Don't take Bush's "change of heart" on global warming seriously.

[Theophylact]

Not when this is happening:

Quote:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration is drastically scaling back efforts to measure global warming from space, just as the president tries to convince the world the U.S. is ready to take the lead in reducing greenhouse gases.

A confidential report to the White House, obtained by The Associated Press, warns that U.S. scientists will soon lose much of their ability to monitor warming from space using a costly and problem-plagued satellite initiative begun more than a decade ago.

Because of technology glitches and a near-doubling in the original $6.5 billion cost, the Defense Department has decided to downsize and launch four satellites paired into two orbits, instead of six satellites and three orbits.

The satellites were intended to gather weather and climate data, replacing existing satellites as they come to the end of their useful lifetimes beginning in the next couple of years.

The reduced system of four satellites will now focus on weather forecasting. Most of the climate instruments needed to collect more precise data over long periods are being eliminated.

Instead, the Pentagon and two partners - the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA - will rely on European satellites for most of the climate data.

"Unfortunately, the recent loss of climate sensors ... places the overall climate program in serious jeopardy," NOAA and NASA scientists told the White House in the Dec. 11 report obtained by the AP.

They said they will face major gaps in data that can be collected only from satellites about ice caps and sheets, surface levels of seas and lakes, sizes of glaciers, surface radiation, water vapor, snow cover and atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Rick Piltz, director of Climate Science Watch, a watchdog program of the Washington-based Government Accountability Project, called the situation a crisis.

"We're going to start being blinded in our ability to observe the planet," said Piltz, whose group provided the AP with the previously undisclosed report. "It's criminal negligence, and the leaders in the climate science community are ringing the alarm bells on this crisis."

Bush has repeatedly cited his administration's record on researching global warming as a response to criticism of his opposition to forced reductions in the greenhouse gases blamed for it. The administration has been spending about $5 billion a year on global warming: $2 billion on climate research and $3 billion on technologies for combatting it.

Epidemic: My opinion is in the thread title. I don't think any additional comment is necessary.

[Epidemic]

[surreal]

You can only pay for so much when you're destroying the country with debt from war.

[Gomer]

Careful surreal... you might have someone slap a label on you for a statement like that! Especially if they see the likes of me talking to you.

OOPS

[jokostel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by surreal

You can only pay for so much when you're destroying the country with debt from war.

thats not destroying it. its the inability of people to discuss and compromise things in a civil manner.

[surreal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gomer

Careful surreal... you might have someone slap a label on you for a statement like that! Especially if they see the likes of me talking to you.

OOPS

shhh!!

[jokostel]

im starting to believe everyone dealing with politics, is a fuckin moron.
get people in there that care about something with society, and NOT their own personal agenda.forget paying them a damn thing. Itd be a required civil service.

[cyphen]

The enviro-whackos are borne from anti-capitalists. Period. They've mass-marketed their anticapitalist efforts.

It comes from anticapitalists who viewed oil as the engine of capitalism. Destroy the engine, destroy capitalism - in their view.

But again, they've mass marketed it. Put it in the context that makes those who oppose it seem like bad people. Grossly overstate the consequences of not listening to them. And when your predictions don't bear out, just keep upping the ante. When the climate starts shifting the other way in its natural cycle, switch the argument to Global cooling again. It's greenhouse gases! It's the ozone layer being eaten by chlorofluorocarbons! It's greenhouse gases again!