Bush refuses panel's advice to better finance climate-change research

[pmbryant]

From the NY Times: Feb 18 2004

Panel Urges Bush to Finance Climate-Change Research

By ANDREW C. REVKIN

President Bush's plan for clarifying the causes and effects of climate change has been improved over the past year, but can succeed only if the research is shielded from political pressures and if more money is spent on it, an independent panel of experts said today.

Administration officials, who requested the outside review of the plan, welcomed the findings, but said that no significant budget increases were possible. They said climate research goals would be met mainly through improved organization.

(snip)

The panel, assembled by the National Research Council of the National Academies, the country's leading scientific advisory group, said there was an urgent need to move from planning an expanded push in federal climate research to financing it and moving ahead.

(snip)

Mr. Bush first announced plans to intensify climate research in June 2001, shortly after he was criticized by many climate experts for abandoning a campaign pledge to limit power plants' emissions of carbon dioxide, a gas that many scientists have linked to global warming.

(snip)

The first version of the administration's subsequent research plan was issued in November 2002. It was criticized by the same panel last February as lacking clear priorities and neglecting to take stock of existing studies pointing to risks posed by rising global temperatures. The plan was revised and released last July.

In its review of the revised plan, the panel found clearer goals, but saw few signs that enough money would be allocated for new initiatives like improving satellite observations and computer simulations of the changing atmosphere and oceans.

(snip)

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/18/science/18CND-CLIM.html?hp