Rhymes with stucks

The shenanigans regarding the NASA budget pulled by the House Science Committee (actually the Committee on Science, Space, and Technolgy are phenomenally disgusting, disreputable, and dishonest.  The reason they are dishonest is that they are doing something for one reason that they are stating ("restoring balance to NASA's budget"), but they're really doing it for another reason that they aren't stating (cutting research and technology investment related -- in their viewpoint -- to climate change).

And that, put simply, sucks.

Here's a couple articles about that:


Massive cuts proposed to NASA earth science budget draw protest

The article linked above had this:

"On Tuesday, the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, chaired by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), introduced a new spending bill that would slash NASA’s earth science programs by more than $300 million. Advocates for earth science monitoring and research have voiced strong objections to this proposal.

“[W]e are extremely concerned that the reauthorization significantly cuts funding for NASA’s Earth Science Division – with cuts ranging from 18 percent, if budget caps are lifted, to 32 percent, if the caps are kept in place,” wrote Christine W. McEntee, executive director of the American Geophysical Union, in a letter to the Committee."

and also this:

"But Rep. Eddie Johnson (D-Tex.), the House committee’s ranking member, published an op-ed in the Hill distancing herself from the bill – which she said Republicans introduced without bipartisan negotiation. She suggested the bill is an attack on NASA’s climate science activities and fails to appreciate other critical aspects of NASA’s earth science mission, which includes supporting weather prediction, monitoring ice in the Arctic and tracking wildfires."

She got it right.


Cutting NASA’s earth science budget is short-sighted and a threat

In this article, Marshall Shepherd, former President of the American Meteorological Society and a world-reknowned scientist, addresses the same issue.

Excerpt:

"NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, one of the few people that has actually seen our home planet from the vantage point of space, issued a statement noting that proposed cuts, “gut our Earth science program and threatens to set back generations worth of progress in better understanding our changing climate, and our ability to prepare for and respond to earthquakes, droughts, and storm events…” This statement is measured and appropriate, but I am writing to amplify this statement."

and he follows with this:

"The vast majority of people don’t realize that one of the reasons the European and U.S. weather models have improved is that they integrate atmospheric, land, and ocean conditions. NASA and various U.S. aerospace companies have a close relationship with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather satellite program. However, I want to emphasize that the data that goes into the weather models are not just NOAA data. A host of NASA datasets are included too. Harming our weather forecasting ability has direct impact on our economy, agricultural productive, commercial aviation, military operations, and more."

He got that right, too.

Which is why I can see with assurance, what the Republicans on the House Science Committee are doing,

simply,

SUCKS.