In a move that has enraged green justice warriors across the globe, A $10 million per year National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) program to track key global warming contributors carbon and methane has been canceled.
The program called the Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) was cut due to ‘budget constraints and higher priorities within the science budget, a spokesperson for the space agency said Thursday. A report from the journal Science called the shut down the latest move in a ‘broad attack on climate science’ by the White House.’NASA’s CMS has helped stitch together observations of sources and sinks into high-resolution models of the planet’s flows of carbon,’ the journal wrote.
Meanwhile, it appears this research will continue in Europe!
[The CMS] has paid for researchers led by Daniel Jacob, an atmospheric chemist at Harvard University, to refine their satellite-based observations of methane.It’s an ironic time to kill the program, Jacob says. NASA is planning several space-based carbon observatories, including the OCO-3, which is set to be mounted on the International Space Station later this year, and the Geostationary Carbon Cycle Observatory, due for launch early next decade. The CMS would help knit all these observations together. “It would be a total shame to wind [it] down,” Jacob says.This type of research is likely to continue, Duffy adds, but leadership will pass to Europe, which already operates one carbon-monitoring satellite, with more on the way.
I think most Americans are good with that, especially as we want NASA to return to its original mission of space exploration. In fact, our neighboring planets may be significant contributors to climate change.
The orbits of planets hundreds of millions of miles away can change weather patterns here on Earth.Every 405,000 years, gravitational tugs from the planets Jupiter and Venus gradually affect Earth’s climate and life forms, according to a new study published Monday.In fact, this pattern has been going on for at least 215 million years and allows scientists to more precisely date geological events like the spread of dinosaurs.”Scientists can now link changes in the climate, environment, dinosaurs, mammals and fossils around the world to this 405,000-year cycle in a very precise way,” said study lead author Dennis Kent, an expert in paleomagnetism at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Rutgers University.
The study shows a cycle of every 405,000 years, during which wobbles in Earth’s orbit caused by the gravitational pulls of the two planets, intensify seasonal differences on our planet. Summers are hotter and winters colder; dry times drier, wet times wetter.
There is even more good news for those Legal Insurrection fans interested in space exploration. Instead of squandering money on politicized and #FakeScience, NASA is sending a helicopter….to Mars.
The Mars Helicopter, a small, autonomous rotorcraft, will travel with the agency’s Mars 2020 rover mission, currently scheduled to launch in July 2020, to demonstrate the viability and potential of heavier-than-air vehicles on the Red Planet.“NASA has a proud history of firsts,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “The idea of a helicopter flying the skies of another planet is thrilling. The Mars Helicopter holds much promise for our future science, discovery, and exploration missions to Mars.”U.S. Rep. John Culberson of Texas echoed Bridenstine’s appreciation of the impact of American firsts on the future of exploration and discovery.“It’s fitting that the United States of America is the first nation in history to fly the first heavier-than-air craft on another world,” Culberson said. “This exciting and visionary achievement will inspire young people all over the United States to become scientists and engineers, paving the way for even greater discoveries in the future.”
Here is a thought: If we are ever going to colonize space, we humans will have to change climate intentionally on a planetary scale. This move by the Trump Administration shows that NASA has jettisoned a program that was creating an unnecessary drag on what should be a key priority.
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