Conservatives rewrite NASA mission statement

At the beginning of this year, the Bush administration used heavy-handed measures to silence NASA scientists reporting on global warming. In spite of their efforts Dr. James E. Hansen, longtime director of the agency's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, made it clear that without leadership by the United States, climate change would eventually leave the earth "a different planet." At that time Charles Stern wrote a short article called Harassing NASA in which he criticizes conservatives for their effort to cover up global warming. He wrote:

NASA'’s mission statement includes the words, "To advance scientific knowledge and understanding of the Earth."” If the top scientific thinkers in the world feel strongly enough about their conclusions toward these ends (global warming) that they are willing to voice their concerns publicly, perhaps President Bush should concentrate less on shutting them up and more on listening to what they have to say.

But, as AeroNews.Net noted yesterday, instead of reviewing the data and heeding the warnings on global warming the Bush administration, always adverse to science, simply wrote NASA's mission statement, dropping the words "to understanding and protection our home planet". Another of their head-in-the-sand dirty moves to keep the Corporatocracy's "business as usual" plan running at open throttle, no matter what the cost. The secret conservative mission statement must read something like: "Screw earth and everybody on it, but us".

In a manner that has come to define conservatives, the change was done secretly, behind closed doors. Not even NASA knew. The news is only now making its way through the agency. It was reported in the New York Times on July 22nd in an article by Andrew C. Revkin titled, "NASA's Goals Delete Mention of Home Planet". In it he writes,

"The change comes as an unwelcome surprise to many NASA scientists, who say the "“understand and protect" phrase was not merely window dressing but actively influenced the shaping and execution of research priorities. Without it, these scientists say, there will be far less incentive to pursue projects to improve understanding of terrestrial problems like climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions."

Typical of this sneaky administration that places itself above all review.

As senior NASA climate scientist James Hansen, director of the agency'’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies put it, "The Bush Administration wants to have an open, honest debate on climate change as long as that debate involves people who agree with their position."


In a all out effort to censor his writings and lectures on global warming, the Bush Administration has made a personal target of Dr. Hansen. They desperately want to shut him up because he says things like, "without U.S.-led changes in emissions controls, the world will be left dramatically and irreversibly altered due to global warming." I love this guy. It's encouraging when anyone breaks the silence and dares to stand up to these fucks.

An administration-appointed public affairs official, George Deutsch, regularly screens Dr. Hansen'’s documents and news media interviews in order to "“make the President look good." Hansen has also received several phone calls warning of dire consequences for his critical commentary but hearing of the change in NASA's mission statement he was quick to point out that the change "might reflect White House eagerness to shift the spotlight away from global warming.

For starters, visit Stop Global Warming. We can't afford to wallow in the problem any longer. It's time for solutions.







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