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Politics Is Poisoning NASA's Ability To Do Science
An anonymous reader writes: Phil Plait just published an article about how politics is interfering with NASA's ability to perform vital scientific experiments. As expected when we heard that Ted Cruz would be made head of the committee in charge of NASA's funding, the Texas senator is pushing hard for NASA to stop studying Earth itself. Plait writes, "Over the years, NASA has had to beg and scrape to get the relatively small amount of money it gets—less than half a percent of the national budget—and still manages to do great things with it. Cruz is worried NASA's focus needs to be more on space exploration. Fine. Then give them enough money to do everything in their charter: Explore space, send humans there, and study our planet. Whether you think climate change is real or not—and it is— telling NASA they should turn a blind eye to the environment of our own planet is insanity." He concludes, "[T]he politics of funding a government agency is tying NASA in knots and critically endangering its ability to explore."
If you care about our future, and especially if you live in a red state where these charlatans seem to originate, please stop voting for anti intellectual and anti science politicians. They are only doing what they perceive the electorate has sent them to Washington to do, which seems to be to put their heads in the sand and 'pray' for a 'savior'.
the EPA can worry about the environment, leave NASA to what NASA is supposed to do. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Not the climatechange administration. not the muslim outreach administration but the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Please give NASA more money, but make sure it is used for space exploration as intended. I dont see why this is getting so much heat
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Neither side is pure here. I think NASA briefly said their mission was muslim outreach for example. Why would they do that? Does that have something to do with space?
Just politics.
And NASA has been staffed not just with scientists but wtih scientists that are big democrat supporters. So... guess what, the republicans are going to want to suppress them.
Same thing happened in NYC with tammany hall. Every time parties would switch, the new party would staff the city institutions with political appointees that supported that political party. Everything. Fire departments, police departments, park service, road workers, etc... just everything. Parties would switch and everyone in authority in the city would lose their job.
And that meant that in part the people that did things were often not competent because they weren't on the job that long. And also you'd get a lot of corruption because if lots of people lose their jobs when the parties switch everyone is more inclined to cheat or stuff ballot boxes.
This was ultimately dealt with to some extent by protecting certain institutions from being used that way.
But there is no such protection in Federal agencies. They get used all the time. You can't tell me that the EPA or the ATF or whatever are doing the same thing under a democrat that they'd be doing under a republican. You can't tell me that they're being run by the same sorts of people or under the same guidelines.
It swings back and forth because all these institutions are political footballs at this point.
So complain about it if you want but nothing is going to change unless that stops. And it needs to stop for BOTH sides. Not just the side you don't like. If one side can do it, then the other side can do it.
So think very carefully about what you're asking for and understand there are going to be consequences.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Geez ...
Don't you guys ever get tired of bashing Ted Cruz?
This is Slashdot, not some liberal media outlet specially set up to beat up people who do not agree with the liberal ideology
We are here to discuss science, not to bash up politicians just because they belong to so and so camp
C'mon folks, wake the fuck up!
We are beating each others to pulp on issues like abortions / police brutality / TSA at the airport while other countries are rapidly gaining grounds
Wasting webspace and valuable time in beating each others up don't get us forward, man! Grow the fuck up, please !
At the end of the day, the climate has been changing since inception. You can argue about man made climate change, but the facts are the planet has been far warmer and far colder than it is now.
That being said, I like federal institutions from getting scope creep. Every government agency simply looks for more ways to get more control and funding. Look at how many agencies have domain over things such as salmon, peanuts, water, air, etc.
NASA should be studying space. But agendas abound.
telling NASA they should turn a blind eye to the environment of our own planet is insanity.
Why? That's what NOAA is supposed to be doing. If I were elected philosopher-king of NASA, I'd be more then happy to tell the climatologists to take their politics next door. We'll be more then happy to put a satellite up for you. But that's about the extent of it.
And then there's the USGS. And a bunch of other agencies all poking and prodding the planet. It's really starting to look like everyone is having their funding held up pending the publication of a pro-AGW study. And that's a part of what makes the associated politics stink like hell.
Have gnu, will travel.
Not only what you have said is baseless, it's utterly bullshit, and you can't even begin to proof what you said!
One thing that is very wrong with the Democrats is that they think that everybody else who do not agree with them are idiots --- while some Republicans occasionally do the same thing, --- the way Democrats are portraying themselves --- from Hillary down to that motherfucker that uttered the above quote --- as though they have all the answers and their answers can not be challeged
To be fair, the EPA can pay NASA to launch/operate satellites.
Left out is the fact that NASA, under Cruz, got MORE budget than they had asked for. Yes he wants them to spend less time and effort on climatology, but it is a space agency after all, we already have NOAA... shouldn't it be NOAA doing that research? It LITERALLY has "atmospheric" in the name after all.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
the point isnt that NASA should not launch these satellites, its that it shouldnt come out of the NASA budget, it should come out of the other federal orgs
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
They can sell off their jet and get rid of the entourage of SUVs.
The cut off for the top 1% is an income of $34k.
Or did you mean the top 1% of just the rich people that live in the first world, because that conveniently excludes yourself from the definition?
Well, this is an American story about American politics, why should it not use an American point of view? After all, the 1% moniker is currently Amerislang for the rich, it has been used to describe truck drivers, the Hells Angels, and others in the past.
If this were about European politics, I would expect a European viewpoint.
If it were about World politics, then I could see this metric applied, maybe.
Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
"An insignificant amount of water is used by car washes."
You're absolutely right. Even back in the 1970's when I worked for a carwash, we recycled something around 80% of our grey-water. And that was in Washington state with no water shortages (at that time....anyway). I would imagine it has improved significantly since that time.
Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
The point of listing the statistic like that is to hopefully reveal that people who whine about 'inequality' are mainly just people who want more for themselves.
If they truly cared about inequality and suffering in the world, they would care about suffering and inequality in the world.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Indeed. Going by cumulative CO2 emissions since industrialization, US + EU contributed the bulk of the load (US + EU - 51%, China - 9%, India – 3%). So, by the logic of DigiShaman logic, and I fully agree with it when taken in a nation-state sense, the bulk of the burden must be borne by wealthy elite: Citizens of US and EU.
Only if you pretend that the cost of living is the same everywhere.
That's socialists for you. Anybody richer than them is too rich and should be pulled back down.