EPA plans to overturn scientific finding used to regulate carbon emissions<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cThis is really critical,\u201d Crisp said. \u201cWe\u2019re learning so much about this rapidly changing planet.\u201d<\/p>\n
The decision to end the missions is \u201cextremely shortsighted,\u201d said Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist at the University of Michigan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe observations provided by these satellites \u2026 (are) critical for managing growing climate change impacts around the planet, including in the U.S.,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Looking to Congress<\/p>\n
Crisp and others hope Congress will vote to preserve funding for the missions, which are funded through the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.<\/p>\n
A bill in the House closely aligns with the president\u2019s request and would eliminate the missions, while a Senate version preserves them. But with Congress in recess, it is unclear whether a budget will be adopted before the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.<\/p>\n
If it doesn\u2019t, Congress could adopt a resolution to continue current funding until a budget is passed, though some lawmakers fear the Trump administration could try to delay or withhold that money.<\/p>\n
Congressional Democrats warned acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy last month that it would be illegal to terminate missions or impound funds already appropriated by Congress.<\/p>\n
Experts said the administration\u2019s move to eliminate funding aligns with other actions to cut or bury climate science.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe principle seems to be that if we stop measuring climate change it will just disappear from the American consciousness,\u201d said University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann.<\/p>\n
Backup plan<\/p>\n
Crisp and others also are trying to put together a coalition of outside partners \u2014 including from Japan and Europe \u2014 that could fund and operate the instrument attached to the space station. NASA said it will accept outside proposals through Aug. 29.<\/p>\n
The free-flying satellite, though, is at risk of being brought down, meaning it would burn up in the atmosphere. National Public Radio first reported that NASA employees were making plans to end the missions.<\/p>\n
Crisp said advocates are hoping NASA also allows outside control of that satellite, which covers more of the globe, but there are legal hurdles to overcome because it would mean giving control of a U.S. satellite to a group that could include foreign partners.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going out to billionaires. We\u2019re going out to foundations,\u201d Crisp said. \u201cBut \u2026 it\u2019s a really, really bad idea to try and push it off onto private industry or private individuals or private donors. It just doesn\u2019t make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n We’re not going anywhere.\n <\/p>\n
\n Stand up for truly independent, trusted news that you can count on!\n <\/p>\n
\n Donate now<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration is moving to shut down two NASA missions that monitor a potent greenhouse gas and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[79,193],"class_list":["post-66327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}