House GOP to Eliminate Climate Change Science Budget

February 17th, 2011 by Susan Kraemer



Three members of the new House GOP have proposed eliminating NASA’s climate change research capability entirely. The targeted budget cuts would do more to accomplish the conservative goals of the party than actually cut the budget. The cost of climate change research is a subset of all earth science research which itself gets only 7.5% of NASA’s entire funding, which totals 0.6% of the US Federal budget.

By contrast, defense spending is 20% of the $2.9 trillion US Federal budget. Wars for oil maintain the US oil-dependency which keeps us hurtling towards certain climate catastrophe in this and future centuries for the next 100,000 years as carbon dioxide levels rise. (There are no plans in the GOP House budget to reduce any Defense spending).

Taxpayers will foot the hefty FEMA bills that will continue to mount over the next centuries as a result of climate change.

The House members are from two of the states that stand to require huge outlays from the rest of us as one erodes into the ocean while being more frequently battered by worse hurricane flooding (Florida), and the other (Utah) dries into permanent desert land, due to predicted climate changes.

Representatives Bill Posey (R-FL) and Sandy Adams (R-FL) and Rob Bishop (R-UT) are the three that have proposed entirely axing the funding for climate change research.

NASA is one of the three top climate change research organizations worldwide, and the ability of the world to gather data will be impacted.

But with no funding, future taxpayers will no longer have to hear from scientists like James Hansen, lead author in 2007 of a study which concluded: “If global emissions of carbon dioxide continue to rise at the rate of the past decade, this research shows that there will be disastrous effects, including increasingly rapid sea level rise, increased frequency of droughts and floods, and increased stress on wildlife and plants due to rapidly shifting climate zones.”

The total savings by eliminating any research on climate change? A subset of a measly $1.4 billion for all earth sciences that goes to study climate. US wars for oil cost $715 billion.

Susan Kraemer@Twitter









Appreciate CleanTechnica’s originality? Consider becoming a CleanTechnica member, supporter, or ambassador — or a patron on Patreon.

Sign up for our free daily newsletter or weekly newsletter to never miss a story.

Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.

Latest Cleantech Talk Episode