Trump Administration Continues Its Assault on Climate Science
Reporting on every action the Trump administration is taking to prevent climate scientists and lawmakers from mitigating global warming is a job far too vast for any one person. That being the case, I content myself with a scattershot approach, commenting on a few articles here and there as I am able.
Here’s Science Magazine’s piece called “Trump White House quietly cancels NASA research verifying greenhouse gas cuts,” which provides some background on the satellite and aircraft instruments that have been deployed to monitor carbon dioxide and methane remotely, and NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System (CMS), a $10-million-a-year research line-item that pulls the observational data together and makes it intelligible.
From the article:
Now, President Donald Trump’s administration has quietly killed the CMS, Science has learned.
The move jeopardizes plans to verify the national emission cuts agreed to in the Paris climate accords, says Kelly Sims Gallagher, director of Tufts University’s Center for International Environment and Resource Policy in Medford, Massachusetts. “If you cannot measure emissions reductions, you cannot be confident that countries are adhering to the agreement,” she says. Canceling the CMS “is a grave mistake,” she adds.
The White House has mounted a broad attack on climate science, repeatedly proposing cuts to NASA’s earth science budget, including the CMS, and cancellations of climate missions such as the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 (OCO-3). Although Congress fended off the budget and mission cuts, a spending deal signed in March made no mention of the CMS. That allowed the administration’s move to take effect, says Steve Cole, a NASA spokesperson in Washington, D.C. Cole says existing grants will be allowed to finish up, but no new research will be supported.
Again, the war to kill the environment in order to enrich corporations (that make donations) is broken into thousands of tiny battles. Trump and company are winning every single one.
Craig,
Why would the administration spend $10 million dollars on assisting to verify the terms of a treaty to which the US no longer belongs ?
Nevermind, perhaps the activist Attorney-General of New York will launch another high powered law suit to rectify the situation ? Oh, wait,… right now he’s too busy avoiding his former soulmates Samantha Bee and Stephen Colbert who are waiting with pitchforks, tar and feathers and finely honed outrage in case the ” penis weasel starts to sniffing around to see if it’s safe to come out of his hole.” !
With her customary, fair and open-minded sense of justice and melodic phrasing, Samantha advises her former paladin, ” Fuck you Eric Schneiderman, just go somewhere and die painfully ! Nothing can absolve you”. adding as an afterthought, “You are trash and we do not need you.”
But wait ! Is that a new paladin ? Can Michael Avenatti, lawyer, opposition researcher, journalist, media celebrity and democrat campaign operative, step up and don the fallen champion’s tarnished sheild ?
Or, then again, maybe not ! It seems in the murky world of Michael Avenatti where half truths, lies and fantasies supported by stolen documents and unsubstantiated innuendo, pass as evidence, all is not as it seems.
Now it appears Michael Avenatti may first have to deal with his own problems. The US Treasury Department’s Inspector-General has instigated a criminal investigation into how the noble Avenatti obtained his information, where he’s obtaining the huge sums he’s spending on behalf of his fair maiden, ‘Stormy Daniels’.
The State Bar of California is having difficulty receiving answers concerning a number of conduct issues, including whether Avenatti provided indemnify to client’s against multimillion-dollar penalties in the advent of a loss.
The issues surround Avenatti’s numerous creditors involved in his failed business ventures, including claims of fraudulent conduct, just won’t go away.
Michael Avenatti claims lawyers, like journalists, don’t need to disclose the source of their evidence. For an experience attorney, this is a strange belief, lawyers do not have any immunity not to reveal source, unless those discussion took place with client for the purpose of legal advice. Nor can lawyers claim immunity for possession of stolen property.
Now it seems Avenatti may still be involved with the folks at Fusion GPS. Fusion GPS are the guys the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee paid for a dossier offered by former British spy Christopher Steele.
So, maybe he’s not going to emerge as a Crusading Paladin after all, especially with the IRS investigating him and his ex-wife for tax fraud (Wait until the divorce allegations begin).
Alas, where can the left find a true ‘Paladin Crusader’ ? Where in the kingdom can a champion be found to depose the tyrant ? It’s a bit of a problem when it seems no one, (not even the Europeans) cares about the now forgotten Paris Agreement.
Even more frustrating for the left is the evil Tyrant just succeeded where all other champions failed. The news carries pictures of the tyrant with the prisoners he got released from a foreign Ogre’s terrible dungeons and returned them safely to their families.
In comparison, no one cares about the renewal of some obscure funding grant.