This seems highly relevant to GEO-ENG discussion because it explores arguments that NASA is not the right agency to do Earth science.
I couldn't fit it in, but studies of Mount Pinatubo cooling were largely NASA and important in refining climate models (and relevant here). https://www.propublica.org/article/will-trump-scrap-nasas-climate-research-mission Here's an excerpt: Trump’s most visible advisor on space policy has been Bob Walker, a former House Science committee chairman <https://www.aip.org/fyi/1995/house-science-committee-chairman-robert-walker>who is now a space-policy lobbyist <http://wexlerwalker.com/our-team/>pressing to move “Earth-centric <http://spacenews.com/trump-advisor-sees-pence-playing-a-major-role-in-space-policy/>” and “heavily politicized <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/22/nasa-earth-donald-trump-eliminate-climate-change-research>” climate science out of NASA altogether. And Christopher Shank, who was chosen by Trump to lead the transition at NASA, is a seasoned strategist who has expressed strong skepticism <http://www.climatecentral.org/news/climate-denier-nasa-transition-20938> about the severity of global warming. Should Trump come to take a dim view of NASA’s research on climate change, he’s likely to have no shortage of support in Congress. The last few years have seen intensifying moves against the Obama administration’s investments in climate science in hearings led by the Texas Republicans Sen. Ted Cruz <http://spacenews.com/senators-bolden-clash-over-the-core-mission-of-nasa/> and Rep. Lamar S. Smith, whose views on NASA and climate parallel those of Walker — built around the notion that NASA needs to focus on outer space, not back on Earth. As Smith put it in 2015, “There are 13 other agencies involved in climate change research, but only one that is responsible for space exploration." NASA’s Earth Science division, if less well known to the public, has regularly seen its budget fluctuate with turnover in the White House. Under Ronald Reagan, there were substantial investments <http://spacenews.com/senators-bolden-clash-over-the-core-mission-of-nasa/> in what was then called the Earth Observing System. George H.W. Bush, building on a 1987 report by astronaut Sally Ride, funded a program that came to be known as the “Mission to Planet Earth <https://www.nasa.gov/50th/50th_magazine/earthSciences.html>.” George W. Bush reversed course, and reduced resources <http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/04/27/nasa.budget/> for the program (his administration was eventually exposed for trying to suppress NASA research on global warming <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/04/science/nasa-chief-backs-agency-openness.html>). Most recently, though, the division’s budget was greatly restored by Barack Obama. A core argument of Walker and congressional critics of NASA earth science, that budgets have ballooned and reduced resources for other NASA science programs, has no basis, said Arthur Charo, who has tracked NASA science budgets for the Standing Committee on Earth Science and Applications from Space <http://sites.nationalacademies.org/SSB/SSB_066587> of the nongovernmental National Academy of Sciences. He said a careful look at programs, adjusting for inflation, shows no evidence of such a pattern. “There is a mythology that Earth Science has undergone dramatic growth and that this growth has occurred at the expense of other divisions in the Science Mission Directorate,” he said. “Both assertions are false.” An important chart of relative spending on Earth/Space science came in too late to get in the story but makes some points that appear to contradict Bob Walker's assertions, bolstering Arthur Charo's point in the piece. It's here: https://twitter.com/Revkin/status/808300867980066817 -- *ANDREW C. REVKIN,* *ProPublica Senior Reporter <https://www.propublica.org/site/author/andrew_revkin> (*climate and related issues) | Read my 2,810 Dot Earth posts <http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/>, my essay making sense of the #Anthropocene <http://j.mp/revkinanthropocene>, my reflection on 30 years of climate learning <http://j.mp/revkin30yearsclimate>. *Mobile: 914-441-5556, Twitter: @revkin <http://twitter.com/revkin>, Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/andrew.revkin.5>, Music <http://j.mp/revkinmusic>* [image: --] Andrew Revkin [image: https://]about.me/revkin <https://about.me/revkin?promo=email_sig&utm_source=product&utm_medium=email_sig&utm_campaign=chrome_ext> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to geoengineering+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to geoengineering@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
