Please, Donald Trump, don’t send climate science back to the pre-satellite era

Jenny Fisher.

Bob Walker, an adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump, has set alarm bells ringing by recommending that NASA’s climate monitoring programs be axed.

But his dismissal of the “politicised science” at NASA’s Earth Science Division shows an ignorance of the breadth, role and significance of its contributions to society in the United States and worldwide.

It’s unclear what exactly Walker means by his comment that “future programs should definitely be placed with other agencies”. Is the plan merely to shuffle the deckchairs – same science, different badge — or is it code for cutting the research observation and monitoring efforts altogether?

Helen McGregor.

If the former, it is hard to see what it would achieve, beyond risking a loss of expertise as other agencies attempt to develop the same capabilities as NASA. But the latter is a frightening prospect, because it would effectively take us back to what climate scientists refer to as the “pre-satellite era”.

Read the piece on The Conversation by a lecturer in Atmospheric Chemistry from the University of Wollongong, Jenny Fisher; and an ARC Future Fellow, also from the University of Wollongong, Helen McGregor - “Please, Donald Trump, don’t send climate science back to the pre-satellite era.”