise said it's time for NASA to refocus on space exploration. At a hearing earlier this year, Cruz said that the "core function of NASA is to explore space" and "NASA in the current environment has lost its full focus on that core mission."
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