Why did NASA kill a climate change project?
From today’s International Herald Tribune: Why did NASA kill a climate change project?
NASA has quietly terminated the Deep Space Climate Observatory, citing “competing priorities.” The news media took little notice. Few Americans, after all, had even heard of the program. But the entire world may come to mourn its passing.
t was given a poetic name, Triana, after Rodrigo de Triana, the sailor aboard Christopher Columbus’ ship who first sighted the New World.
Development began in November 1998 and it was ready for launching three years later. The cost was only about $100 million. For comparison, that is only one-thousandth the cost of the International Space Station, which serves no useful purpose.
Before Triana could be launched, however, there was a presidential election. Many of the industries favored by the new Bush White House were not anxious to have the cause of global warming pinned down. The launching was put on hold.
The disdain of the Bush White House for Triana goes much deeper than just a desire to avoid the truth about global warming. Triana began life in early 1998 as a brainchild of Al Gore, who was then the vice president. Gore, the story goes, woke up one morning wondering if it would be possible to beam a continuous image of the full Earth back from space to inspire people with the need to care for our planet. The 1972 portrait of the full Earth, taken from the Moon, had inspired millions with the fragile beauty of our blue planet. Why not beam the image live into classrooms, allowing students to view weather systems marching around the globe?
Scientists had dreamed of such an observatory for years. They hoped Gore’s influence would make it happen. Gore’s support would end up destroying it. Those who hated him, hated Triana. His dream of inspiring environmentalists and schoolchildren served only to trivialize the project. It was ridiculed as “Gore’s screen saver.”
Triana is terminated, but global warming is not.
The whole article goes into much more detail but the gist is quite simple. Polluters, faced with being confronted with proof of their crimes against humanity, for it is nothing less in my opinion, used their political influence to scupper the project. Once again I say, don’t wait for our governments to save us, they have no interest in doing so. - DS
Technorati Tags: climate change, environment, global warming, meltdown, modelling, NASA, Oil Industry, politics, Triana, USA
