generalspeaking

 Elite Insurrection

Seven Apollo astronauts, part of a coalition of 49 former NASA employees, have taken the highly unusual step of publicly breaking rank.  They have gone public in accusing the American space agency of risking its reputation by their support of unsubstantiated statements on climate change.  This elite group represents scientists, engineers and former workers.  They wrote directly to NASA administrator Charles Bolden Jr., appealing to him to put a halt to the agency's public "unproven and unsupported remarks in its future releases and websites."

"We believe the claims by NASA and [the Goddard Institute of Space Science], that man-made carbon dioxide is having a catastrophic impact on global climate change are not substantiated, especially when considering thousands of years of empirical data.  

"The unbridled advocacy of CO2 being the major cause of climate change is unbecoming of NASA's history of making an objective assessment of all available scientific data prior to making decisions or public statements."

They would far prefer neutrality to emanate from NASA, for it to focus on what it is they do best, and not appearing to ardently support those scientists who claim climate change to be anthropogenic in character.  The current situation does not sit well with these scientists.  Which group includes two former directors of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, among other NASA Illuminati.

Apollo astronaut Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, the last to have set foot on the moon, characterized global warming as "a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision-making.  His colleague, astronaut Walter Cunningham, wrote that he hadn't "...found one piece of empirical evidence that man-made CO2 has a significant impact on global climate."

In a response to the letter, chief NASA scientist Waleed Abdalati gave short shrift to the accusations.  "As an agency, NASA does not draw conclusions and issue 'claims' about research findings.  If the authors of this letter disagree with specific scientific conclusions made public by NASA scientists, we encourage them to join the debate in the scientific literature or public forums rather than restrict any discourse."

The agency has over a dozen climate instruments currently in orbit, funded through an annual climate budget coming in at over $1-billion.  "The Earth's climate has changed throughout history ...[but] the current warming trend is of particular significance because most of it is very likely human-induced and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented in the past 1,300 years", NASA's website states.

Labels: Environment, Nature, Space, Technology, United States

posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, April 17, 2012