Today, the Boston Globe reported [1] that NASA is “canceling or delaying a number of satellites designed to give scientists critical information on the earth’s changing climate and environment.” The paper further reports that
The space agency has shelved a $200 million satellite mission headed by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor that was designed to measure soil moisture — a key factor in helping scientists understand the impact of global warming and predict droughts and floods. The Deep Space Climate Observatory, intended to observe climate factors such as solar radiation, ozone, clouds, and water vapor more comprehensively than existing satellites, also has been canceled.
From this administration’s perspective, these cancellations were no-brainers. This administration simply has no need to know such envornmental information. Either global warming A) is not caused by human activities or B) is caused by human activities, but we’d rather not know it because we don’t want to do anything about it.
The money that would have funded these projects will now instead go to allowing astronauts to return to the moon, an enormously expensive project of questionable scientific value. Primarily an opportunity for photo ops.
This keeps my streak going. You can determine my position on almost every issue by simply figuring the opposite of President Bush’s. The one exception: The national no-call list. Annoying telemarketers often disrupted my life before that truly a good law was enacted. I need to give credit where credit is due. You see, I’m not against Bush in a simple-minded sort of way. Thank you, President Bush, for the no-call law!
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