Turn Out the Lights
While the proposed $300 million budget cuts to NASA Earth Science emerging from the House Science Committee have been receiving a lot of press, the knives of science denial are out for other agencies that study climate issues.
DOE's Biological and Environmental Research program gets a cut of 42 million from its current $592 million, and the proposed $612 million. The BER program support climate research at such places as Lawrence Livermore and other DOE labs. The draft bill, approved by the Republicans on the Committee (with no Democrats voting for, indeed they only saw the Bill as it was introduced), contains a poison pill or two, for DOE. First, a direction that climate research is not to be a priority
(a) PROGRAM.—The Director shall carry out a program of research, development, and demonstration in the areas of biological systems science and climate and environmental science to support the energy and environ- 6 mental missions of the Department.
(b) PRIORITY RESEARCH.—In carrying out this section, the Director shall prioritize fundamental research on biological systems and genomics science with the greatest potential to enable scientific discovery.and then the real poison pill
The Director shall not approve new climate science-related initiatives to be carried out through the Office of Science without making a determination that such work is unique and not duplicative of work by other Federal agencies. Not later than 3 months after receiving the assessment required under subsection (c), 23 the Director shall cease those climate science-related initiatives identified in the assessment as overlapping or duplicative, unless the Director justifies that such work is critical to achieving American energy security.Not much better at NSF, with a cut to 1,200 M$ from 2015's 1304 M$ and a request of 1,365 M$.
Of course DOE ARPA-E takes a proposed 56% cut and social sciences at NSF gets a 45% cut.
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7 comments:
Not to worry Inhofe's NCAR trimming will provide the difference
An interesting concept.
"If we don't look at climate change we can pretend it is not happening."
Have the Republican Party reinvented Zaphod Beeblebrox' danger-sensitive sunglasses?
Entropic man
I do wonder, why would the department of energy be doing its own climate research? It makes more sense to fund NOAA. Also the bill refers to the need to avoid duplication of effort. Sounds reasonable.
Instead of duplicating research they ought to increase data gathering efforts.
This gives me a cauld grue. Thanks anyway ...
Meanwhile, water vapor animations are never boring, and these especially not so:
http://synoptic.envsci.rutgers.edu/site/sat/sat.php?sat=nhem&url=../imgs/wv_nhem_anim.gif
http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/geo/index.php?satellite=mtsat&channel=wv&coverage=fd&file=gif&imgoranim=8&anim_method=flash
I've put in a query to a meteorologist. Looks like Dolphin is doing something funny on the western tip of the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge, though it's not slated to do much with land before it fades.
Both American parties are destructive to our country, but the Republican Party actively strives to speed up our destruction. On purpose.
Best,
D
Borowitz tells it like it is. Too bad it takes the comedians to note the emperors' new clotheses (plural intentional, the new emporers are anyone with time on their hands and a computer and a high opinion of themselves):
Scientists: Earth Endangered by New Strain of Fact-Resistant Humans
By Andy Borowitz
[all quote->]
MINNEAPOLIS (The Borowitz Report) – Scientists have discovered a powerful new strain of fact-resistant humans who are threatening the ability of Earth to sustain life, a sobering new study reports.
The research, conducted by the University of Minnesota, identifies a virulent strain of humans who are virtually immune to any form of verifiable knowledge, leaving scientists at a loss as to how to combat them.
“These humans appear to have all the faculties necessary to receive and process information,” Davis Logsdon, one of the scientists who contributed to the study, said. “And yet, somehow, they have developed defenses that, for all intents and purposes, have rendered those faculties totally inactive.”
More worryingly, Logsdon said, “As facts have multiplied, their defenses against those facts have only grown more powerful.”
While scientists have no clear understanding of the mechanisms that prevent the fact-resistant humans from absorbing data, they theorize that the strain may have developed the ability to intercept and discard information en route from the auditory nerve to the brain. “The normal functions of human consciousness have been completely nullified,” Logsdon said.
While reaffirming the gloomy assessments of the study, Logsdon held out hope that the threat of fact-resistant humans could be mitigated in the future. “Our research is very preliminary, but it’s possible that they will become more receptive to facts once they are in an environment without food, water, or oxygen,” he said.
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/scientists-earth-endangered-by-new-strain-of-fact-resistant-humans
Do not worry! Climate change does not hurt as much when you close your eyes and pull a blanket over your head.
If it still hurts, climb under your mattress, and wait for the nice man in a rubber boat. (He should there there in a week to 10 days.)
(DOE still has an interest in building waste repositories. NOAA does not what to commit itself to what the weather will be in 10,000 years.)
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