WP,pg1: Cutbacks impede climate, weather studies: U.S. Earth programs in peril

[DeepModem Mom]

Cutbacks Impede Climate Studies
U.S. Earth Programs In Peril, Panel Finds
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 16, 2007; Page A01

The government's ability to understand and predict hurricanes, drought and climate changes of all kinds is in danger because of deep cuts facing many Earth satellite programs and major delays in launching some of its most important new instruments, a panel of experts has concluded.

The two-year study by the National Academy of Sciences, released yesterday, determined that NASA's earth science budget has declined 30 percent since 2000. It stands to fall further as funding shifts to plans for a manned mission to the moon and Mars. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, meanwhile, has experienced enormous cost overruns and schedule delays with its premier weather and climate mission.

As a result, the panel said, the United States will not have the scientific information it needs in the years ahead to analyze severe storms and changes in Earth's climate unless programs are restored and funding made available....

***

The budget for earth science programs for NASA and NOAA increased substantially in the 1990s, and that resulted in an unprecedented number of weather- and climate-monitoring missions in the past five years. But the report found that, as the current satellites deteriorate, the number of space-based Earth-observation missions will decline steadily through 2010, as will the number of instruments in space to gather weather, climate and environmental data.

"If things aren't reversed, we will have passed the high-water mark for our Earth observations," said co-chairman Richard Anthes of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. "This country should not be headed in this direction. . . . We need to know more, not less, about long-term aspects of climate change, about trends in droughts and hurricanes, about what's happening in terms of fish stocks and deforestation."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/15/AR2007011501049.html

[lapfog_1]

1. Got to fund that mission to Mars...

:sarcasm:

This is the real reason for the current NASA priorities. Not to go to Mars, but to de fund MTPE.

[leftchick]

2. mars and the fucking moon?

great. Soon the earth will join them as unable to sustain life if this keeps up. :(

[Dogmudgeon]

3. It's not the Moon and Mars

Don't be deceived. The Moon/Mars projects are being set up to take the rap. What Team Bush really wants is for NASA to be militarized, and to hell with the Moon, Mars AND Earth science programs.

They know how to work people -- get 'em pissed at human space exploration, then when the heat is off, move as much as they can into the "black" space program. It's a form of political sleight-of-hand. This was done several times during the Reagan-Poppy Bush era, and may have contributed to the Challenger disaster in 1986.

Clever, huh?

We're spending $600 billion on the war in Iraq; about 1/30th that amount on NASA; and maybe one-tenth of the NASA budget on human space exploration. They're pulling our collective chain. Space exploration -- and other worthwhile public projects -- should be getting the money that is now being used to decimate the Middle East and feed its people (and our troops) to the Bush meat grinder.

--p!

[sutz12]

4. It's all about God....

If he wants us to know about coming storms, he'll just tell us, probably through Pat Robertson.

All that space crap just ruins God's surprise, you know. :sarcasm:

[SpiralHawk]

5. "Jeff Gannon does not believe in global warming." - Commander AWOL

"And if Jeffie likes that version of the 'truth' then it's good enough for me."

- Commander AWOL

[SpiralHawk]

6. "My faith-based scientists have already believed the 'truth'." - Commander AWOL

"So why don't all you fact-based people just sit down and shut up."

- Commander AWOL

[jaksavage]

7. Send * to Mars NOW

I am so mad, when I try to speak, I can only make spitting noises.
Wearing my tinfoil hat as a crown and at a jaunty angle too.

Thanks to DU for making all my nightmares come true.