US Facing 40% Loss Of Instrumentation On Climate, Weather Satellites By 2010 - Miami Herald
Scientists soon will lose access to crucial information that helps them better understand and predict everything from hurricanes and earthquakes to global warming and environmental decay, according to a candid and sobering report by prestigious experts. As wide gaps develop in the ability of scientists to analyze natural phenomena, Floridians -- particularly vulnerable to hurricanes, rising sea levels and environmental changes affecting fisheries and farmers -- could be especially affected.
''It's a train wreck,'' said Otis Brown, dean of the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and a member of the National Academy of Science's panel that issued the report earlier this month. ''When you hope for the best, this is about the worst you could imagine in terms of things going awry,'' he said.
Among the reasons for this reversal of scientific fortunes: sharp budget cuts, ill-advised technological compromises, and a botched partnership between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to the report.
And the setbacks come at an inopportune time. NOAA recently reported that last year was the warmest on record in the United States, and a major study scheduled for release Friday by an international group of scientists is expected to amplify the developing crisis of global warming.
EDIT
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x80662http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/16563084.htmSo we're just going to roll up our sleeves and invoke the can-do American spirit to solve this problem when we can't even maintain our climate and weather satellite systems to produce the data on which we will act?
I don't doubt that there are lots of things we can and will do, because we simply have no choice but to do them. However, until we start taking a hard, cold-eyed look at exactly where we are failing to measure up on this hugely complex issue, and start attaching the same importance to climate and cutting GHGs as we do to blowing holes in the desert, I'm not going to toot a horn and wave a flag based on our past performance on far simpler tasks.