Going, Going… Gone?

In their continuing efforts to dismantle the United States and remove it from its traditional place as a leader in scientific research and understanding, the current administration is now taking aim at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.

According to a recent article on the New York Times website titled Trump Administration Plans to Break Up Premier Weather and Climate Research Center:

The Trump administration said it will be dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, one of the world’s leading Earth science research institutions.

The center, founded in 1960, is responsible for many of the biggest scientific advances in humanity’s understanding of weather and climate. Its research aircraft and sophisticated computer models of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans are widely used in forecasting weather events and disasters around the country, and its scientists study a broad range of topics, including air pollution, ocean currents and global warming.

Sounds, at least to me, that the Center fills an important role. One might wonder the reasoning behind such a far-reaching decision to dismantle it, but the logic is apparently obvious to the administration:

Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, called the center “one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country” and said that the federal government would be “breaking up” the institution.

Don’t you just love it when our elected (and/or appointed) officials make sweeping policy changes based upon such well-considered thought? Let this settle in for a bit: it’s not that the National Center for Atmospheric Research is too expensive, or that it is populated with Bozos who are routinely wrong, or — a current favorite — it’s a threat to national security: the Center is fomenting the hysteria over climate change. How dare they!

Regular followers of this blog probably already know a couple things: 1) I try to keep this about the earth and leave politics out of it as much as possible, and 2) I am a full-throated believer that the climate is indeed undergoing changes. Are humans the sole cause? Definitely not! But we DO play a part in the acceleration of the process. (Click here for an index of earlier posts that touch on this subject in much greater detail.)

I’m going to leave it at that, other than one final observation: the on-going — and escalating — attacks on science and scientific thought are something that should bother ALL of us, no matter your personal political leaning. Red state or blue state, fascist or woke liberal lunatic… we are all going to reap the short- and long-term effects of the current purge.

A Request… Please hit the Subscribe button and sign up for updates to this blog. It costs you nothing and gives me nothing, other than a bit of emotional validation for my efforts. What you will get — along with my undying gratitude — are email notifications when new posts are published. Please subscribe now. Thanks!

One additional request: If you haven’t already locked in your copy of Marker Bed, please click here to learn more about it. Thanks!