NASA to Support Global Conservation Efforts

jackelfish writes "An agreement signed between The World Conservation Union and NASA will provide satellite imagery and advanced technologies to aid decision makers in predicting environmental outcomes. Not only will the NASA data be used to assess environmental issues, but can provide valuable information for mapping many of the world's protected areas."

Comments

Of course

[ravenspear]

This at the same time when the DOD is undertaking serious efforts to remove public access to satellite imagery.

Re:Of course

[hak hak]

And also at the same time that the US administration is again neglecting to take action to reduce its pollution.

Re:Of course

[Anonymous Coward]

I would like to sodomize the Bush twins.

Strange...

[__aavljf5849]

I would have assumed that things like this was already happening. NASA is goverment funded, their data should reasonably be accessible if not publicly then at least by universities!

bait & switch

[Doc Ruby]

NASA is getting public support for its budgets by claiming its imagery will be used for "global conservation", but more and more government data, especially imagery, is classified. Only corporations will get this data, if they even produce it. More likely, the programs will be used for other corporate exploitation, like oil exploration and outfishing new ecosystems. And we'll foot the bill.

Re:bait & switch

[Whorehopper]

I find your comment interesting, because I quickly arrived at the same conclusion as yourself. What came to my mind was Boeing's access to, and abuse of, our nations ELINT systems, specifically Echelon. My guess is that the right corporations can already get whatever imagery they want.

Re:bait & switch

[Doc Ruby]

Yep, the christalibans of Red America have embraced the bloodthirsty corporations that keep them dumb, poor and horny. Humans are now second class citizens, below corporations, which are the new T-Rex atop the food chain.

The IUCN?

[CodeWanker]

They prepare lists of animals that are in danger of extinction, and they report that "Today, more species than ever are in danger of extinction" but they aren't able to effectively conclude if this is due to accelerating environmental factors or because we discover species at a record pace and of course not all of them will be in a healthy state. And they further don't say if the accelerating environmental factors are within our control or not.

Thanks to Star Trek, every geek and his sidekick thinks that humans are 1) responsible and 2) have the fix within our power. Which means usually we geeks are 0 for 2 in our assessment.

Not to mention that biodiversity is not an intrinsic good. Should the candiru be protected? Malaria-bearing mosquitos? Of course not.

Of course, all this NASA sharing would be worth it if we could use it to get a credit against our dues with those interesting folks at the United Nations, but somehow I don't think they'd go for it. They'd rather have cash since it spends better Riveria villas than scientific data does.