Ignorance is Best Way to Make Decisions According to Bush

Who needs facts? Not George Bush when it comes to global warming. His actions speak louder than words he mouths to lull us into inaction.

In a confidential report to the White House, obtained by the Associated Press and as reported today in the Seattle Times , NOAA and NASA scientists have told President Bush that:

“US scientists will soon lose much of their ability to monitor warming from space …the Defense Department has decided to downsize and launch four satellites … instead of six… will now focus on weather forecasting … Most of the climate instruments needed to collect more precise data for long periods are being eliminated.” …

“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 report.

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.”

In an ABC news report on May 29, 2007, entitled “10 Years to Climate Tipping Point” new research emphasized the urgency of having detailed accurate information such as the satellite program would provide:

Even “moderate additional” greenhouse emissions are likely to push Earth past “critical tipping points” with “dangerous consequences for the planet,” according to research conducted by NASA and the Columbia University Earth Institute.

With just 10 more years of “business as usual” emissions from the burning of coal, oil and gas, says the NASA/Columbia paper, “it becomes impractical” to avoid “disastrous effects.”

The study appears in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. Its lead author is James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.

The forecast effects include “increasingly rapid sea-level rise, increased frequency of droughts and floods, and increased stress on wildlife and plants due to rapidly shifting climate zones,” according to the NASA announcement .

You can read more on the NASA-NOAA report by going to the Climate Science Watch website .

Briefing Notes on NASA-NOAA Joint Document gives a summary of report.

Impacts of NPOESS Nunn–McCurdy Certification on Joint NASA_NOAA Climate Goals is a copy of the full report dated Dec 11, 2006.

Note the date of this report – 6 months ago. There is no response yet from the White House on the Associated Press report but it is obvious that Bush has taken no action to alter the situation. If he had you can be sure the White House would have instantly responded that they had decided to fully fund the existing program to continue our long term gathering and monitoring of the global climate situation.

Bush and Cheney and their oil friendly cabal running things have no intention of seriously addressing global warming and are doing everything they can to sabotage the efforts of scientists to get accurate data and take immediate action. Bush’s program is to stall as much as he can for the next year and a half any efforts to take decisive action.

Warning – look at what Bush does, not what he says he’s “doing”. Only then will we not be blindsided by wimpy press coverage that uncritically reports Bush’s smoke and mirrors plan for global warming which does not seriously address doing much of anything. Right now it’s comparable to his administration’s plan to help Hurricane Katrina’s victims.

His global warming study plan is on track. Don’t be surprised if you see pictures of President Bush looking out the window of Air Force One once or twice to check out the global warming situation over the Atlantic Ocean as he flies to Europe for the G-8 Conference June 6-8, 2007. Do you really expect more? I don’t.