November 23, 2016

Trump to emasculate NASA climate change research

Guardian - Nasa’s 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 Nasa’s world-renowned research into temperature, ice, clouds and other climate phenomena. Nasa’s network of satellites provide a wealth of information on climate change, with the Earth science division’s 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”.

1 comment:

Greg Gerritt said...

Trump is all in on his version of economic development, but it is seriously misguided as an important driver of the current economy is innovation and knowledge. Cutting the NASA budget for atmospheric research is cutting off his nose to spite his face. The lack of knowledge will not make the problems go away or help the economy.